Do you normally use a Bluetooth mouse, but find that it’s not always easy to pack when you take your laptop with you? Perhaps you just keep losing your mouse, or the batteries just died and you don’t have any replacements. Whatever the case, you have a perfectly good replacement mouse if you have an iPhone. Not only is the iPhone a good backup mouse to have, it’s actually better than the majority of touchpads on the market.

The App

There are actually several apps available on the Apple App Store that are meant to bring touchpad functionality to your iPhone. Super Remote and Wireless Mouse are two alternatives, but for the purposes of this tutorial we’re going to use Splashtop Touchpad. Their app is one of the best-rated ones on the App Store and has a number of useful functions aside from just being a mouse. Your first step, then, is to head over to the App Store and download Splashtop Touchpad for your iPhone. Normally it costs $4.99, but the publisher periodically puts it on sale or offers it for free. Trust us, it’s worth every penny.

Connecting

Once the app is installed on your iPhone, you’ll need to download a client-side piece of software for installation on your computer. This program is called Splashtop Streamer, and the first time you launch the app you’ll be given the URL from which you can download it. If you want to install the client application now and install the iPhone app later, you can just visit the publisher’s website to do so.

Installation

After the client application and the iPhone app are installed, your next step is to simply connect the devices. You’ll have to run Splashtop Streamer once after it’s installed and create a security code for connecting to your computer. You also have the option to add your Google account to it.

After that, there are two ways to connect. If you added your Google account, you’ll be able to access your computer from anywhere. Otherwise your iPhone needs to be on the same Wi-Fi network as your computer. Regardless of how you connect, it will automatically detect the computer. Tap the name of your machine, enter the security code and you’re good to go!

Conclusion

Setting up the app to work is easy, and the functionality is hard to match. There are a few gestures you can use, such as two-finger scrolling and pinch-to-zoom. Tapping the keyboard icon in the upper left part of the screen will also let you enter text from the iPhone’s keyboard. It’s a very useful app to have, and it’s useful whether you’re giving a presentation or just happened to become the victim of a misplaced mouse.