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Apple has gone to great lengths to make it easy for iOS developers to build Mac apps, and some of them have. Here's how to find out what's available in macOS Ventura.
A developer now only needs one check mark in Xcode to create a macOS — version of their iOS app; if they don't mind the Mac app being trash. It takes more work to make a program that works well on a Mac, looks good, and performs a useful function.
So far, it seems that this is not the kind of work that developers are in a hurry to do. Oddly enough, it looks like the iPadOS developers might be more interested in this as they might be closer to the Mac in appearance, but it wasn't a gold rush nonetheless.
This means that all Apple Silicon Mac owners have the ability to run iPhone and iPad apps on their Macs, but finding one that can work can be tricky.
You always have to decide what works best for your Mac. To simply find out which iOS and iPadOS apps will physically run on macOS Ventura, you can do two things.
How to check Apple's list of what iPadOS apps are running on macOS Ventura
- Open the Mac App Store
- Click Discover
- Scroll down to iPhone and iPad Apps for Mac with Apple Silicon
- Click View all right
This section of the Mac App Store isn't some hardcoded button, it's an ad listing. So Apple can remove it or Apple can rename it at any time.
Apple has prepared a selection of iOS apps for Mac. It's not a flood.
If it's there when you check, clicking on View all will give you a surprisingly sparse list of apps. At the time of writing, it features about 40 titles, including some of the main ones such as LumaFusion and Flighty.
How to find a new iPad app that will work on Apple Silicon Mac
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Apple is getting better and better at this. It used to take a ridiculous 15 steps to find an iOS app and then run it on your Mac, for example.
In the Mac App Store, search for a title or theme, then click on the iPhone and iPad apps section
Apple then made it so that this Mac App search Store worked — but only for iOS and iPadOS apps that you have already purchased.
Now you can search for anything at any time and find it. Or at least nothing from Apple or the Mac App Store stands in your way.
Instead, the only question now is whether the developers have decided to allow their iOS apps to run on the Mac. When they appear and when you find them, you can simply click Install or Get and they will download to your Mac as if they were Mac apps.
