iPadOS 17 Lets You Connect Your iPad as a Screen for Nintendo Switch

The most beautiful screen you own may be your iPad's sharp, colorful retina screen. The problem is that you can only use it for iPad stuff—until now. 

One great new feature of the upcoming iPadOS 17 update is USB camera input. Just like how you can already connect USB microphones, recorders, and other USB audio devices, you will soon be able to hook up video cameras and webcams. I know what you're already thinking. Can you connect a Nintendo Switch and use the iPad's beautiful screen to play Mario Kart? Reader, you can. 

"It's incredibly cool that the iPad can now display inputs from cameras and other video devices because it expands its functionality and versatility. This feature opens up a world of possibilities for both professional and non-professional users," Shawn Davies, founder of Digital Connect Mag, told Lifewire via email. 

Getting Connected With iPadOS 17

If you connect a webcam, or even your fancy mirrorless camera, to an iPad running iPadOS 17, you can view the feed in the FaceTime app. Clearly, this is meant for doing video calls with better cameras than the built-in front-facing camera. You can even connect a USB capture card, a device that converts video from various sources into a format your computer can understand. 

And a common use for capture cards is to stream your gaming console via PC to a video service like Twitch. 

Unfortunately, the video is currently only available in the FaceTime app, which is great for webcams, but not so good if all you want is a plain video feed. But fortunately, somebody has already made an app—Capture Pro: UVC Viewer—that does nothing but pull in audio and video from a connected video device. 

To do this, you must have an iPad running the developer beta of iPadOS 17 and some way to take the HDMI signal from the Nintendo Switch's dock and turn it into a UVC (USB video class) signal that your iPad can understand. 

In the name of science, I ordered a USB-HDMI converter widget that does just that, and tested it out.

The experience is a little janky, and you have to make sure you plug things in, in the right order, but once it's up and running, it's Nintendo! On your iPad! The new Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom looks and sounds amazing through the iPad's speakers. Hopped up on nerd success, I decided to see if the sound would come out of my AirPods. It did, but you cannot use the spatial audio function yet. 

Expanding iPad Usability

There are plenty of other uses for this new capability. Essentially, any time you want to use a screen to show images, video, etc., you can now do it with your iPad. You can plug in a camera to show images to clients or just look at them on the big screen without importing them all to your photo library—the same for video. 

You could also plug in a TV receiver dongle, turning your iPad into a portable television. Or hook up an Xbox or PlayStation. Or an original Super Nintendo, with the right adapters, anyway. 

"The coolest part about this feature is the newfound ability of the iPad to adapt to different needs and tasks. It's not just about playing games anymore. Now, you can connect your camera directly to the iPad and easily import photos for editing, organizing, and sharing on the go. This makes life a lot easier for photographers who can now streamline their workflow without the need for extra gadgets or complicated transfers," software engineer Vladislav Bilay told Lifewire via email. 

Or, of course, you could use it as Apple intended, to do video calls with a nicer camera. And this is just the beginning. With dedicated apps, you could pull in TV signals or control your cameras while you view their video stream.

On its own, this is already a neat feature, but it also signals a change in direction for Apple. Between this and the recent release of Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro for the iPad, Apple seems to be taking its tablet seriously. No, maybe playing Mario on your iPad isn't so serious, but Apple is slowly turning the iPad into a proper tablet computer that can do the kinds of things you expect a "real" computer to do.