TwinDesk

All your computers and your phone, working as one desk.
Screens, apps, files, clipboard, cameras, calls, texts, notifications, mouse and keyboard, shared between Mac, Windows, Linux and Android.
Free and open source. No account, no cloud, no shared network needed.

⬇️ Download 2.3 · Website · What's new · Get started · How it works

Your devices are good at their own jobs and bad at working together. TwinDesk fixes that. Put a Mac and a Windows PC side by side and use them with one mouse and keyboard. Open the PC's apps on the Mac. Turn an old laptop or your Android tablet into a second screen. Answer your phone's calls and texts from the computer, use its camera in a video call, and paste on one device what you copied on another.

• Any combination. Mac ↔ Windows, Mac ↔ Mac, PC ↔ PC, Linux ↔ anything, and Android ↔ any computer. Or, with TwinDesk Mesh, all of them at once.
• Anywhere. Same Wi-Fi, a USB cable, or no shared network at all: Bluetooth and a direct Wi-Fi link of their own.
• No account, no cloud. Devices talk only to each other, on an encrypted link.
• Only what you turn on. Every feature starts off and isn't even loaded until you switch it on.

⬇️ Download

_{Every file and older version is on the releases page.}

✨ New in 2.3

Your phone is now a camera, a remote and a gamepad. Use its camera in any video call, drive your computer from the couch, or play with it as a controller. Copy pictures and screenshots across every screen, and lock the pointer to one computer with a key.

➕ Also new in 2.3

• Every feature is off on a fresh install and nothing of it is loaded until you switch it on. Updating keeps your settings.
• Closed to the tray or menu bar, the window is gone too: a Windows PC went from about 240 MB to about 125 MB.
• Ctrl+Alt+V / ⌃⌥V pastes files straight into the app in front, a chat or an email, not only into a folder.
• Choose where received files go (General › Received files) on Windows and Linux, as on the Mac.
• Phone windows: Enter sends in WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram; on Windows the controls sit in a side panel, with Rotate and a screenshot button.
• The phone's own screen on the computer, started from the phone's Screen page.
• Touchpad mode for the computer's screen on the phone: slide to move the pointer, tap to click.
• The phone's battery: a locked phone no longer lights up by itself, and discovery no longer keeps it awake.
• Wireless debugging can switch itself off when the computer is gone (General › Allow on the phone).
• The pointer on the phone shows over the notification shade and on Settings screens too.
• Steadier Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Direct with phones, and Android Studio or scrcpy's own adb is used before the bundled one, so they stop knocking each other off.
• Intel Mac downloads of their own, and builds that can be signed and notarized with a Developer ID.

Thanks to everyone who sent pull requests for this release: see Thanks.

_{Older releases: 2.2 brought TwinDesk Mesh, 2.1 brought Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Direct and the phone's calls, texts, photos and files. Every release's notes are on the releases page.}

💻 Computer to computer

The same app on every platform, so a Mac and a PC pair just like two Macs.

🖱 One mouse and keyboard

Push the pointer off the edge of your screen and keep working on the other computer, as if they were one. Your keyboard follows the pointer. Trackpad gestures (Spaces swipes, pinch to zoom, show desktop) carry over, and a double-tap of the hotkey brings everything home. Set which side the other computer is on, edge resistance and pointer speed.

Cursor lock (new in 2.3) keeps the pointer on the computer it's on, even the one the mouse isn't plugged into: press Scroll Lock (F14 on a Mac), or use the Cursor tab or the tray / menu bar.

🖥 Extended display and remote screen

Extend your Mac onto a PC or another Mac with a real virtual display, or mirror it. Or bring the other computer's screen into a window and control it from there. Low-latency H.264 with Fastest and Smooth playback, and optional frame generation.

🪟 The other computer's apps, in windows of their own

Open a Windows app on your Mac (or a Mac app on your PC) and it gets a window of its own, with its own Dock icon or Start-menu pin. No full remote desktop, just the app you need, next to your own.

📷 Camera sharing

Show the other computer's camera in a window, or send it to a webcam every app can pick: TwinDesk Camera in Zoom, Teams, Meet or the browser. A computer shares its camera only when you turn on Let … see this camera on it, and a popup there says who is watching. The same works with a phone's camera.

The virtual camera installs the first time you turn it on: a Windows 11 camera (one administrator prompt), v4l2loopback on Linux (one password prompt), and on the Mac it goes into OBS Virtual Camera (or TwinDesk's own camera extension, in builds signed for it).

📁 Files, shared folders and terminal

Drag files across the screen edge and drop them anywhere, or copy with ⌃⌥C and paste with ⌃⌥V (Ctrl+Alt+C/V on Windows and Linux), into a folder or straight into the app in front. Send from the macOS Share menu or Explorer's Send to, or share a folder that shows up as a network drive on the other side. Files on their way show live progress. Need a shell? ssh twindesk opens one on the other computer, no passwords needed.

📋 Shared clipboard

Copy on one computer and paste on the other, instantly or when you switch over. Pictures go too (new in 2.3), up to 10 MB: take a screenshot with Win+Shift+S on the PC and paste it on the Mac. Entries from password managers are skipped, and a Recent list keeps the last few things you copied, pictures with a preview.

🔔 Notifications, sound and Wake-on-LAN

See one computer's notifications on the other as native notifications, and hear one computer's sound on the other. Wake a sleeping computer with Wake-on-LAN, and every switch you flip is shared by both sides and remembered for the pair.

🔀 More than two devices

Pair as many computers and phones as you like. Switch moves the session to another paired device nearby, Take over claims one that's busy with someone else, and Disconnect lets go. All from the Overview, the menu bar or the tray.

🕸 TwinDesk Mesh: every device at once

Your laptop, your desktop, the Linux box in the corner and your phone, all connected at once, each talking straight to the others with no hub in between.

• One mouse, every screen. Line your devices up on the map once, and the pointer goes from the PC to the Mac to the Linux laptop to the phone.
• One clipboard. Copy on any of them, paste on any other. The newest copy wins.
• One notification pool. Your phone buzzes, and every computer shows it.
• Pair once, join all. A new device paired with one computer meets the rest by itself.

Mesh is in beta on Windows, Mac and Linux: turn it on in the Multi-device tab, and off again any time with everything as you left it. Connecting just two devices? You won't need it. Still coming to Mesh: the Camera, pictures on the clipboard, and files dragged to more than one device at a time; the phone connects to one computer at a time, and Linux joins over the same Wi-Fi only.

📱 Phone and tablet

Most phone links stop at notifications and a file drop. In TwinDesk your Android phone or tablet is a full peer: it pairs like a computer and gets the same features, plus its calls, texts, photos, files and camera.

📞 Calls and messages

Answer, decline and make your phone's calls from the computer. When it rings, a small window shows who's calling with Answer and Decline. With Bluetooth, the computer becomes the phone's headset, so you talk and listen right there. The Calls page has a number pad, your contacts and the call history.

Read and reply to your texts on Messages: every conversation, pictures included, and a count in the sidebar.

🖼 Photos and phone files

Browse the phone's photos and videos on Photos, open any of them big, and save one or many to the computer. Phone Files browses the phone's whole storage: save, upload, rename, delete, or just drop files on the page. Shared folders work both ways: a folder the phone shares opens in Finder, Explorer or the Linux file manager, and one the computer shares shows up in the phone's Files app.

📷 Phone camera

The phone's back or front camera, in a window on the computer or as the TwinDesk Camera webcam in any video call. Switch cameras and rotate the picture from the Camera tab, or start it from the phone's own Camera page.

🎮 Remote and gamepad

The phone's Remote page turns it into the computer's remote, for the couch or a presentation:

• Touchpad and keyboard. Slide to move, tap to click, two fingers to scroll, with the keys a phone keyboard lacks (Esc, Tab, Ctrl, Alt, arrows, media and volume). Rotate it for landscape.
• Gamepad, laid out like an Xbox controller. Its buttons press the keys you choose, or turn on Real gamepad and the computer sees an actual controller: an Xbox 360 controller on Windows, a gamepad on Linux.
• A Bluetooth gamepad for any computer, the Mac included, with no TwinDesk and no driver there: pair the phone in the computer's Bluetooth settings once.

Turn on Remote on the computer to let the phone drive it.

🎵 Media controls and phone sound

What's playing on the phone shows in its card on the Overview, with its art, Previous, Play/Pause, Next and a bar to seek. On Windows and Linux, Play phone sound here makes the computer the phone's Bluetooth speaker.

📲 Phone screen and apps on the computer

See your phone's screen in a window and control it with your mouse, trackpad and keyboard. Better still, open single Android apps in windows of their own, side by side with your desktop apps. Pin them to the Dock or the Start menu and use them like any other app. In WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram, Enter sends.

🖥 Tablet as a second screen

Turn a tablet or phone into an extra monitor. Extend for more desktop space, or Mirror to show what's on your screen. Use touch as the mouse, or switch on touchpad mode.

📤 Files, clipboard, notifications, mouse and keyboard

• Files. Send to computer or Copy to computer from any Android app's share menu; from the computer, the Share menu, Send to, a drag across the screen edge or ⌃⌥C / Ctrl+Alt+C.
• Clipboard. Text and pictures both ways, the phone's screenshots included, and a Quick Settings tile to send it.
• Notifications. The phone's on the computer as native notifications, and the other way around. Hide the text or mute single apps.
• Mouse and keyboard. Push the pointer past the screen edge and it carries on onto the phone; type with your real keyboard in any Android app.

📱 The Android app

The Android app adapts to the device: tabs at the bottom on a phone, a full sidebar on a tablet. Every page names the computer you're connected to and shows what's shared in each direction.

📡 Connections

You never have to choose. TwinDesk uses the same network when there is one, moves a phone onto the USB cable when you plug it in, and falls back to Bluetooth when the Wi-Fi goes: on a train, or in a café whose guest Wi-Fi blocks devices. The link and its latency are always shown at the top of the app (38 ms · Bluetooth).

Bluetooth is great for the session but too slow for a screen or a big file. So when you start one, TwinDesk brings up a direct Wi-Fi link between the two devices for as long as it's needed, then goes back to Bluetooth. Press Connect with Wi-Fi Direct to keep it, or let the computer join the phone's hotspot.

Who can turn up over Bluetooth is up to you: Bluetooth with phones (on) and Bluetooth with computers (off until you want it), on the Overview and in General.

🚀 Get started

1. Download TwinDesk for each computer and your phone (above, or from the releases).
2. Open it on both. They find each other on the same network, over Bluetooth, or over a USB cable for a phone.
3. Pair once by comparing a code (on a USB cable, just click Allow). From then on they connect by themselves.
4. Turn on what you want. Each feature has a tab with a switch, and shows what it does until you turn it on.

For the phone's screen, apps and camera in windows, TwinDesk walks you through turning on Android's wireless debugging once (details). Files, clipboard, calls and photos work without it. The phone's notifications, texts, media controls and mouse and keyboard through Accessibility come with the full app, which the computer installs once over wireless debugging.

Privacy

TwinDesk only talks to devices you've paired with, directly over your own network, Bluetooth, a direct Wi-Fi link or a cable. There are no accounts, no telemetry and no cloud relay. Your calls, texts, photos and camera go straight from the phone to your computer and nowhere else. The only internet request is an update check against GitHub's public releases, which you can turn off.

Everything below is for the curious and for people building TwinDesk themselves.

xcode-select --install          # Swift compiler for the helper
cd mac
npm install
npm run build:helper
npm start                       # run from source
npm run dist && npm run dmg     # build TwinDesk.app and TwinDesk-<version>-<arch>.dmg in mac/dist/

npm run dist:x64 && npm run dmg

cd windows
npm install
npm run build:helper            :: uses the .NET Framework C# compiler that ships with Windows
npm start
npm run dist                    :: NSIS installer in windows\dist\
npm run dist -- arm64           :: the Windows on ARM installer (or `x64 arm64` for both)

sudo apt install build-essential libx11-dev libxi-dev libxtst-dev libxrandr-dev libxfixes-dev
cd linux
npm install
npm run build:helper
npm start
npm run dist                    # AppImage and .deb in linux/dist/

# Run directly with flakes
nix run github:InukaAsith/TwinDesk

# Or enter development environment
nix develop

{
  programs.twindesk = {
    enable = true;
    user = "yourusername"; # adds to input/uinput groups for Wayland KVM
  };
}

linux/scripts/vm-test.sh start            # sync, build and (re)start it in the VM
linux/scripts/vm-test.sh shot linux.png   # screenshot of its window
linux/scripts/vm-test.sh eval "UI.go('cursor')"
linux/scripts/vm-test.sh log

cd android
./gradlew assembleRelease        # JDK 17+; app/build/outputs/apk/{standard,full}/release/

Thanks

TwinDesk is better for everyone who sent a pull request:

• @DevPsycho-07: the phone as a remote (#44), screenshots across the clipboard (#45), phone window controls (#46) and phone fixes (#43)
• @benzntech: the phone's camera (#48), Developer ID signing and notarization (#40) and the Mac's downloads (#39)
• @atse25029-collab: WhatsApp and Instagram in phone windows (#42)
• @philopaterwaheed: Cursor lock (#49)
• @ghustanov: wireless debugging's auto-off (#31) and the Mac helpers' Info.plist (#30)
• @m-uvex: the Nix flake and NixOS module (#37)
• Erdoğan Yeşil (@erdodo): the mesh TwinDesk Mesh is built on (#29), and #8 and #9
• @Jay-Prajapati01: signed Windows installers (#13)

And thanks to everyone who reports problems and shares ideas in the issues.

License

TwinDesk is free software, licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0. Copyright © 2026 inukaasith.

Parts are adapted from DeskPad (MIT). See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES for details.