Tether 1.9

💬 Texts send again

• Fixed: texts sent from the Mac never arrived. Tether was sending them without a recipient, so the phone quietly dropped them. Thanks to everyone on Reddit who reported it.
• New Message now opens right in the conversation pane, like Messages: type a name or number, pick a contact with the arrow keys, and write. If you've texted them before, the conversation's history is right there.
• Dual-SIM phones: a SIM menu next to the send button picks which SIM a text goes out on. Replies use the SIM the conversation is already on. Name your SIMs after their carriers from the same menu.

📞 A call card instead of a banner

• Incoming calls show in a card at the top right with the caller's photo and name, and a Silence button that mutes the phone's ringer.
• Answer on the phone and it shrinks to a small pill with a call timer, and goes away when you hang up.
• Prefer the old banner? Turn it off in Settings › General.
• KDE Connect can't answer or decline calls from a computer, so the card doesn't pretend to.

🖼️ Pictures in notifications, by @ronal2s (#2)

• Notifications show the picture your phone sends with them, such as the sender's photo, in the banner and in the Notifications tab.
• With WhatsApp for Mac running, WhatsApp messages no longer alert twice. Clicking a WhatsApp notification opens WhatsApp for Mac.
• Apps without a picture of their own, like Tailscale or Truecaller, show their icon as a tidy symbol instead of a stretched white shape.
• About app icons: banners always show Tether's icon in the corner. macOS doesn't let apps change it, and your phone doesn't send the app's own icon.

Thank you @ronal2s for Tether's first outside contribution!

🔋 The Mac's battery on your phone

• KDE Connect's device list on the phone now shows your MacBook's charge, and whether it's plugged in.

🔧 Fixes

• Calls now end on the Mac when they end on the phone. Before, "Call in progress" stayed, and music paused for a call never came back.
• Video thumbnails from Safari now show on the phone in KDE Connect's media controls. Album art is sent sharper, up to 1024 px.

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⬇️ Install

Homebrew (recommended; no Gatekeeper prompt):

brew install --cask subhashhhhhh/tether/tether

Or download the disk image for your Mac:

• Apple Silicon (M1 and later): Tether-1.9-AppleSilicon.dmg
• Intel: Tether-1.9-Intel.dmg

Not sure which you have? Apple menu → About This Mac → Chip (Apple Silicon) or Processor (Intel). Tether needs macOS 15 Sequoia or later.

Tether is open source and isn't notarized by Apple, so the first time you open a downloaded copy macOS blocks it. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to Security and click Open Anyway, or run:

xattr -cr /Applications/Tether.app

Already on Tether 1.5.1 or later? It updates itself from Tether › Check for Updates…

Checksums are in SHA256SUMS-1.9.txt.