Showing a Screen Pointer Indicator On an iPhone Or iPad

I'm often asked how I manage to show a red circle in my iPhone and iPad tutorials. This is just the pointer you get when you connect a mouse to your device. I'll show you what I use and how to modify it.

Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let me show you how to get that little circle on your iPhone or iPad screen that shows you where you're tapping.
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So whenever I do videos on the iPhone or iPad I always get questions about the circle that you see here that shows you what I'm about to tap on the iPhone or iPad screen. Now while you can add somethings like this in post-production so that you can indicate what you're tapping or what you're talking about. The way I do this is actually pretty simply. All I'm doing it connecting a mouse to my iPhone. Once you use a mouse, of course, the iPhone needs some way to show you what you're about to tap or click on the mouse so it puts this little circle there. It's automatic and it's just part of the function of using a mouse with your iPhone or iPad. I'm taking advantage of that so I can make tutorials where you could see what I'm actually doing. Otherwise I'd have to put a camera where you could see my finger touching the screen. 
So if you need to demonstrate something on the iPhone or iPad, whether it's in a presentation or making your own video, you may want to do this as well. All you need to do is get yourself a cheap Bluetooth mouse. That's all it has to be. This is like a $10 cheap off-brand mouse that I bought on Amazon. As long as it's Bluetooth it should work. Now, a word of caution. I have a variety of Bluetooth mice including this original wireless Apple mouse, the type that takes two AA batteries. I have some newer ones as well. This old Apple mouse, that will work with an iPhone or iPad. But a newer version that looks identical works fine with any Mac I try it on but will not work with any iPhone or iPad I tried it on. I also have newer mice that are the rechargeable kind. The oldest one of those I have also will not connect to any iPhone or iPad device but a slightly newer version, this one happens to be black because it came with my MacPro, it should be the same but this one actually does work with any iPhone or iPad. So the Apple mice are a little hit and miss. What seems to work all the time is just something cheap like this. This cost me $10 on Amazon and it's just a cheap super lightweight mouse. 
But you could also use a wired mouse. The way you would do that is you have to get a USB adapter. It connects to the lightning port on your iPhone or your older iPad and then you connect the USBA side to a wired mouse. Of course if you have a newer iPad that would use USBC. So you just have to get a mouse that uses USBC or an adapter that would go from USBA to USBC. But you can do a wired mouse as well. 
So let me show you how to set this up. I, of course, already had it setup because you can see the circle there. But if you go into Settings and then from there go to accessibility then look for Touch. Here you have to have Assistive Touch turned On. I do but if you go in there's the switch. Now if you go down to the bottom here and you'll see Devices. Once you first turn that on nothing really happens but if you go to Devices this is where you connect your mouse. So here I've got one connected but you can go into Bluetooth Devices and it will look for other Bluetooth Devices as well. So you can find any other mice there. Technically Trackpads as well although I've never tried a third party trackpad with it. I have tried, unsuccessfully, to use Apple Trackpads to do this. 
Now sometimes when you connect to a Bluetooth device it asks for a PIN. The PIN is just four digits and you have to look in the little instruction booklet that comes with your mouse for whatever it is. It's usually 0000 or 1111. For Apple mice if you try one of those and you can get it to appear here it's 0000. Now as soon as you connect you'll see the circle appear. Now you can actually adjust how the mouse works and looks. So here I can go to this mouse here. When you start off it doesn't actually have anything there. You have to click Customize Additional Buttons. It asks you to press that button on your mouse and then it will ask you to select what it does. Now backup a level here in Assistive Touch. You're going to go down to Tracking Sensitivity and set that somewhere that works for you. So probably something pretty low with a mouse so that you have to move your mouse a little bit in order for it to go from side-to-side. If you set it too high it's almost impossible to get the circle over something so you can click it or touch it. 
There are a lot of other things that you can do that really has nothing to do with why I'm using this feature which is just to show on the screen what I'm tapping. But you can set things like Hot Corners and such to do even more with the mouse when it's connected. If you go back up a level here and then back up another level, so you're back up in Accessibility, scroll to Pointer Control. Here you can change the size of the pointer. Make it bigger like that. You can also change the color of the pointer to suit your needs and even the border width. That's it! It works the same way on the iPad. The same settings in the Settings App. 
Remember the primary reason this is there is the accessibility function of being able to use a mouse instead of having to touch the screen. I'm just using this as a way to highlight things on the screen and so you could see where it is I'm tapping when I do tutorials on an iPhone or iPad. Of course you can do the same whether you're recording videos like me, whether you're demonstrating things at a meeting, or perhaps demonstrating how an app works if you're a developer. 
Hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.

Comments: 14 Responses to “Showing a Screen Pointer Indicator On an iPhone Or iPad”

Clay Sisk

2 years ago

I just tried this with an older Apple Magic Mouse with batteries and it works with my iPhone 13 Pro,
Thanks,
Clay

Al Katz

Gary,
Can you provide the brand or name of the mouse you use on your iPhone as a pointer? Thanks.
Al

Gary Rosenzweig

Al: I don't think it has one. It is just a generic one from Amazon. Search for Bluetooth mouse and you'll see a whole bunch at about $10 each.

Gene Hamelman

Can you use a older track that has replace batteries?

Gene: A trackpad? You can try it. I didn't have any luck with any Apple trackpads.

David A. Dammer

Gary, I really think you should change your video about using mouse pointer is on iPads and iPhones. I have two of the most recent Apple rechargeable Waze, two of the first generation rechargeable Apple mice and two of the old battery powered Apple mice, and all three different types work on my iPad 10.28 generation with iOS 15 and my iPhone XR with iOS 15 as well as my new iPhone 13 Pro with iOS 15. All of this one is also work on my 2019 13“ MB Pro. And, they show up as a regular mouse pointe

Jim Flannery

Oh THANK YOU! You helped me GET RID of that @#$% circle that has been floating around my iPhone screen for months, getting in my way! It was driving me crazy!!!

Gary, The track pad worked just fine. Thanks

Gary, I obtained an inexpensive Bluetooth mouse on Amazon and it works fine. When using the pointer via Accessibility settings, how do I remove or hide the touch circle from appearing on my iPhone screen when mirroring with the pointer?

Al: If you are using the mouse, then the circle has to be there. You can't hide it completely. Otherwise, you'd have no idea what you are tapping/clicking.

Neil McDonald

Pointer shows on iPad except it doesn’t seem to extend through to Airplay device. Using Photos on iPad Wi-Fi thru Airport to Apple TV to display pictures to several people. Pictures show fine, pointer missing on TV. I suppose I could use a laser pointer but seems silly if a long press on the iPad would highlight a spot on the displayed picture.

Neil: It sounds like you are using AirPlay to display the photo in Photos, which is a special mode for that app. The pointer won't display. You can instead mirror your display to the external screen and then you'd see exactly the same thing on both displays, including the pointer.

I am using the overlapping screen-like rectangle in the Control Center to connect over Wi-Fi to my 4K AppleTV. The pop-up says Screen Mirroring. I probably confused that with Airplay.

The TV mirrors everything displayed on the iPad screen except two things One I like as it displays the image info panel on the iPad but not the TV. Goodness otherwise it spoils the show. It displays the red circle accessibility cursor on iPad but not TV so it can’t be used as an on TV screen pointer. Not good.

Comments Closed.

Showing a Screen Pointer Indicator On an iPhone Or iPad

Comments: 14 Responses to “Showing a Screen Pointer Indicator On an iPhone Or iPad”

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