Sidecar is a feature in macOS 10.15 Catalina that allows an iPad to be connected to a Mac as an additional display. However, the feature will initially be limited to a small selection of newer Macs - this can be seen from the first beta of the new operating system.
Sidecar was introduced on Monday at WWDC 2019 as part of macOS Catalina and is a feature that is available on macOS and iPadOS can be found. The feature can be used both via cable and wirelessly and turns the iPad into a mirrored display or a second screen - including the ability to use the iPad itself as a graphics tablet together with the Apple Pencil. On Wednesday, developer Steve Trougton-Smith published on Twitter the results of an investigation into the first macOS Catalina developer preview. This also includes a list of devices on which Sidecar is supported.
According to Troughton-Smith, Sidecar is supported on the Late 2015 iMac 27-inch, 2016 MacBook Pro, 2018 Mac mini, new Mac Pro, 2018 MacBook Air, Early 2016 MacBook, and newer models.
Older Macs could be unlocked later
All incompatible Mac devices are listed on the blacklist with a note. According to this, the developer tried to start Sidecar via the terminal on older Macs - in vain. It is unclear why Apple is limiting the availability of Sidecar to newer Mac devices, but since this is only the first beta version of macOS Catalina, it is possible that Apple could retroactively introduce support for earlier models before the release of macOS Catalina in the fall of this year. Here you can find out whether your Mac is compatible with macOS 10.15 Catalina compatible is. (Image: Apple)
