All your computers and your phone, working as one desk.
Screens, apps, files, clipboard, notifications, mouse and keyboard, shared between Mac, Windows, Linux and Android.
Free and open source.

⬇️ Download · Website · How it works

A second Mac's screen in a window, the Mac's desktop extended onto a tablet, and the phone app. Every screenshot here is from the real app.

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. Send a file from your phone in two taps, and paste on one device what you copied on another.

• Any combination. Mac ↔ Windows, Mac ↔ Mac, PC ↔ PC, Linux ↔ anything, and Android ↔ any computer.
• No account, no cloud. Devices talk directly over your network or a USB cable, on an encrypted link.
• No extra hardware, no root. Install the app on each device and pair once.

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.

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.

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.

Pick any app from the other computer's list and it opens in a moment:

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). 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. Need a shell? ssh twindesk opens one on the other computer, no passwords needed.

Copy on one computer and paste on the other, instantly or when you switch over. Entries from password managers are skipped, and a Recent list keeps the last few things you copied.

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.

The same app on every platform, so a Mac and a PC pair just like two Macs. Here's a Mac connected to a Windows PC, with the PC's apps ready to open on the Mac:

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.

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.

Every app on the phone is one click away from the computer's Phone page, along with its battery, the connection and a button to bring up the whole screen.

Turn a tablet or phone into an extra monitor. Choose Extend to get more desktop space, or Mirror to show what's on your screen. Drag windows onto it, and use touch as the mouse: tap to click, hold to right click, two fingers to scroll. Start it from the computer or from the tablet itself.

Share a photo or a document from any Android app: pick Send to computer or Copy to computer in the system share menu. On the computer, use the macOS Share menu, Explorer's Send to, drag files across the screen edge, or press ⌃⌥C / Ctrl+Alt+C to copy them and paste them anywhere on the phone. Files arrive with a notification you can tap to open.

Copy text on your computer and paste it on your phone, or the other way around. It's instant, it works in the background, and a Quick Settings tile sends the phone's clipboard with one tap.

Push the pointer past the edge of your screen and it carries on onto the phone. Type with your real keyboard in any Android app, scroll with your trackpad, then double-tap the hotkey to come back.

Your phone's notifications show up on your computer as native notifications, and the computer's can show up on your phone. Hide the message text for privacy or mute single apps.

TwinDesk finds your phone on the network by itself and reconnects after a Wi-Fi drop. Plug in a USB cable and it switches over for even lower latency (single-digit milliseconds), then back to Wi-Fi when you unplug. The current link and its latency are always shown at the top of the 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.

You also get Quick Settings tiles (Send clipboard, Wireless debugging), home screen shortcuts to the computer's screen, an ongoing notification with what's connected, and sound in both directions.

1. Download TwinDesk for each computer and your phone from the releases.
2. Open it on both. They find each other on the same network (or over a USB cable for a phone).
3. Pair once by comparing a code. From then on they connect by themselves.

For the phone's screen, apps, touch and mouse, TwinDesk walks you through turning on Android's wireless debugging once (details). Files, clipboard and notifications work right away.

TwinDesk only talks to devices you've paired with, directly over your own network or cable. There are no accounts, no telemetry and no cloud relay. 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.

On Linux, TwinDesk runs on both X11 and Wayland. On Wayland, the mouse and keyboard go through evdev and uinput (the Setup screen grants access once), and screens are captured through the desktop portal. A few things work a little differently:

• Shared folder. Sharing uses Samba. The first time, one password prompt installs it if it's missing and adds a network-only account. The other computer's folder is connected with GVFS and shows in the file manager's sidebar.
• Copy and paste files. Ctrl+Alt+C copies what's selected in the file manager in front (or files you already copied), and Ctrl+Alt+V pastes into the file manager window in front (else Downloads). Right-click › Send to works in Nautilus, Nemo, Caja, Dolphin and Thunar.
• Dragging files across the edge. Files dragged in from the other computer are dropped into the folder under the pointer, or the desktop. On Wayland, they go to the file manager window in front. Dragging files out of Linux needs an Xorg session.
• Extend. On GNOME (Wayland) it uses Mutter's own virtual monitor; pick "Virtual remote monitor" when the desktop asks which screen to share. On X11 it switches on a spare output of the graphics driver (not available on NVIDIA's driver). That needs a small helper, which the .deb installs; with the AppImage, Share screen › TwinDesk virtual display › Install puts it in once, with your password.
• Apps. Opening this computer's apps on the other side needs an Xorg session.
• Android phone. Everything in Android works on Linux too: the phone's screen and apps in windows, the mouse and keyboard across the edge, files, clipboard, notifications and sound. The package carries adb; the Setup screen's firewall fix opens mDNS (5353/udp) so the phone's wireless debugging is found.

Install TwinDesk on the phone, open it next to TwinDesk on the computer and pair from Overview › Nearby. The phone needs Android 10, and Android 11 for everything that goes through wireless debugging.

The app is laid out like the computers' (a sidebar on tablets, tabs at the bottom on phones), and every page names the computer it's connected to:

And outside the app:

• Share sheet: Send to computer and Copy to computer in every app's Share menu.
• Quick Settings tiles: Send clipboard and Wireless debugging.
• Home screen shortcuts: the computer's screen, and wireless debugging on in one tap.
• The ongoing notification shows what's connected, with Exit.
• Copied on the computer: files copied with ⌃⌥C / Ctrl+Alt+C arrive as a notification with Copy (paste them in any app) and Save.
• The computer can install the full app over wireless debugging (Phone page › Notifications from the phone): Play Protect blocks downloaded apps that read notifications, so the download leaves that out and the computer adds it. Settings and pairing stay.

Files, the clipboard and notifications work right away. The phone's screen, its apps in windows, touch, your mouse and keyboard on the phone and its sound go through wireless debugging, which TwinDesk pairs with once:

• Until it's paired, a card under the connected computers on Overview (on the computer and on the phone) walks you through it. Open Developer options › Wireless debugging › Pair device with pairing code on the phone and type the 6-digit code on the computer, or on the phone in TwinDesk's notification (Settings' dialog stays open). The phone sends the code to whichever computer it's connected to: Mac, PC or Linux.
• After that TwinDesk switches wireless debugging on by itself when it needs it, follows it to its new port every time it restarts, and keeps the pairing from expiring (Android otherwise forgets a computer after 7 days unused). Phones that switch it off on every Wi-Fi change or screen lock (MIUI, HyperOS) get it switched back on as soon as they're unlocked, or a prompt if they refuse. Wireless debugging only runs while USB debugging is on too, so TwinDesk turns both on.
• Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO also need Developer options › USB debugging (Security settings) for touch, mouse and keyboard (it asks for a Mi account). Without it the screen shows but input is refused; the computer's Phone page says "Touch blocked" until it's on.
• On a Mac, the phone in Finder. Turn it on in the Mount tab and click Mount: the phone shows under Locations like any server. Until then TwinDesk never looks at the phone's files. It goes through the cable when USB debugging is allowed, else over wireless debugging. Finder's .DS_Store and ._ files never land on the phone.

Each computer runs an Electron app, which handles the window, pairing, the link and the state machines. Next to it runs a small native helper for everything the OS keeps to itself: capturing and injecting input, virtual displays, gestures, window capture and native drag and drop.

Ports: TCP 47800 (control link) and UDP 47801 (discovery) on the local network.

You need Node.js 18+ on every platform.

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.dmg in mac/dist/

On first launch, TwinDesk asks for Screen Recording, Accessibility and Input Monitoring (once; after that the General tab shows each permission's status).

npm run dist signs the app with a certificate of its own, made the first time in ~/.twindesk-signing (keep a backup). macOS keeps permissions per signature, so with the same certificate they carry over when an update is dragged into Applications. An app built without it is signed ad-hoc, and macOS treats every update as a new app; TwinDesk then clears the stale entries so Allow works again.

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)

npm run dist also works on a Mac or Linux: it skips the helper build and packages the macshare-winhelper.exe already in windows-helper\bin\ (for example, one taken from a release).

The installer adds the firewall rules (for every network profile, so a standard account on a Public network doesn't need an administrator later). The Setup screen, shown once, offers to fix the firewall if something changed (that needs an administrator) and to install the optional Virtual Display Driver for Extend.

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/

The Setup screen walks you through the rest. On Wayland that means input access (one admin prompt, then log out and back in once). It can also install OpenSSH for the terminal. Extend on GNOME Wayland uses Python 3 with GObject and GStreamer's PipeWire plugin (python3-gi, gstreamer1.0-pipewire), which GNOME desktops already have.

linux/scripts/vm-test.sh runs it in a Parallels Desktop Linux VM (Ubuntu with the packages above and Node.js): it copies this checkout into the VM, builds the helper, starts TwinDesk in the VM's desktop session and drives it from the Mac.

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

On the VM's shared network it finds the Mac's TwinDesk and pairs like any Linux computer.

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

standard is the build people download. full adds notification access, which Play Protect blocks in downloaded apps; the computers install it over wireless debugging (Phone page › Notifications from the phone), so npm run dist on each platform bundles the newest android/dist/*-full.apk.

Build Android, Build Linux and Build Windows (Actions tab › Run workflow) make the standard and full APKs, the AppImage and .deb, and the x64 and arm64 installers, helpers included. Set the ANDROID_KEYSTORE secret to the key the Android app is signed with (base64 -i ~/.android/debug.keystore): the APKs then install over existing ones, and the Linux and Windows builds carry the full Android app. Without it the APKs get the runner's own key and the computers' builds leave the Android app out.

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.