Apple may not be merging macOS and iPadOS anytime soon, but jailbreak developers are getting closer to making it happen. Thanks to a new Hackintosh-inspired project, iPad owners may soon run macOS directly on their devices, unlocking desktop-class features previously limited to Macs.
How Jailbreak Tools Bring macOS to iPadOS 26
Developer Steve Troughton-Smith recently shared on Mastodon that “Hackintosh” may soon refer to an iPad running macOS rather than a custom-built Mac. He posted screenshots showing partially functional macOS apps, including Terminal, Disk Utility, Activity Monitor, and even Xcode, running on an iPhone XS.
The project, documented on Duy Tran’s GitHub under the name MacWSBootingGuide, is still in the early stages. It’s experimental, buggy, and definitely not for beginners, but it’s a significant milestone for jailbreak enthusiasts.
Jailbreaking Makes It Possible
This macOS-on-iPad effort is powered by modern jailbreak tools, which have become increasingly rare in recent years.
- Palera1n and Dopamine still work on certain iPhones and iPads running iOS/iPadOS 16 or earlier.
- Devices with A11 chips or older can use the unpatchable checkm8 exploit.
- Newer models require specific older firmware, and there are no public jailbreaks for iOS/iPadOS 17 or later.
That means recent iPads and iPhones won’t be able to join the macOS experiment, at least for now.
When Will We See a Full macOS iPad?
For the time being, this is strictly a hobbyist project. But the progress suggests that fully functional macOS on iPad could eventually be possible for older hardware. Until then, users can enjoy the Mac-like improvements in iPadOS 26, currently in public and developer beta, with a full release expected in September when the iPhone 17 lineup debuts.
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