Everything Reach Desktop does, and how to check it

Real screen as hardware video

HowThe Mac captures its display with ScreenCaptureKit, encodes it on the graphics processor as H.264 or HEVC video in real time, and streams it over Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC), the same approach Parsec and Moonlight use for game streaming.

CheckDrag a window or play a video on the Mac: motion stays smooth, and a dropped packet is concealed by the protocol rather than freezing the picture.

Full 4:4:4 color

HowWhere the viewer can decode it, Reach's own encoder sends 4:4:4 HEVC. Measured offline at 3456x2234 and 20 Mbps, colored text edges stay within 1.4% of the source (standard 4:2:0 softens them 1.9% to 4.3%), and one-pixel color detail keeps 27.6% of its contrast instead of 16.1%. Stream Quality and a bitrate ceiling let you pick the balance.

CheckOpen colored syntax-highlighted code on the Mac and zoom in on the viewer: red and blue text keeps clean edges.

Server-side zoom

HowWhen you pinch, the Mac re-crops the stream at native resolution, so the zoomed region arrives as new, sharper pixels rather than an enlargement of the ones already on your screen.

CheckPinch into small text: it sharpens a moment after the pinch settles.

Every monitorPro

HowA picker shows each of the Mac's displays as a live, labeled thumbnail; tap one to switch mid-session.

CheckOn a Mac with two displays, open the picker and switch between them.

Mac audioPro

HowThe Mac's sound streams alongside the video.

CheckPlay a sound on the Mac and hear it on the iPhone or iPad.

Tap to click, trackpad, full keyboard

HowA tap clicks exactly where you touch. A relative trackpad mode adds momentum scrolling for precision. The keyboard sends compound chords such as Command-Space, and a quick-actions dock holds the shortcuts you choose.

CheckTap a button on the Mac; then switch to trackpad mode and scroll a long page.

Voice into any Mac text field

HowTap a Mac text field and speak; the words land in that field on the Mac. The voice bar follows the focused field around the screen, and the keyboard appears on its own when a field is focused.

CheckTap a Mac text field from your iPhone, dictate a sentence, and read it on the Mac.

Virtual Mac keys on iPad

HowOn iPad, a deck adds the Mac shortcuts iPadOS reserves for itself: Command-Tab, Mission Control, Spotlight, Show Desktop, Screenshot, Right Click and Clipboard, each sending the Mac's own chord.

CheckOn an iPad Pro 13-inch in landscape, tap the app switcher key: the Mac's Command-Tab switcher opens.

App Focus

HowPick one app (Claude, Codex, Cursor, a terminal, a render). The Mac crops the stream to that app's windows and masks everything else black on the Mac, before a single pixel is encoded. Reach remembers the choice per Mac. Phone Shape resizes that app's window to the aspect ratio of the screen in your hand.

CheckTurn on App Focus with a second app open beside it: only the chosen app reaches your phone; the rest is black.

Face ID session lock and encrypted transport

HowSessions are gated behind Face ID on iPhone and iPad. On your home network the Mac and iPhone connect directly; away from home the stream is encrypted in transit through a relay that only forwards packets and stores nothing.

Direct at home, automatic anywherePro

HowAt home the connection is direct over your local network. Away, on cellular or overseas, Reach fails over to a private relay on its own within seconds. The Mac publishes to both paths from one capture, so the handoff costs nothing.

CheckStart a session on home Wi-Fi, turn off Wi-Fi on the iPhone, and keep watching over cellular.

Set-and-forget host

HowA menu-bar app on the Mac shows Off, Ready or Connected, starts at login, and a watchdog restarts it if it stops.

CheckQuit the host app and watch it come back.

One sign-in, every device

HowSign in once with Google or Apple. Devices and the Pro unlock belong to your account, so a new Mac takes a sign-in, and adding a device is a QR code scan. One Pro unlock covers iPhone and iPad.

A dedicated layout for every screen

HowEvery iPhone gets the full Mac edge to edge, with controls folded into the corners. iPad Pro 13-inch and iPad Air 13-inch get a keyboard deck under the Mac's screen: the Mac ribbon over a row of virtual keys. 11-inch iPads get one slim function row. The iPad mini keeps the Mac full screen with a slim control rail on its right edge. The layout is chosen from the measured space on the screen, so Split View and Stage Manager windows get the right one too.

CheckRotate an iPad mid-session, or resize it in Stage Manager: the layout changes with the space. Full list: every iPhone, iPad and Mac.