Apple files for patent involving its Sidecar feature for a Mac/iPad combo

Apple has filed for a patent (number  20220164152) for “systems and methods for initiating an interacting with a companion-display mode for an electronic device with a touch-sensitive display.”

About the patent filing

Sidecar, introduced with macOS Catalina, allows users to extend their Mac desktop by using their iPad as a second display or as a high-precision input device across creative Mac apps. 

In the patent filing, Appel notes that utilizing secondary displays allows users to separate various projects they’re working on, and to take advantage of capabilities of different types of displays for different types of projects. 

Summary of the patent filing

Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent filing: “An example method includes, at a first electronic device that includes a display, displaying, on the display, a user interface that is associated with an application, the user interface displayed with a control user interface element for changing a display property of the user interface. The method includes, detecting an input directed to the control user interface element. 

“The method also includes that in response to detecting the input, and while continuing to display the user interface, concurrently displaying on the display: a first selectable option for changing the display property of the user interface on the display of the first electronic device, and a second selectable option for requesting display at a second electronic device, distinct from the first electronic device, of a user interface that includes content from the user interface.”