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.

How do I control my Mac from my iPhone?

Turn on Screen Sharing on the Mac first: System Settings, then General, then Sharing, then switch on Screen Sharing and note the .local address it shows you. Then install a VNC client on the iPhone from the App Store and connect to that address with your Mac account name and password. This is free and works on your own Wi-Fi. To reach the Mac from outside your home you need either a VPN back to your network or an app that handles the networking for you, such as Servey.

Can I control my Mac from my iPhone for free?

Yes, on your own network. macOS includes a VNC server, so switching on Screen Sharing plus a free or cheap VNC client on the iPhone costs nothing extra. What is not free is the away-from-home case: that needs either a VPN you set up and maintain, or a paid app that does NAT traversal for you.

Can I access my Mac from my iPhone when I am not at home?

Not with the built-in Screen Sharing on its own. It relies on .local addresses that only resolve on your own network, and your router will not accept unsolicited inbound connections from outside. The two working answers are a VPN or mesh VPN such as Tailscale back to your home network, or a purpose-built app like Servey that pairs your devices directly with no configuration.

Do I need a VPN to control my Mac remotely?

Only if you are using the built-in tools. Screen Sharing and SSH both need you to solve the network problem yourself, and a VPN is the safe way to do that - far safer than forwarding ports, which exposes VNC or SSH to automated scanners. Apps that bring their own peer-to-peer or relay layer, including Servey, Screens, Jump Desktop and RustDesk, remove the need for a VPN entirely.

Why does my VNC connection work at home but not on mobile data?

Because the address you are connecting to only exists on your home network. A .local name is resolved by Bonjour, which does not cross the internet, and your home IP address is both changeable and usually behind a router that blocks inbound connections. Many broadband customers are also behind carrier-grade NAT, where there is no inbound path to open at all. This is a networking limitation rather than anything wrong with your Mac or your client app.

Can I use a real terminal on my Mac from my iPhone?

Yes. Enable Remote Login in the same Sharing settings panel and connect with any SSH client from the App Store. Note that Screen Sharing and Remote Login are separate services, so turning one on does not turn on the other. Servey includes a genuine shell in the same app as the screen, one tap apart, so you do not have to switch between two apps.

Is controlling my Mac from my phone secure?

It depends entirely on how you connect. VNC over your own Wi-Fi is reasonable; VNC forwarded to the public internet is not, and should be avoided. A VPN or an app with end-to-end encryption between your own devices are both sound. Servey only pairs devices under your own account and encrypts the stream end to end between them when you are away from home.

How to control your Mac from your iPhone or iPad

By Janesh Kapoor · July 9, 2026 · Updated September 5, 2026 · 7 min read

There is a free way to do this that is already on both of your devices, and it works well right up until you leave the house. Here is how to set it up, exactly where it breaks, and why Servey - the app we make - exists to cover the part it cannot.

There are plenty of moments when you want your Mac but only have your phone: a build broke while you were on the couch, a render needs babysitting, or a file lives on your desktop and you are on a train. The good news is that macOS has shipped the core of this for years and you do not have to buy anything to try it. The catch is that the built-in route was designed for a local network, and most of the times you actually want your Mac are the times you are not on it.

The three ways to reach a Mac from an iPhone or iPad, and where each one stops.
	On your own Wi-Fi	Away from home	Terminal	Cost
macOS Screen Sharing plus a VNC app	Yes - free and built in	No, not without a VPN or port forwarding	Separate SSH app	Free
A VPN or mesh VPN back home	Yes	Yes, once it is set up and running everywhere	Separate SSH app	Free to low
A purpose-built remote app	Yes	Yes, with no network configuration	Depends on the app	Paid
Servey	Yes - hardware-encoded HEVC	Yes - automatic, encrypted peer-to-peer	Yes - a real shell, built in	From $1.99/month

The free way, step by step

Every Mac has a VNC server built into it, and turning it on takes about thirty seconds. On the Mac, open System Settings, go to General and then Sharing, and switch on Screen Sharing. Click the small info button next to it and note the address it shows you - it will look like a name ending in .local, and that is what you will connect to. While you are there, switch on Remote Login as well if you want SSH, because the two are separate services and turning on one does not turn on the other.

On the iPhone or iPad you need a VNC client, because iOS does not have one built in. There are several on the App Store at a range of prices. Point it at the .local address from the previous step, sign in with your Mac account name and password, and your desktop appears. On the same Wi-Fi this works well and costs nothing beyond the client app.

Two things commonly go wrong here. If the connection is refused, check that both devices really are on the same network - a phone that has silently dropped to mobile data will fail with a confusing error. And if you have a Mac mini or any Mac with no display attached, the desktop may arrive at an odd, cramped resolution, which is a headless-specific problem rather than anything to do with your phone.

Why it stops working when you leave the house

This is the wall almost everyone hits. Screen Sharing is designed for a local network, and .local addresses only mean anything on the network you are standing in. The moment you are on mobile data or someone else's Wi-Fi, there is no route to your Mac at all. Your home router does not accept unsolicited inbound connections, your home IP address changes when your provider feels like it, and a large number of people are behind carrier-grade NAT, which means there is no inbound path to open even if you wanted one.

The traditional fixes are port forwarding with dynamic DNS, or a VPN back to your home network. Port forwarding is the one to avoid: putting VNC or SSH directly on the public internet gets them found by automated scanners within hours, and it does not work at all behind CGNAT. A VPN is the sound version of this idea, and a mesh VPN such as Tailscale is genuinely good - free for personal use, and it solves the CGNAT problem properly. The honest cost is that it is one more service to install, update and reason about on every device you own, and it gets you a network connection rather than a good experience on a touchscreen.

What actually makes this pleasant on a phone

Getting a picture is only half of it. Most remote desktop tools were built for cross-platform IT support, where somebody sits at a desk with a mouse and fixes a colleague's Windows machine. Driving a Mac from a five-inch touchscreen is a different problem, and the things that separate a tool you keep using from one you uninstall are fairly specific:

Sharp, aspect-correct mirroring - text you can actually read, not a blurry cropped rectangle you have to squint at.
Real input: a precise on-screen trackpad with left and right click, plus a full keyboard including Esc, Tab, and the modifier keys.
Low latency, so the cursor tracks your finger instead of lagging behind it.
A connection that works away from home without you configuring anything.
A real terminal, because a lot of what you want your Mac for is one command rather than a whole desktop.

That last point is the one people underestimate. Restarting a service, tailing a log, checking why a job stalled or kicking off a rebuild are all faster typed than they are done by dragging a mouse pointer around with your thumb. A tool that makes you install a separate SSH app and switch between the two is solving half the problem.

Where Servey fits

Servey is built for exactly this one job: your Mac, in your pocket, on your own iPhone or iPad. Screen mirroring and a real terminal - a genuine shell on your Mac, not a web console - live in the same native app, one tap apart. On your own Wi-Fi it streams hardware-encoded HEVC, so text stays sharp enough to read and you can pinch to zoom into it. Away from home it switches automatically to a private, end-to-end encrypted peer-to-peer link between your own two devices, and it holds that connection on the strict mobile networks where most tools give up. Setup is signing in with Google on both devices: no VPN, no ports, no dynamic DNS, no relay server to choose.

Where it is honestly not the right answer: Servey is Apple-only, with the Mac as host and the iPhone or iPad as the client, so if you need to reach a Windows box or a Linux server it is the wrong tool and something like RustDesk or Jump Desktop will serve you better. It also cannot be self-hosted, which for some people is the entire point of the mesh VPN approach. And if you only ever need your Mac while sitting in the same house as it, macOS Screen Sharing is free and already installed, and there is no reason to pay for anything.

Which one should you use

You only need your Mac from the sofa: macOS Screen Sharing plus any VNC client. Free.
You need it from anywhere and enjoy running infrastructure: a mesh VPN such as Tailscale.
You need to reach Windows or Linux machines too: a cross-platform tool like Jump Desktop or RustDesk.
You want your own Mac from your own iPhone with nothing to configure, and a terminal in the same app: Servey.

The short version

Turn on Screen Sharing in System Settings and grab a VNC client, and you can control your Mac from your iPhone on your own Wi-Fi today for free. The part that is genuinely hard is everywhere else, and it is hard because of NAT and changing IP addresses rather than because of anything on your Mac. Either adopt a VPN and maintain it, or use an app that handles the networking for you. Servey is built to be the second of those for Apple devices specifically, with a real terminal alongside the screen. It launches soon; the waitlist is open now.

Frequently asked questions

How do I control my Mac from my iPhone?: Turn on Screen Sharing on the Mac first: System Settings, then General, then Sharing, then switch on Screen Sharing and note the .local address it shows you. Then install a VNC client on the iPhone from the App Store and connect to that address with your Mac account name and password. This is free and works on your own Wi-Fi. To reach the Mac from outside your home you need either a VPN back to your network or an app that handles the networking for you, such as Servey.
Can I control my Mac from my iPhone for free?: Yes, on your own network. macOS includes a VNC server, so switching on Screen Sharing plus a free or cheap VNC client on the iPhone costs nothing extra. What is not free is the away-from-home case: that needs either a VPN you set up and maintain, or a paid app that does NAT traversal for you.
Can I access my Mac from my iPhone when I am not at home?: Not with the built-in Screen Sharing on its own. It relies on .local addresses that only resolve on your own network, and your router will not accept unsolicited inbound connections from outside. The two working answers are a VPN or mesh VPN such as Tailscale back to your home network, or a purpose-built app like Servey that pairs your devices directly with no configuration.
Do I need a VPN to control my Mac remotely?: Only if you are using the built-in tools. Screen Sharing and SSH both need you to solve the network problem yourself, and a VPN is the safe way to do that - far safer than forwarding ports, which exposes VNC or SSH to automated scanners. Apps that bring their own peer-to-peer or relay layer, including Servey, Screens, Jump Desktop and RustDesk, remove the need for a VPN entirely.
Why does my VNC connection work at home but not on mobile data?: Because the address you are connecting to only exists on your home network. A .local name is resolved by Bonjour, which does not cross the internet, and your home IP address is both changeable and usually behind a router that blocks inbound connections. Many broadband customers are also behind carrier-grade NAT, where there is no inbound path to open at all. This is a networking limitation rather than anything wrong with your Mac or your client app.
Can I use a real terminal on my Mac from my iPhone?: Yes. Enable Remote Login in the same Sharing settings panel and connect with any SSH client from the App Store. Note that Screen Sharing and Remote Login are separate services, so turning one on does not turn on the other. Servey includes a genuine shell in the same app as the screen, one tap apart, so you do not have to switch between two apps.
Is controlling my Mac from my phone secure?: It depends entirely on how you connect. VNC over your own Wi-Fi is reasonable; VNC forwarded to the public internet is not, and should be avoided. A VPN or an app with end-to-end encryption between your own devices are both sound. Servey only pairs devices under your own account and encrypts the stream end to end between them when you are away from home.

Servey puts your Mac in your pocket. Launching soon.