What is Apple Handoff?
Handoff is a core component of Apple’s Continuity ecosystem. It is designed to let you start a task on one Apple device and seamlessly finish it on another. For example, if you start writing a long email in the Mail app on your iPhone, a small Mail icon will suddenly appear at the far right side of the Dock on your Mac. Clicking that icon instantly opens the exact draft you were typing. While this is a brilliant productivity feature for solo users, it can be a massive distraction or a privacy issue if you share an office. Every time you pick up your phone to browse Safari or check a message, a corresponding icon pops up on your Mac’s screen. If you find this behavior intrusive, you can completely disable the connection.
How to Turn Off Handoff on Your Mac
You can break this specific link between your devices by disabling the feature in the main macOS System Settings.
- Click the Apple Logo in the top left corner of your Mac’s screen.
- Select System Settings… (or System Preferences on older versions).
- In the left-hand sidebar, click on General.
- In the main window, select AirDrop & Handoff.
- Look for the toggle switch labeled Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices.
- Click the toggle to turn it Off.
What Exactly Did You Disable?
By turning this off, your Mac will no longer broadcast its current activity to your iPhone, and it will refuse to listen to activity being broadcast by your iPhone. The distracting application icons will never appear in your Dock again. However, disabling Handoff does not break the rest of the iCloud ecosystem. Your iMessages will still sync, your iCloud Photos will still update, and basic AirDrop file transfers will continue to function normally. You have simply stopped the real-time application mirroring.