Sidecar in macOS Catalina brings tactile controls to non-touch Mac users

In macOS Catalina, it seems that you have a MacBook or not with a touch bar, Apple still wants you to access these virtual commands, even if it means that they must be placed directly on the screen.

Image credit: Reddit dotmax user

The new Apple Sidecar app allows you to connect an iPad to your Mac for additional screen space. It works both with and wirelessly and supports the Apple Pen as an input device for Mac.

And for Mac apps that support the touchbar, the controls appear at the bottom of your screen. iPad screen – even if your Mac does not have a touch bar.

In other words, the iPad The touch bar reflects the MacBook Pro's touch bar on a model with a touch bar and, when used with Macbook Pro which does not have touch bar, it allows you to exploit features that would otherwise be unavailable.

The implementation will be familiar to users of Duet Display, which was the first to offer Touch Bar support on the screen of a connected tablet.

Since its introduction, the touch bar has divided users – some find the feature useful, while others prefer their Macbook Pro to have instead a complete set of physical function keys.

The Sidecar app is compatible with 2015 MacBook, MacBook Air and Macbook Pro and later, iMac 2015 and later, 2014 Mac mini or later and 2013 Mac Pro or later.