← Reach Desktop

Changelog

Every release, in plain English: what's new, what's better, and what got fixed.

v0.58.155September 8, 2026
Constant frame rate for a still screen
New
  • Constant Frame Rate, off by default. A Mac screen that is not changing sends no frames, so the viewer's clock idles and the first frame after you move lands late. Turn it on in Session > Constant Frame Rate and the far Mac re-sends its last frame at the full capture rate whenever nothing changed, so the picture stays paced. Identical frames cost little bandwidth. Each Mac remembers your choice; the default for new Macs is in Settings under Bitrate ceiling.
v0.58.154September 7, 2026
Drags from a Mac reach the far Mac exactly as you made them
Improved
  • From a Mac, the session now sends your real pointer sequence: press, drag at 60 times a second, release, with the click count and modifier keys of the press. Double-click-then-drag selects by word, a release outside the picture still lets go, and the right button rides along.
  • A session still connecting after 12 seconds leaves that leg and tries the next one, and the ladder skips a cable that never answers; a Mac-to-Mac session no longer waits at step 1.
  • The Mac stays awake for the session: the display keep-alive fires at 20 seconds, ahead of the measured 30-second shutdown.
  • The menu bar icon is placed so a never-dragged icon cannot land in the hidden zone.
v0.58.153September 7, 2026
Internal test harness only
Improved
  • No change you can see: this build carries a test-harness fix so the layout tests compile with the combined-tiles policy.
v0.58.152September 6, 2026
The absent-host card stays put
Fixed
  • Once the connect card says your Mac is not answering, it stays that way until a picture actually arrives or you press Retry. It used to flip between "hasn't checked in" and "waiting to answer" five times in two minutes while nothing had changed.
v0.58.151September 5, 2026
The connect card tells the truth when the far Mac is not there
Fixed
  • "Signed in, step 2 of 4" no longer stands in for an offline Mac. Step 2 now reads "Connected to Reach, waiting for your Mac to answer", and when no host answers within 20 seconds, or that Mac has not checked in for longer than its own refresh cadence, the card says so in plain words ("hasn't checked in for 41 minutes, it may be asleep or offline"), shows how long you have waited, and offers Retry.
v0.58.150September 5, 2026
A link opens the same session a click does
Fixed
  • A connect link to a Mac you already list now opens exactly the session the device picker would: the native Mac-to-Mac window, trying the cable, the local network, and the relay in order. Measured before the fix, a link-opened session never joined the host's room in 90 seconds, twice, while the same Mac opened from the picker painted in 2.78 seconds. A link to an unknown Mac still works and now records what the native window needs too.
v0.58.149September 5, 2026
Select by word, and gestures that stay yours
Fixed
  • Double-click a word on the far Mac and drag: the selection now extends word by word, and a triple-click drag extends line by line. The drag used to restart the selection one character at a time because it never carried the click count.
  • In an immersive session, a keyboard chord posted by a gesture tool (a BetterTouchTool three-finger swipe sending Command-W, for example) now reaches the far Mac instead of closing the Reach session window.
v0.58.148September 5, 2026
Your quality pick survives a reconnect
Fixed
  • After a dropped link, a Session menu Reconnect, or a restart of the host app, the picture came back at native resolution and your Stream Quality pick was gone. Measured on hotel Wi-Fi: the link ran at 1280 wide with 11.8 ms of encode per frame, the host restarted, and it returned to 3456x2234 at 78.8 to 94.6 ms. The viewer now re-sends your tier, frame rate, color mode, and bitrate ceiling after every rejoin.
v0.58.146September 5, 2026
Your quality picks now reach the Mac from a Mac-to-Mac window
Fixed
  • In a Mac-to-Mac session, Stream Quality, the Faster toggle, the bitrate ceiling, and full color never reached the host: that window has no web page inside it, and every control was being sent to a page that was not there. Measured this morning on hotel Wi-Fi: the viewer recorded Balanced at 10:19am while the host kept streaming its full 3456x2234 picture, with encode time per frame ranging from 22 to 84 ms (mean 63 ms over the 90 minutes read). The controls land now, and Balanced (1920 wide) exists to bring that encode number down.
  • Opening the dashboard during a full-screen session joins that session's Space instead of leaving it behind.
v0.58.144September 5, 2026
Full color, a bitrate ceiling, and a live health strip
New
  • Full color video. Reach now streams 4:4:4 chroma and 10-bit HEVC through its own hardware encoder, negotiated per viewer, so a viewer that can decode it gets it and one that cannot keeps the standard stream. Measured offline on an M1 Max at 3456x2234 with a 20 Mbps target: colored text edges stay within 1.4% of the source, where standard 4:2:0 softens them by 1.9% to 4.3%, and one-pixel color detail keeps 27.6% of its contrast instead of 16.1%. Black text on white is unchanged either way. The cost is bandwidth, 55% to 90% more bytes per frame at the same target, and about 1 ms more encode time per frame. Checked live on a shipped host on September 7: when a viewer declared full color, the host switched to full-color capture and its own encoder, put out a keyframe tagged 4:4:4 by the next one-second log line, encoded 1,693 frames with zero reported errors, and returned to standard color the moment the declaration was withdrawn.
  • Measured on a real session (September 7, Mac to Mac on the home network): the viewer declared full color, the host switched to 4:4:4 within two seconds, and the picture rendered at 53 to 61 frames per second at 3456x2234 for eleven minutes with no fallback; encode ran 16.5 to 18.9 ms at 1920 wide and 20.8 to 54.9 ms at native.
  • Bitrate ceiling. Set it in Settings, or live from the Session menu, and the host stays under a number you chose on a metered or hotel link. Each Mac remembers its own.
  • Session Health strip. A decode, encode, and network readout in the session window, refreshed every 2 seconds, on from the ribbon's tray.
  • Inside an immersive session, Command-Q now quits the app on the far Mac instead of closing Reach.
v0.38.1July 26, 2026
Watch your screen from any browser
New
  • You can now view your Mac screen live from any phone, tablet, or computer on the same Wi-Fi network.
  • Open the web address shown in the host panel on your other device and enter the PIN to connect.
  • No setup or installation is required on the receiving device, and browser viewers cannot control your Mac.
v0.37.0July 22, 2026
Every machine, one window: tabs
New
  • Control several machines as tabs in one window, the way Chrome does. Each device you open joins as a tab instead of its own separate window.
  • Drag a tab out to send that machine to a second screen, or full-screen a tab to give it its own desktop Space. Run three Macs side by side.
  • The tab bar's "+" opens a quick device picker, so a new session is one click. Prefer separate windows? Switch "Each session opens" to "In its own window" in Settings.
Fixed
  • Closed a rare case where two Macs set up from the same disk image could claim the same identity and send the viewer into a connection loop.
v0.36.0July 21, 2026
A quieter way to update
New
  • Updates now confirm themselves with a quiet toast and can go fully silent. Check one box in the update card and every future update installs itself in the background from then on, with no pop-up.
  • The update card links straight to this page, plus a one-line, plain-English summary of what changed.
Fixed
  • Cleared a rare leftover "update ready" notice that could stick around even after you were already on the latest version.
v0.33.0July 21, 2026
Multi-device sessions
New
  • Session Tabs: every device you're connected to shows up as its own tab, so switching between your Mac, a Windows PC, or another Mac mid-session is one click.
  • Control one Mac from another Mac, with the same session controls already available on iPhone.
  • A cleaner, always-visible control bar while you're connected.
Improved
  • Refreshed session icons throughout, plus the new branded "Update ready" moment when a download finishes in the background.
  • A session that goes stale now repairs its own connection automatically instead of asking you to reconnect.
  • Diagnostics moved out of the session window into a tidy Session menu in the menu bar, for a cleaner view while you work.
v0.28.0July 18, 2026
Settings, redesigned
Improved
  • Settings reorganized into six clear, task-focused sections with short explanations, so finding a setting takes one glance instead of a search.
v0.24.0 – v0.27.0July 18, 2026
One home for every device
New
  • A single, unified home window: This Mac, Your Macs, Windows PCs, Nearby devices, Recents, Help Someone, and Settings, all in one sidebar.
  • Pairing a new device now shows a QR code plus a simple code you can read aloud.
Improved
  • Device cards show an honest connection status, on your network, relayed over the internet, or offline, instead of a guess.
  • A run of smaller reliability refinements to keep connections solid.
Fixed
  • A rare startup loop that could leave two copies of Reach fighting over the same window; Reach now always keeps the newest one running.
v0.23.0July 18, 2026
Road Mode
New
  • "On the road" mode: while you're using Reach away from your desk, everything else on your Mac's own screen can consolidate onto the one display you're viewing, so nothing private shows in the room.
  • Automatic quality control for slower connections (Full, Balanced, or Fast), tuned for hotel Wi-Fi or a cellular hotspot, and reset automatically the moment you disconnect.
v0.22.0 – v0.22.6July 17–18, 2026
Sign-in, permissions, and faster setup
New
  • Reach now auto-discovers other Reach devices on the same Wi-Fi, so a nearby Mac shows up live without pairing it first.
  • Rename any device in the "Control a Device" picker to whatever you actually call it.
Improved
  • Sign-in moved to Reach's own domain for tighter privacy and clearer branding.
  • Opening the app now brings up the device picker instead of appearing to do nothing.
  • "Check for Updates" now lives directly in the menu-bar dropdown.
Fixed
  • The real fix for Reach appearing to lose Screen Recording and Accessibility permission after an update: it never actually lost them, and Reach now checks the right signal so it stops asking you to re-grant something you already granted.
  • Settings not opening from the menu bar.
v0.17.0 – v0.21.0July 17, 2026
Control another Mac
New
  • Full keyboard shortcut support (like Cmd+Tab) when controlling another Mac remotely.
  • Reach now runs on more of your own Macs, not just the one in front of you, so a second Mac on your network becomes just as controllable.
v0.16.0 – v0.16.5July 7–10, 2026
Faster, more private, and a shared clipboard
New
  • Shared clipboard: copy on your phone, paste with full fidelity on your Mac (and back again).
  • Every Mac now gets its own private, per-device connection instead of one shared room, so a device only shows up for the person actually paired with it.
Improved
  • Idle battery and CPU use dropped dramatically (roughly 11% down to under 1%) by fully stopping screen capture the moment nobody is watching.
  • Reach now auto-updates itself in the background within a few hours of a new release.
Fixed
  • A version-mismatch bug that could make an already-updated Mac briefly invisible to an older phone.
  • A rare all-black screen after reinstalling or updating the app.
v0.11.0July 1–6, 2026
Stability pass
Improved
  • A long stretch of connection-reliability work, closing several rare overnight disconnects and speeding up how fast a dropped connection heals itself.
  • Viewer mode now forwards Cmd-key shortcuts to the device you're controlling.
v0.9.0 – v0.10.0July 1, 2026
App Focus
New
  • App Focus: stream just the one app you choose, cropped and masked, so only that one app is ever shared.
  • Native-feeling trackpad scrolling with full momentum and gesture support.
v0.8.0June 27 – July 1, 2026
Anywhere + Crisp Zoom
New
  • Anywhere (Pro): reach your Mac from cellular or any network away from home, no VPN, no setup.
  • Crisp Zoom: pinch to zoom in on your Mac's real screen at full resolution, sharp enough to read fine text, instead of a blurry upscale.
Improved
  • The version number moved to a small, out-of-the-way footnote in Settings.
Fixed
  • A recurring all-black screen caused by the display falling asleep mid-session.
v0.1 – v0.6.0June 25–27, 2026
Reach Desktop launches
New
  • The first Reach Desktop host app: menu-bar first, scan-to-connect QR pairing, and a live multi-monitor view.
  • Free forever on your home Wi-Fi; Pro adds reaching your Mac from anywhere.
  • Custom quick-action layouts you arrange yourself, and an installed-apps picker with real icons.
Improved
  • Per-device pairing security, replacing an earlier shared connection key.