Given that the tool currently relies on not one, but two betas, it's no surprise that the new Continuity Camera feature in macOS Mojave and iOS 12 is missing for now. The Continuity Camera allows Mac users to take a photo or scan a document with their iPhone ($ 999 at Walmart), then immediately insert an image or file on their Mac..
The Continuity Camera requires both macOS Mojave and iOS 12 which are both in beta at the moment. Final versions of each operating system are expected to be available this fall.
Start with the continuity camera
To use the Continuity Camera, you will have to identify yourself to the same Apple ID on your Mac and your iPhone and both must be connected to the same Wi-Fi network with Bluetooth enabled. Moreover, as the third-party operators have not yet released updates for Mojave which is still in beta phase, the Continuity Camera currently only works with Apple's own applications..
Or some of Apple's apps. You will be able to make it work with Mail, Notes and Pages but not with Finder, Keynote or Numbers. Plus, it only works when you've unlocked your iPhone before taking photos or scanning documents on your MacBook ($ 1,269 at Amazon).
So, with your iPhone unlocked, right click on a Notes or Pages document or the text of an email in the Mail window, after which select either “Take Photo” or “Scan Documents”..
The “Take Photo” option opened the “Camera” app on my iPhone. I took a photo and then I was able to press "Resume" to try again or "Use photo" to paste it in my Note or Pages document or in my Mail e-mail message. On your Mac, a placeholder will appear in the document after you've taken a photo or scanned a document.
The “Scan Documents” option opens the Camera application and searches the edges of a receipt or document to create a scan saved as PDF. You can scan multiple pages into a single PDF file with Continuity Camera.
Stop by continuity camera
You won't have the chance to use the Continuity Camera with Finder, Keynote, or Numbers. With these applications, you will not be able to find the context menu with the “Take photo” and “Scan documents” options. On the other hand, there is another way to launch the Continuity Camera from the “File” menu, which I hope will work in the future: go to “File” → “Insert from iPhone” and you will find the two options: "Take a photo" and "Scan documents" but both will be grayed out even if in the application you have selected: a cell, an item or a file.
I failed the other times when I tried to get my iPhone to work with Mail, Note, and Pages because I was told the service was not available.
Multipage scans worked well with Mail but only the first page of a multipage scan showed up on Notes.
The Continuity Camera should be a huge time saver if you regularly email receipts for expense reports or frequently scan receipts into a folder on your Mac. I will update this article as the Continuity Camera evolves as we approach the official versions of MacOS Mojave and iOS 12.
