Among the innovations offered by the new Macs with Apple’s M1 SoC , the ability to run apps for iOS. The apps for iPhone and iPad can now be used directly on Mac. Not all of them can be downloaded directly from the Mac App Store: developer authorization is required for them to appear on the Apple store and in some cases certain apps may require specific iPhone / iPad features (e.g. gyroscope or Lidar scanner) and it would make no sense to show them.
Even apps that don’t appear on the Mac App Store can still be exploited with a trick. A user on Reddit explains that it is possible to start all iOS apps (including apps like Netflix, Instagram and many) on a Mac M1: just get the .IPA file (the binary of the various applications) and double-click on it. To get this type of file you can use Mac utilities such as iMazing (also available in trial version and usable for our purpose), a software to transfer and save music, messages, files and data, make backups.
After starting the iMazing app (download from here), drag it to the “Applications” folder, connect your iPhone or iPad, authorize access from the device. The Mac application asks if you want to make a backup: click on “Later”. In the window that appears, on the left select your iOS / iPadOS device and on the right “Manage apps”: a list of the various apps appears; click on “Library”; from here you can download the various apps on your phone (click on the app’s right cloud icon). After downloading the apps of our interest (you must provide the data to access the App Stoe), just click with the right mouse button (or equivalent combination with the trackpad) and choose “Export .IPA” to save the file on the Mac and run it with a simple double click (the application is automatically transferred to the “Applications” folder)
.IPA file export
Apps are displayed on the screen like apps for iPhone and iPad. From the menu with the name of the application it is possible to call up the “Alternative Touch” item, useful with some iOS games that require tactile inputs. Touching with the Space Bar, scrolling with the arrow keys, dragging with the mouse can be simulated. Multitouch with the Option key.
Some iPhone apps launched on a Mac with Apple’s M1 CPU.
Not all apps are usable in this way (Whatsapp, for example, is picky) but most work and some could be really useful.
