Why this beats squinting at a Simulator window
The iOS Simulator is a phone-shaped window trapped on a Mac display. You click where you'd tap, scroll with a trackpad where you'd flick, and never quite feel what your app is like in the hand. Apperture mirrors just that Simulator window to your actual iPhone or iPad, full screen.
- Touches map natively — a tap on your iPhone is a tap in the Simulator.
- Rotation follows your device: turn your phone, the Simulator rotates with it.
- The Simulator fills your screen edge to edge, at your phone's aspect ratio.
- No build deployment, no provisioning profile, no cable.
When you'd use it
- Checking real thumb-reach and gesture feel during SwiftUI iteration.
- Demoing a work-in-progress build to someone by handing them your phone.
- Testing an app on Simulator device types you don't own hardware for.
- Letting an AI agent drive Xcode on the Mac while you test each build from the couch.
How it works
The free Apperture host runs on your Mac and captures the Simulator window with macOS Screen Recording. The iOS app connects over your local network (or a private VPN like Tailscale), views the stream, and sends your touches and keystrokes back. Nothing goes through a cloud relay — the video never leaves your network.
Apperture special-cases the Simulator: it recognizes the device chrome, maps touch coordinates precisely, and keeps input latency low enough for scrolling and typing to feel natural.