Do I need to be on the same network?

No. On the same Wi-Fi, Servey uses a direct, high-performance stream for the sharpest possible picture. On different networks it automatically switches to a private connection between your own devices. Either way it just works.

Is it secure and private?

Yes, and there are two locks rather than one. Signing in with Google pairs only your own devices, scoped to your account. On top of that you set a master password on your Mac that every device must produce before it can connect, each new device waits for you to approve it on the Mac itself, and you can revoke any device at any time. Your screen video travels end-to-end encrypted peer-to-peer between your devices; if your network will not allow a direct connection, it relays through our own server rather than a third party's cloud.

What happens to my terminal session if I disconnect?

It keeps running. Every terminal session in Servey is a named session that lives on your Mac rather than inside the app, so closing Servey, losing signal or putting the phone in your pocket does not stop the work. Start a long build from the iPad, come back an hour later, and you rejoin it exactly where it got to. You can also open the same live session on your Mac and your iPad at once.

Can I hide what I am doing from people near my Mac?

Yes. Privacy Mode blacks out every monitor physically attached to your Mac while the stream you are watching keeps showing the real desktop. It covers every app, every space and every connected display, including the cursor, and nothing is overlaid on screen. If Servey quits or the connection drops, macOS restores the displays on its own, so it cannot leave the Mac stuck on black.

What if I stop using Servey - am I locked in?

No. Servey runs your terminal sessions in tmux on your own Mac, and the app shows you the attach command for each one. Paste it into Terminal.app, iTerm, Ghostty or an SSH connection and you are in the same live session with Servey uninstalled. Nothing you start in Servey is trapped in a format only Servey can open.

Does it work over cellular?

Yes. Servey is built to connect reliably even on strict mobile and carrier networks where most tools give up, and it tunes quality to your connection automatically so the picture stays smooth.

Which devices are supported?

A Mac as the host, controlled from an iPhone or iPad. Servey needs macOS 15.3 or later on the Mac and iOS or iPadOS 18.5 or later on the device you control it from, so it is worth checking your versions before you join the waitlist. Any Mac that runs macOS 15.3 works, Apple silicon or Intel, and a MacBook can be driven with the lid shut. Servey is built natively for the Apple ecosystem - not an Electron or Java port - so it feels fast and right at home on your devices.

Do I need a VPN or port forwarding?

No. There's no VPN to configure and no ports to forward. Sign in with Google on both devices and your Mac appears - that's the entire setup.

Is there a free version?

Yes. Servey has a free tier with no card and no countdown: five-minute sessions, five sessions a day, and your daily allowance resets at local midnight. Everything Servey does is in it - screen mirroring, input and the terminal - so what you are paying for on a paid plan is time, not a longer feature list.

When is it launching and how much will it cost?

Servey is in pre-submission hardening now, and the waitlist is how you get in first. Pricing is already set: free to start, the Terminal plan at $1.99/month or ₹99/month in India, and Full access - screen mirroring plus terminal - at $4.49/month or ₹299/month in India. Join the waitlist and we'll email you the moment it's ready. You're never charged until launch.

Can I blank my Mac's screen while using it remotely?

Yes, but how well it works depends entirely on the tool. The approach that holds up on macOS is to blank the display after the point where the screen is captured, so the monitor goes black while the remote stream keeps showing the real desktop. Servey's Privacy Mode does this by forcing the display gamma to zero, which covers every app, every space, every connected monitor and the cursor. The older approach of installing a virtual display driver needs a kernel or system extension and is unreliable on modern macOS.

Why does TeamViewer's black screen not work on my Mac?

Because the feature depends on a display driver that macOS increasingly does not allow. The traditional privacy screen adds a virtual display and moves your desktop to it, which on macOS requires a kernel extension or a DriverKit system extension. Both need approval in Privacy and Security and a reboot, and kernel extensions on Apple silicon also require reduced security mode. The result is a feature that is often missing, greyed out, or broken by an OS update. This is an Apple design decision rather than a vendor failing.

Can I get a black screen with macOS Screen Sharing?

Effectively yes, using virtual displays. In the Screen Sharing app you can connect to a virtual display instead of the Mac's own display, which gives you a separate desktop the physical monitor never shows. It needs Apple silicon on both ends and recent versions of macOS, and it is a new workspace rather than the session already on screen. Within those conditions it solves the problem completely and costs nothing.

Is it safe if the connection drops while the screen is blanked?

With Servey, yes. Privacy Mode is restored on every stop and disconnect path, and macOS restores the display gamma automatically if the app exits for any reason including a crash, so a dropped connection cannot leave the Mac stuck on black. This matters more than the feature itself, because a privacy screen you do not fully trust is one you will never actually switch on.

How to blank your Mac's screen while you work on it remotely

By Janesh Kapoor · September 5, 2026 · 6 min read

There is a detail about remote access that most people only think about once: while you are working on your Mac from somewhere else, its monitor is still on, still showing your desktop, and still visible to whoever is in the room. In an office, a shared flat or a home with visitors, that is a real problem - and on macOS specifically it is the feature most remote tools handle worst. Here is why it is hard, what the options actually do, and how Servey does it differently.

The scenario is easy to picture. You connect to your work Mac from a laptop at home and start going through payroll, or you reach your home Mac from the office and open something personal. At the other end, the machine's display is showing every keystroke to an open-plan room, a housemate, or a colleague who wandered over to borrow a charger. Nothing about the connection being encrypted helps: the leak is at the monitor, not on the wire.

The four ways of hiding the screen at the other end, and how each one fails.
Approach	How it works	Where it falls down
Lock the Mac before leaving	The login window covers the desktop	Your remote session unlocks it again, and then everyone can see it
Vendor privacy screen (TeamViewer, AnyDesk)	Installs a display driver that blanks the monitor	Needs a kernel or system extension, and on modern macOS it is unreliable or unsupported
Unplug or power off the monitor	Nothing to see	Only works if you are there to do it, and not at all on a laptop
Blank the display after the capture point (Servey)	The monitor goes black, the stream keeps the real desktop	Only possible if the tool is built for it

The short answer: on macOS the only approach that reliably holds up is the last one, and almost nothing implements it. Servey - the app we make - is built around it, and if you want a free route today, macOS Screen Sharing's virtual display option gets you most of the way on Apple silicon. It is worth understanding why the popular option is the one that keeps breaking, because the reason is specific to how macOS draws things.

Why do privacy screens keep breaking on macOS?

Because the classic implementation depends on a piece of macOS that Apple has spent years closing off. The traditional way to blank a monitor during a remote session is to install a virtual display driver: the tool adds a fake display, moves your desktop onto it, and leaves the real monitor showing nothing. On Windows that is a well-trodden path. On macOS it needs a kernel extension or, more recently, a DriverKit system extension, and both require the user to approve them in Privacy and Security and reboot. Kernel extensions on Apple silicon additionally need the machine put into reduced security mode.

The result is a feature that either does not appear on macOS, greys out, or works until an OS update. That is Apple's design decision rather than the vendors' incompetence, and it is why the black screen people know from Windows support work is one of the most common things missing when the same tool is pointed at a Mac.

There is a second, subtler failure that matters more than it sounds. A privacy screen that works by drawing a black window over your desktop can be defeated: a full-screen app, a Mission Control gesture or a second monitor can end up outside it, and the cursor usually still moves in plain view. Worse, it is captured. If the black cover is drawn into the same framebuffer that the remote tool records, you end up looking at your own black screen instead of your desktop, which is exactly backwards.

What does Servey do instead?

Servey's Privacy Mode forces the gamma transfer table of every active display to zero. That sounds obscure, so here is the part that matters: gamma is applied by the display pipeline at scan-out, which happens after the framebuffer that screen capture reads. The monitor is fed the adjusted signal and shows pure black. The capture is taken from before that point and shows the real desktop, completely unaffected. It is the same layer that tools like Night Shift work at, which is why their colour tint never turns up in a screenshot.

Doing it there rather than with an overlay window fixes the failure modes above in one go. Because nothing is drawn on screen, there is nothing for a full-screen app or another space to appear on top of. It covers every app, every space and every connected monitor at once. The cursor is blacked out too, so an observer cannot even follow where you are pointing. And no black window exists to be accidentally captured, so what you see on your iPad stays the live desktop.

The obvious worry with any technique that blacks out a display is being left with a Mac you cannot see and cannot fix. Servey restores gamma on every stop and disconnect path, and the window server restores it automatically if the app exits for any reason, including a crash. A dropped connection cannot strand the machine on black. This matters more than the feature itself: a privacy screen you do not fully trust is one you will never switch on.

It is worth being clear about what this is not. Privacy Mode hides the picture; it does not physically disable the Mac's own keyboard and mouse, so someone sitting at the machine can still interfere with it even though they cannot see what they are doing. If your threat model is a person with hands on the keyboard rather than eyes on the monitor, this is the wrong control and you want the Mac locked or in another room.

What can you do today, with the tools you already have?

If you use macOS Screen Sharing on your own network, there is a genuinely useful option most people miss. In the Screen Sharing app, choosing to connect to a virtual display rather than the Mac's own display gives you a separate desktop that the physical monitor never shows. It needs a Mac with Apple silicon on both ends and recent versions of macOS, and it is a different workspace rather than your existing one, but if you meet those conditions it solves the problem completely and costs nothing.

The low-technology answers are also better than their reputation. A Mac mini on a shelf with no monitor attached has no privacy problem at all, which is one of the quiet advantages of running a headless machine. For a desktop Mac you can switch the monitor's input to another source, and for a laptop being used remotely you can simply close the lid - though on a MacBook that normally puts the machine to sleep unless something is deliberately keeping it awake.

Where Servey fits, and where it does not

Servey is a native Apple app for reaching your own Mac from your own iPhone or iPad, with screen mirroring, a real terminal and Privacy Mode built in rather than sold as an add-on. It needs macOS 15.3 and iOS or iPadOS 18.5, it cannot reach a Windows or Linux machine, and it launches soon rather than today. If you support other people's computers, or you need a privacy screen working this week, TeamViewer and AnyDesk do far more than we do and you should use one of them - just verify the macOS behaviour before you buy on the strength of that feature.

Frequently asked questions

Can I blank my Mac's screen while using it remotely?: Yes, but how well it works depends entirely on the tool. The approach that holds up on macOS is to blank the display after the point where the screen is captured, so the monitor goes black while the remote stream keeps showing the real desktop. Servey's Privacy Mode does this by forcing the display gamma to zero, which covers every app, every space, every connected monitor and the cursor. The older approach of installing a virtual display driver needs a kernel or system extension and is unreliable on modern macOS.
Why does TeamViewer's black screen not work on my Mac?: Because the feature depends on a display driver that macOS increasingly does not allow. The traditional privacy screen adds a virtual display and moves your desktop to it, which on macOS requires a kernel extension or a DriverKit system extension. Both need approval in Privacy and Security and a reboot, and kernel extensions on Apple silicon also require reduced security mode. The result is a feature that is often missing, greyed out, or broken by an OS update. This is an Apple design decision rather than a vendor failing.
Does blanking the screen stop someone using the Mac?: No, and this is an important limit. Blanking hides the picture; it does not disable the Mac's own keyboard, trackpad or mouse. Someone sitting at the machine can still type and click, even though they cannot see what they are doing. If your concern is a person with their hands on the keyboard rather than their eyes on the monitor, lock the Mac or put it somewhere else - a privacy screen is the wrong control for that.
Can I get a black screen with macOS Screen Sharing?: Effectively yes, using virtual displays. In the Screen Sharing app you can connect to a virtual display instead of the Mac's own display, which gives you a separate desktop the physical monitor never shows. It needs Apple silicon on both ends and recent versions of macOS, and it is a new workspace rather than the session already on screen. Within those conditions it solves the problem completely and costs nothing.
Is it safe if the connection drops while the screen is blanked?: With Servey, yes. Privacy Mode is restored on every stop and disconnect path, and macOS restores the display gamma automatically if the app exits for any reason including a crash, so a dropped connection cannot leave the Mac stuck on black. This matters more than the feature itself, because a privacy screen you do not fully trust is one you will never actually switch on.

Servey puts your Mac in your pocket. Launching soon.