Any window from your Mac, on your iPhone and iPad

(github.com)

156 points | by chanana 8 hours ago

10 comments

  • alin23 7 hours ago
    Brilliant! So much faster and seamless than VNC. Already helped me two times today.

    This is the first time I discover an app through a Youtube video recommendation. I was watching The Rest Is Science when this 1 minute video appeared on the right side with 230k views about a macOS app?? It got me curious for sure.

    Claude got really good at making demo videos with Hyperframes apparently. Just did my own this week for Cling (https://lowtechguys.com/cling) and Clop (https://lowtechguys.com/clop) and users are already appreciating that they can discover app features through easy to digest video snippets.

    Most people don't read the website copy at all unfortunately so I had to adapt. But I would never have the patience to do that in After Effects.

    • bredren 6 hours ago
      I wanted to look at your videos but they aren’t playing on my phone. Maybe it is noir? I would suggest embedding YouTube.

      It has all the expected controls.

      • latexr 4 hours ago
        Pretty sure you’re interacting with a spammer. Look at their posts, they all have this robotic ad-reading discourse and link back to one of their websites.
        • alin23 2 hours ago
          Is sharing now the new spamming? If I just say Cling people will have no idea what I mean. If I leave a link, people either will click and find something useful, or at least get some context on what I'm talking about or move along.

          I get that we have to be skeptical nowadays with all the bots, but I would never have guessed that my day to day writing will be taken as robotic ad-reading.

          • latexr 15 minutes ago
            > Is sharing now the new spamming?

            No, of course not, that is a pretty bad faith interpretation of what I wrote. Making every post about one’s own things is spammer behaviour, though, and explicitly against the rules.

            > I would never have guessed that my day to day writing will be taken as robotic ad-reading.

            It did to me, and I deal with spam frequently. If it had just been the writing style I wouldn’t have said anything, it was the links always there that triggered alarm bells.

        • defrost 4 hours ago
          Alternatively, they have had multiple past submissions on personal projects that have done well on HN, often (but not always) interact, and have English as a second or third language.

          https://alinpanaitiu.com/

          • latexr 2 hours ago
            That doesn’t justify promoting their own websites in almost every comment. I interact with many people who don’t have English as their first language and none of them sound like an ad. Bot or not, linking to yourself every time you interact is spammer behaviour.
    • logicallee 4 hours ago
      Cling and Clop look pretty cool, thanks for sharing these projects.
  • gumby 8 hours ago
    Apple supports this already on the ipad by making the ipad another screen for your mac (I think it’s called sidecar?) and still use pencil, mouse, keyboard etc.

    Iphone is novel though, but does a pencil work?

    • fbcpck 1 hour ago
      Sidecar streams the mac display to the ipad, but it has to be initiated and controlled from the mac.

      In contrast, what I wanted (what this app does!) is to view and control my mac from my handheld device, initiated from the handheld device.

      These apps all look similar and it makes it very difficult to search:

      • Mac screen --> Handheld, as extended display = Sidecar

      Use-case: I use my ipad as additional window space for the mac.

      • Mac screen --> Handheld, as duplicate display = Sill, Sunshine+Moonlight

      Use-case: I leave my desktop and continue watching what I had playing on it from my kitchen ipad.

      • Handheld screen --> Mac = Airplay

      Use-case: I play some media from my iphone on the mac screen.

      • iPhone screen --> Mac, controlled from Mac = iPhone Mirroring

      Use-case: I use my iphone-only apps from my mac, wirelessly

      • iPad controls --> Mac, controlled from Mac = Universal Controls

      Use-case: I use my ipad with my mac mouse+keyboard

      Usually, trying to search for this type of app obnoxiously returns results for Airplay, and if you manage to filter it out, it's Sidecar — but it's not what I want!

    • jasonjmcghee 7 hours ago
      My guess is this is meant to be a no friction VNC (though it doesn't seem to be using VNC). So you can be away from home and remote in.

      There are VNC clients on iphone / ipad - but generally it's whole desktop.

      RealVNC is the name brand but it's not exactly a good experience. "Screens 5" looks like a better alternative.

      • isomorphic 4 hours ago
        It's frustrating that Apple doesn't have their own Screen Sharing (VNC) application on the iPhone/iPad, if even just to provide a basic screen-sharing experience. They have something builtin to FaceTime (that I've never tried) as a kind of remote-support app.

        RealVNC did not work from iOS/iPadOS to macOS Golden Gate when I tried it relatively recently, although it may have been updated since. It's possible Apple changed something in their version of VNC's auth.

        I used to recommend Screens (v4) when it was flat licensed, as it seemed to work well and was well designed in dealing with smaller screens and input differences. Now (v5) it's $5/month $30/year $200/lifetime, which I can't really justify for my casual use case.

    • jscheel 7 hours ago
      individual windows and touch are not supported by sidecar, afaik
      • GeekyBear 7 hours ago
        Touch support was added this year.

        https://support.apple.com/en-us/102597

      • gumby 6 hours ago
        I use touch and pen (useful for the zoom whiteboard) though I guess some gestures were not supported until 27 — guess I never used those ones!
      • boguscoder 5 hours ago
        And sidecar would not work over vpn
      • thewhitetulip 6 hours ago
        Also you need to be on the same apple id on every device for it to work
  • greenspam 4 hours ago
    Is there a reverse app? I want to control my iphone apps from my mac since typing on iphone is painful and the iphone touchscreen keyboard seems to be less accurate and more laggy over time. And iPhone Mirroring feature is laggy for me for some reason.
    • onebitwise 4 hours ago
      Also iPhone mirroring is still not available in EU :(
      • dansquizsoft 1 hour ago
        Maybe the EU should think about implementing less restrictive legal requirements for innovative technologies...
        • isodev 1 hour ago
          Maybe someone in the US should sue Apple into stop abusing their market share to lock people into their walled garden of "joy". Also, innovation happens outside/before Apple these days.
      • Starmina 3 hours ago
        Device Hub kinda fixes that w/ iOS 27 and macOS 27 (included with XCode)
    • gnopgnip 4 hours ago
      What would an app do that iphone mirroring doesn't?
      • bashwizard 4 hours ago
        What iPhone mirroring doesn't in EU. It's not available here.
    • King-Aaron 3 hours ago
      > typing on iphone is painful

      I swear it seems to get worse with every new update too. Maddening.

    • voicedYoda 4 hours ago
      Sidecar? IDK, i don't own an iphone
  • toppa33 38 minutes ago
    Downloaded, installed, loved and donated via GitHub. Awesome app mate, it’s so good.
  • outlore 4 hours ago
    Also consider Astropad Workbench. This app doesn't get talked about enough in AI circles but the performance is top notch (no affiliation)
  • fbcpck 2 hours ago
    This is super nice!

    I've been using Sunshine + Moonlight and it required a lot of tinkering and breaks half the time.

    Looks like now I can forego that setup, this is way way nicer! Thank you!

  • zephyreon 2 hours ago
    That CLAUDE.md file is eating up a ton of context.
  • Jakob 4 hours ago
    I still have the original iPhone lying around. I really like its design but it’s too slow and the software too old.

    I was always wondering whether a thin client concept like this could bring it to live again.

  • Surac 6 hours ago
    Is a windows support planed? Seeing a windows window on iPad and control it with touch\pen
    • socalgal2 5 hours ago
      In Oct 2026, if you want this you just ask your favorite LLM "look at this repo, can you add windows support?". Or "I need an app that does XYZ on Windows" and especially for something this specific, targetted, and small you'll likely have a working app in 1-2 hrs if not < 5 minutes.
  • deepbuilds 3 hours ago
    that looks really good, will def give it a try.

    i also made something (getalmirah.com) let me know your feedback on that too...