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2026

Remote Gaze

Remote Gaze

Your whole Mac, in hand, on iPad and iPhone

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Overview

Remote Gaze is a remote desktop for Apple devices. It streams a Mac's screen as hardware-encoded video to an iPad or iPhone and returns touch, keyboard, trackpad, clipboard and dictation as the Mac's own input. Two apps work together: Gaze Host, a free Mac app downloaded from the project's site, and Remote Gaze for iPad and iPhone on the App Store. The site states that devices pair once with a six-digit code and then talk directly to each other, with no account and no server in between, at home or from another network. This case study covers both the apps and the marketing site.

A tilted iPad on a black page showing a design tool streamed from a Mac, with a device switcher reading iPad Pro, iPhone Duo and iPad mini beneath it
The Specs section shows the product working: a design tool streamed from a Mac, with a device switcher underneath.
Full-bleed photograph of a Mac mini on a wooden shelf with the headline Your Mac mini's best friend, and three icon columns starting below
The headless Mac mini story gets its own full-bleed image, followed by three short statements: no display, no cloud, all of its power.
Headline Pair once, then just pick it up, beside a phone mock-up of a six-digit pairing screen and three numbered steps: Pair, Connect, Control
How it works reduces setup to three steps and shows the pairing screen as a phone mock-up that animates through each step.
Four dark cards titled Cloudless, Encrypted end to end, Your device holds the key, and You stay in charge, with key phrases highlighted in an orange-to-purple gradient
Privacy gets its own section of four cards, with the key phrase in each picked out in the brand gradient.
Choose your device: a MacBook showing a Mac desktop above a switcher reading iPad, Mac and iPhone, with the Gaze Host card beginning below
A device switcher presents the two-app setup: Gaze Host on the Mac, Remote Gaze on iPad and iPhone.

Who We Designed For

Mac owners who want to use their Mac from an iPad or iPhone, at home or away

  • Mac mini owners running headless

    The site's "Go headless" section pitches a Mac mini with no display or keyboard, reached from an iPad or iPhone.

  • People using their Mac away from home

    The "Wherever you are" section walks through home, a café, an airport and cellular use.

  • Privacy-conscious users

    The "Private. By design." section leads with no accounts, no servers in between and keys held on the user's own devices.

Tech Stack

  • Swiftlanguage
  • SwiftUIframework
  • Metalframework
  • VideoToolboxframework
  • ScreenCaptureKitframework
  • Network.frameworkframework
  • XcodeGentool
  • TypeScriptlanguage
  • Next.jsframework
  • Reactframework
  • Tailwind CSSframework
  • Vercelplatform
  • Claudeai

On Mobile

Mobile home screen with the headline Your Mac. In hand., an iPad showing a Mac desktop, and a bottom tab bar reading Highlights, Specs, Steps, Compare
On mobile the top links become a bottom tab bar, and the hero headline stacks onto two lines.
Mobile layout of the Pair once section with a phone mock-up of the six-digit pairing screen above the first numbered step
The pairing mock-up keeps its full size on a phone, ahead of the numbered steps.
Headline One Mac. Every screen. above frames of an iPad, a MacBook and two other devices all showing the same Mac desktop, with the caption Shown at their true relative sizes
The device line-up reflows to a single column, and the site notes the frames are shown at true relative sizes.

Process

  1. Spec and core buildSept 18 to 21, 2026

    A design spec approved on Sept 18 set the first goal (a Mac's screen on an iPad, with input going back, at 60 FPS and low latency on a local network) and a priority order for trade-offs: input responsiveness, then connection reliability, security, visual clarity, frame rate and bandwidth. Over Sept 19 to 21 the work added the Mac host app, the iPad client, app mode, clipboard sync, audio, file transfer, iPhone support, per-device pairing keys and reaching a Mac from another network.

  2. Landing pageSept 27 to Oct 3, 2026

    The site started from create-next-app on Sept 27, with a first landing page the same day and device frames the next. Most of the page took shape on Oct 1: the copy was rewritten, and the Highlights carousel, the Specs section that zooms out from a full-bleed screen, the Compare device switcher, the animated How it works and a hero where the iPad tilts back on scroll all appear in that day's commits. Oct 2 added the download, privacy, support and FAQ pages.

  3. Security controls and first runOct 1 to 3, 2026

    Oct 1 added Face ID before reaching a Mac from away, a device-bound key in the Secure Enclave, a connection history, a per-device idle timeout and a privacy curtain for Macs with a monitor. Oct 2 added welcome pages and holding screens for missing Mac permissions, a review pass before App Store submission, and a notarized Gaze Host download with update checks. The larger pieces each have a dated design spec in the repo.

  4. LaunchOct 20 to Nov 4, 2026

    On Oct 20 the site's beta sign-up was replaced by a link to the App Store listing, and a social preview image and metadata were added. On Nov 4 robots.txt, a sitemap, canonical links, structured data and an llms.txt file were added so search engines and AI agents can read the site.

AI Collaboration

Tools

Claude

Approach

Claude is credited as co-author on nearly every commit across the apps and the landing page. The larger pieces of work have dated design specs and implementation plans, and several specs were committed before the code they describe.

Features

Picture and input

  1. Hardware-encoded HEVC video, with full-resolution 4:4:4 color when the Mac and the device both support it
  2. A Sharpest or Smoothest choice for the picture, or Automatic
  3. App mode reshapes one Mac app to fill the iPad or iPhone at the device's own resolution
  4. Direct Touch: tap what is under the finger, swipe to scroll, hold to drag, or switch to a trackpad
  5. Tap areas grow around small Mac controls while the picture stays as it is

Connecting

  1. Pair once with a six-digit code shown on the Mac
  2. Paired Macs appear in the app on their own when on the same network
  3. Away from home, Gaze Host asks the router to open a port that changes every ten minutes, or a VPN such as Tailscale or WireGuard can be used
  4. The app reconnects on its own after a network change or a Mac restart
  5. Works over cellular on iPhone

Privacy and control

  1. No account, no analytics and no cloud relay, according to the site
  2. A random 256-bit key for each paired device; removing a device stops its key working
  3. Away from home, Face ID, Touch ID or the passcode is asked for first, and the device key lives in the Secure Enclave
  4. The Mac keeps a history of every session, file and turned-away try
  5. Idle disconnect, and a mode that blacks out a monitor and ignores the Mac's own keyboard and mouse

Everyday use

  1. Clipboard and files both ways, including dragging files onto the Mac's picture
  2. The Mac's sound plays on the iPad or iPhone
  3. Dictation lands as typed text on the Mac
  4. Gaze Host gives a Mac mini with no display a screen of its own
  5. Welcome pages on first launch, and holding screens that explain which Mac permission is missing

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