Send a link from iPhone to Mac: AirDrop, Handoff, clipboard

To send a link from your iPhone to your Mac, open the page, tap the Share button, choose AirDrop and pick your Mac. When both devices are signed in to the same Apple Account, the Mac accepts the link without asking.

AirDrop is one of three ways Apple builds in. Handoff lets you pick up the page you have open on the iPhone from the Mac's Dock, and Universal Clipboard lets you copy the link on one device and paste it on the other. This page covers what each one needs, how to go the other way, and how to keep the link once it arrives, including what Shareling's share sheet does and does not do today. The Apple details come from Apple's iOS 26 and macOS 26 guides, compared with their iOS 27 and macOS 27 editions on September 24, 2026.

How do I send a link from my iPhone to my Mac?

Send a link from your iPhone to your Mac with AirDrop: tap the Share button, choose AirDrop, then choose your Mac. The steps:

1. On the iPhone, open the page in Safari or any app that shows the link.
2. Tap the Share button.
3. Tap AirDrop, then tap your Mac in the list.
4. On the Mac, the link arrives. If the Mac is signed in to the same Apple Account as the iPhone, it is accepted and saved automatically; otherwise the Mac asks you to accept or decline.

AirDrop sends webpages as well as files, photos and map locations. Transfers are encrypted. If you walk out of Bluetooth or Wi-Fi range after a transfer starts, Apple says it carries on over the internet. Apple also says AirDrop is faster in iOS 27 and macOS 27, up to 80 percent on iPhone and iPad in its own testing.

If AirDrop is not an option, the other two built-in routes also work between your own devices:

• Handoff. Keep the page open and in front in Safari on the unlocked iPhone, near the Mac. A Handoff icon appears toward the right end of the Mac's Dock; click it and the page opens on the Mac.
• Universal Clipboard. Copy the link on the iPhone, then paste it on the Mac as you normally would. There is no separate interface.

Which method needs what: AirDrop, Handoff or Universal Clipboard?

All three need Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on both devices; Handoff and Universal Clipboard also need the same Apple Account on both, and Universal Clipboard needs Handoff turned on.

Apple lists the minimum systems as iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite 10.10 for Handoff, and iOS 10 and macOS Sierra 10.12 for Universal Clipboard.

Where to turn Handoff on:

• iPhone: Settings > General > AirPlay & Continuity > Handoff.
• Mac: System Settings > General > AirDrop & Continuity on macOS 27, or AirDrop & Handoff on macOS Tahoe 26. Turn on "Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices."

Handoff has one condition that trips people up: the iPhone has to be unlocked, nearby and showing the page, with Safari open and in front.

If you send links to someone else, only AirDrop reaches another person. From iOS 26.2 and macOS 26.2, someone who is not in your contacts has to use an AirDrop code; after that, you can exchange items for 30 days without a new one.

How do I send a link from my Mac to my iPhone?

Send a link from your Mac to your iPhone the same three ways, in reverse. In Safari on the Mac, click the Share button (or choose File > Share), then AirDrop, then your iPhone. You can also drag a link onto your iPhone in the Finder's AirDrop window.

For Handoff in that direction, keep the page open in Safari on the Mac, then open the App Switcher on the iPhone: the Handoff icon sits at the bottom of it. Universal Clipboard works both ways: copy on the Mac, paste on the iPhone.

A fourth route suits the Mac-to-iPhone direction: with iCloud for Safari on, your open tabs sync, so a page open on the Mac can be continued on an iPhone signed in to the same Apple Account.

How do I keep the link after it arrives?

Keep the link by saving it somewhere you will look again, because none of the three methods is built as a place to keep links. Universal Clipboard is the most temporary: the link stays on the other device's clipboard briefly, or until you copy something else on either device. Handoff opens the page and nothing more.

Shareling keeps a link for good. Its share sheet on the iPhone saves a link to Self, your own library, with an optional note and folders. In Shareling a folder works like a tag, so one link can sit under two projects. Your library can be filtered by All Links, Sent, Received and Recents, and favorites and read-later are private flags on each link. Folders, favorites and read-later never travel to anyone else.

Be clear about what that means today: the link is kept on the device you shared it from. See the next section for why.

How does sending to yourself work in Shareling?

Sending to yourself in Shareling means choosing Self in the share sheet, and Self is already selected when the sheet opens. Here is the flow on the iPhone or iPad:

1. In Safari or another app, tap the Share button and choose Shareling.
2. The sheet shows the page title and the site. Safari passes the page title along with the URL.
3. Type a note if you want one. Type # and a name, then a space, and the name becomes a folder chip.
4. Under Send to, leave Self selected, or pick a person instead.
5. Tap Send.

The share extension accepts one web page or one web link at a time, or text that contains a link. If what you shared holds no link, the sheet says "That isn't a web link Shareling can save."

What happens when you tap Send is the part we built with care. The extension does not hand the link to the Shareling app and wait for it. It writes the link directly into the app's database, which sits in a container the app and the extension share, so the save works offline and with the app not running. One database transaction writes the link, its folders and the pending sync change together, so a crash halfway through leaves nothing behind. Sharing the same page to Self twice leaves one link, not two.

Two things are deliberately left out of the extension:

• Link previews. The extension does not fetch the page's metadata, because share extensions run under a tight memory limit. The app fills previews in on its next launch, up to 50 links per launch.
• Syncing. Nothing syncs from the extension. The pending change waits in an outbox in the database until the app sends it.

That outbox is where the iPhone-to-Mac story stops for now. Shareling's sync is designed around Apple's CloudKit, using both its private and its shared databases. The live connection to iCloud is not in the current code: the app starts its sync coordinator with no transports, and the architecture notes list live CloudKit as a later piece of work. Until it ships, a link you save to Self on your iPhone stays in the iPhone's library, and AirDrop is still the way to get it onto your Mac.

On the Mac, Shareling keeps links a different way at launch: you drag a link onto Self at the top of the screen, by the notch, and it lands in the same kind of library. The notch drop is designed but not built yet. Shareling runs on macOS, iOS and iPadOS 26 or later. If it is missing from your iPhone's share sheet, see share extension not showing up.