Apple's New iPadOS Software Includes Mouse Support as an Accessibility Option
As rumored, iPadOS introduces mouse support for the first time, allowing a USB mouse to be connected to an iPad for the first time.
Mouse support is not a standard feature, but is instead available as an AssistiveTouch option within the Accessibility settings on your iOS device. According to developer Steve Troughton-Smith, who discovered the feature, it also works with the Apple Magic Trackpad.
As with other AssistiveTouch features, the mouse cursor on the display looks similar to the touch target normally in iOS, simulating a finger touch with a mouse instead.
Though this is an Accessibility option at the current time and may not have the best user experience compared to touch, Apple could further implement mouse support in future updates, making it a more mainstream option.
iPadOS, the operating system that runs on the iPad, also has many other new features like updates to multitasking, improved gestures, and more, and going forward, it will be independent of iOS, though it still includes all of the iOS 13 features.
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Top Rated Comments
Make sure you pair it within the section in Accessibility and not with the regular system Bluetooth area in System Preferences. Ironically, I couldn't get my Magic Mouse 2 to work because it's recognized as a mouse when plugged in, but I didn't see a way to get it to pair with Bluetooth. And we know this mouse is useless when plugged in with the charger on the bottom. Anyway, I paired it with a piece of junk BT 3.0 mouse I had laying around.
Yes, it would be nice if they let you dynamically size the "touch" circle, and maybe its opacity when in use. Also, this is just a "hovering mouse" pointer so I don't think apps have any way of capturing the mouse directly using any public API. That would work for the majority of use cases, but it wouldn't let you use, say, an emulator or a remote control app in a true "mouse" mode (the app won't know where the pointer is until you click). Still a huge step in the right direction and makes selecting text really easy- though still different than on, say, a Mac because you need to simulate the finger gesture for selection with the mouse button. It's basically a double click then drag instead of single.
Only vaguely related but fun: Dualshock 4 from PS4 pairs over BT and works just fine with MFI game apps on iPad and iPhone! (not just Apple TV as suggested in the keynote).