PocketPortal

Your Mac, from your phone.

A Mac menu bar app that puts your Mac on your iPhone, over your own Tailscale network. Tap to click, type with a real key row, and resize any window to fit your phone.

Download the free trial Buy for $19

14 days free, with everything in it. Then $19, once. For Apple silicon Macs on macOS 14 or later.

For the Mac you leave running.

A long build, a home server, a coding agent that stopped to ask before it runs something. PocketPortal lets you check on it, answer it, and get back to your day, from wherever you are.

Windows that fit your phone

Phone size resizes the real window on your Mac to your phone’s shape, at the zoom you like. Text stays readable and the controls stay in reach. Tap another window and it’s fitted too; open the keyboard and the window makes room.

The Windows tray lists every window, opens any app by name (type “vsc” for Visual Studio Code), and switches a browser’s tabs while one’s in front. With more than one display, it picks which one your phone shows.

The Windows tray, with the front window’s sizes in thumb reach.

A real shell, in your pocket

Terminal runs your login shell on the Mac, drawn right on your phone. Close the app and the build keeps going; come back and it picks up where your screen left off.

Its own shortcuts sit under it: ⌃C to stop, ⌃R for history, Copy, Paste, Enter, and commands you save, run with one tap.

Terminal, with its shortcuts up under the shell.

It tells you when it needs you

Alerts reach your phone while PocketPortal is closed: when a command that ran a while finishes, and when macOS shows a prompt and nobody’s at the Mac to answer it.

Open PocketPortal and the prompt is already framed on your screen, ready for a tap.

Alerts, on the Home Screen app.

Everything else it does

  • Touch or trackpad

    Tap to click, hold and drag, two fingers to right-click, pinch to zoom. Or move a pointer like a trackpad.

  • A key row

    ⌘ ⌥ ⌃ ⇧, esc, tab and arrows above the iOS keyboard. Tap a modifier once, or twice to lock it.

  • Shortcuts

    Close window, new tab, find, undo, save and more as keys you tap. Rearrange them, or make your own.

  • Magnify

    A band across the picture that shows the Mac at full size, for reading small text without zooming the whole view.

  • Files

    Browse your home folder, view a file on your phone, download it, or upload photos and files to the Mac.

  • One clipboard

    Copy on either side, paste on the other. Text and images go both ways.

  • Prompts, framed

    When macOS asks for permission, your phone zooms onto the dialog, then puts your view back once it’s answered.

  • Unlock from your phone

    Type your Mac’s password on your phone to unlock it. It goes through Apple’s Screen Sharing on the Mac itself and is never saved.

How it works

  1. On the Mac

    PocketPortal captures only the part of the screen you’re looking at, and encodes it as low-latency H.264 on the Mac’s own hardware.

  2. Through your tailnet

    Tailscale carries it to your phone, encrypted by WireGuard. PocketPortal publishes its page with tailscale serve, so only your own devices can reach it.

  3. On your phone

    Safari plays it with WebCodecs. There’s no app to install: you add the page to your Home Screen. Your taps and keys go back the same way.

Set up in minutes

Open PocketPortal and a checklist takes it from there. Each of its seven checks locks a chevron on the gate.

  1. Connect this Mac to Tailscale

    New to Tailscale? The checklist downloads it, and turns on HTTPS for your account with one button. Then PocketPortal publishes itself.

  2. Allow screen recording and control

    Two switches in System Settings, with a button to each.

  3. Pair your phone

    Scan one code to get Tailscale on your phone, then one more to pair. Add PocketPortal to your Home Screen and you’re in.

Yours, end to end

No PocketPortal account. No PocketPortal servers. No analytics.

Your screen, taps and keys travel only between your own devices, inside your tailnet. Your phone pairs with a QR code that carries a 192-bit token. The Mac app makes two calls of its own: about once a week it checks your license with Lemon Squeezy, the store that sells PocketPortal, and once a day it asks this site whether there’s a newer version. Neither carries anything about your screen.

$19, once

  • Try everything free for 14 days first.
  • No subscription.
  • One license covers up to 5 of your own Macs.
Buy PocketPortal Download the free trial

You need

  • A Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 14 Sonoma or later
  • An iPhone or iPad with iOS 17 or later
  • Tailscale on both, which is free

Good to know

  • One phone at a time; a new one takes over.
  • While it runs, the Mac doesn’t sleep when idle. A laptop needs its lid open.
  • Android isn’t tested yet. Try it during the trial first.

Questions

Do I install an app on my phone?

No. The phone side is a web page in Safari. Scan the pairing code, add the page to your Home Screen, and open PocketPortal from there. You do install Tailscale on your phone; the checklist gives you a code for it.

Why Tailscale?

So there’s no PocketPortal server in the middle. Your Mac and phone talk directly, encrypted, on a private network only your devices can join. Tailscale is free for personal use.

Does it work on an iPad?

Yes. On an iPad, Phone size becomes Tablet size.

Is it fast enough to use?

It sends only the part of the screen you’re looking at, at up to 60 frames a second, and drops to 30 while Magnify is open. On a good connection it feels like the Mac is in your hand. Settings has a Standard and a Sharp picture.

What happens when the trial ends?

Your phone shows a “trial has ended” page instead of the Mac. Buy a license and enter it from the PocketPortal menu on the Mac.

How do I get help?

Email [email protected].