I just recently upgraded to Xcode 10 and it seems like you can simply ⌘-V right into the URL bar now, so perhaps the weird work-around is fixed. At least… that’s what you used to have to do.

To do this, you’ll need to have the URL on your clipboard, activate the simulator, press ⌘-V to paste, then you can click to bring up the iOS paste menu and paste it. Important trick! Often times you are pasting a URL into the address field. It understands keyboard input so you don’t have to like use the mouse to click fake on-screen keys. You can simulate just about anything (Watch, AppleTV, iPad, etc) by going to Hardware > Device.Įasy enough to type something in. The window for the simulator is like a fake Apple device. I like to move it so that it stays an icon in my dock, and I don’t need to open Xcode again to find it and use it. It’s in the main Xcode menu at Open Developer Tool > Simulator.

Xcode is free and you get it from the app store. The iOS Simulator is an app that comes bundled with Xcode. Plus, it doesn’t cost anything additional beyond your macOS computer. This is an incredibly handy feature of developing responsive sites and testing them on as real of devices as you can. I’m sure plenty of folks know this, but like literally anything else in the world, plenty of folks don’t.

Mac browser emulator online