The iPhone and iPad app

The home screen says Connect to Your Mac and lists every Mac you have paired, with its name and the address it was last reached at. Tap a Mac to connect. The … menu on each lets you rename it, wake it, or forget it. Below the list:

• Connect a new Mac opens the QR scanner with a Computer Code field. Read Pairing explained for what happens next.
• A status line, for example Disconnected, and a Need help? button that opens a step-by-step sheet with links to these articles.
• The gear in the top corner opens Settings: quality sliders, audio, and legal links.

Forgetting a Mac deletes the phone's credential for it. The Mac still lists the phone until you remove it there too.

A connecting screen shows a heading (Connecting, Connecting over Wi-Fi, or Pairing), a one-line status, and three controls:

• More Info reveals the route being tried, Bonjour discovery status, and a diagnosis line. Everything it can say is decoded in the message table.
• Stop cancels and returns home.
• After about twenty seconds without success, a Need help? button and a short hint appear. While a pairing request is waiting, the hint reminds you to approve on the Mac; the request stays open there for three minutes.

Two special cards can replace the spinner: Tailscale is Off (see Tailscale troubleshooting) and Mac not reachable over Wi-Fi or Local Network access is off (see the checklist).

Once video arrives the Mac's screen fills the display, scaled to fit. Rotate the phone for a larger picture. A slim toolbar offers the keyboard, voice typing, clipboard, audio, quality, and disconnect controls; it hides while you work and returns with a tap at the edge. iPad users can also connect a mouse or trackpad and use it directly.

Input only works if the Mac approved this device with Allow mouse and keyboard control and Accessibility is allowed on the Mac. Otherwise the view is read-only and taps do nothing.

• Drag anywhere to move the Mac pointer, like a trackpad. The pointer does not jump to your finger; it moves relative to it.
• Tap to left-click at the pointer. Two-finger tap right-clicks.
• Two-finger drag scrolls.
• The Left Click and Right Click buttons at the bottom click at the pointer's current position, useful for precise work.
• Pinch to zoom the picture when you need to hit something small; input is mapped correctly while zoomed.

Keyboard raises the iOS keyboard; what you type is sent keystroke by keystroke to the Mac, including modifiers where iOS exposes them. A hardware keyboard on an iPad works too.

Voice typing uses Apple's on-device speech recognition. Tap it, speak, and the text appears on the Mac at the cursor. The first use asks for Microphone and Speech Recognition permission. Recording stops automatically when the app goes to the background or the connection drops. Nothing is sent anywhere but the Mac.

Both need two things: the host-wide switch on the Mac (Hosting section) and the per-device approval for this phone. With both on, text copied on the Mac appears in the phone's clipboard and vice versa, and the Mac's system audio plays on the phone. Audio uses the phone's current output (speaker, AirPods) and respects the silent switch for alerts but not for media.

Settings has two sliders. Detail controls resolution and bitrate together; FPS controls frame rate from 3 to 60. A label next to them summarises the balance: Saver, Balanced, Sharp, Smooth, or Max. Under the sliders PocketCtrl estimates data use in MB per minute and GB per hour so you can pick something sensible on cellular.

Rules of thumb

• Reading text and light work on cellular: Detail around 40%, FPS 15 to 20.
• Same Wi-Fi, general use: Detail 60 to 75%, FPS 30.
• Video or games: Detail high, FPS 60, expect 10 to 30 Mbps.
• Emergency mode: Detail 0%, FPS 3 uses roughly 2.5 MB per minute and still shows what is on screen.

These are requests, not guarantees. The Mac's own ceilings apply, adaptive bitrate can lower quality on a weak link, and with several viewers the Mac uses the most restrictive request. The sliders remember their position across launches.

Wake in a saved Mac's menu sends a Wake-on-LAN packet on the local network. It works only when the phone is on the same Wi-Fi as the Mac, the Mac is asleep (not shut down), and Wake for network access is enabled in the Mac's System Settings → Energy (or Battery → Options on laptops). Over Tailscale it cannot wake the Mac; keep the Mac awake with Keep Mac awake while hosting instead.

Messages you may see on the home screen or while connecting, beyond the ones in the connection article.