A native app on both ends. Install on the Mac, install on the iPad, pair with a 4-digit PIN — sub-5 ms latency, Apple Pencil pressure, Magic Keyboard trackpad, audio in sync. No iCloud, no cloud relay.
Both ends are native SwiftUI — no Electron, no browser tab. The Mac host captures with ScreenCaptureKit and hardware-encodes for 4K 60 fps; the iPad decodes HEVC on VideoToolbox with zero buffering, so on the same Wi-Fi latency stays under 5 ms and glass-to-glass under 20 ms. On a ProMotion iPad Pro that climbs to 120 Hz when the Mac source supports it. Audio routes back in sync, and the clipboard syncs both ways.
Every pixel and keystroke is encrypted end-to-end — the keys never leave your two devices.
The Apple Pencil forwards to the Mac as native tablet input with full pressure, tilt, and azimuth — Procreate, Photoshop, Affinity, and Fresco read 1:1 pen data, nothing averaged or normalized. The Magic Keyboard forwards every key and its trackpad keeps its inertial scroll curve, so two-finger scroll and pinch-to-zoom behave like a real Mac trackpad — and a three-finger swipe on the screen switches between Spaces, just like on a Mac.
Cmd shortcuts, the function row, and modifier keys all land on the Mac exactly as written.
Two installs, one PIN, no account. Average measured setup is 27 seconds; reconnections take about one.
Download the host from remio.net/download — a signed, notarized Developer ID build, so no Gatekeeper right-click needed. Launch it once and grant Screen Recording in System Settings → Privacy & Security. It's up in under two seconds.
Get Remio from the App Store, or open remio.net/download on the iPad. It's a universal binary — the same app runs on iPhone and iPad Pro. Launch it and it opens to a pairing screen with a number pad and a QR scanner.
The Mac shows a one-time 4-digit PIN and a QR code. Scan or type it on the iPad. Pairing uses one-time keys with forward secrecy — no Apple ID, no iCloud, no account. On the local network the connection is direct iPad-to-Mac; a relay is only used, encrypted, when a direct path is blocked.
The iPad and the Mac share silicon and a hardware media engine — Remio just gets out of the way.
On the same network, input-to-pixel latency stays under 5 ms and glass-to-glass under 20 ms. Lost packets trigger a fresh keyframe request rather than a retransmit, so the pointer never falls behind your finger.
Every iPad and iPad Air runs a smooth 60 fps; a ProMotion iPad Pro pushes to 120 Hz when the Mac source can feed it. The stream matches the panel in front of you.
Every iPad since 2017 decodes HEVC in hardware, and Remio uses VideoToolbox with no software fallback — around 8–12% battery over a four-hour session on iPad Pro, the media engine barely warming.
System sounds, music, and video-call audio route back to the iPad speakers or AirPods in lockstep with the video, with frame-level lip-sync maintained.
The larger canvas, keyboard, and Pencil make the iPad the client for real work sessions — not just a quick check.
Build, run, and read the Console over a Magic Keyboard — ⌘B, ⌘R, ⌘. all fire on the Mac. An hour of writing or a design review is genuinely comfortable on the iPad's larger canvas in a way the iPhone can't match.
Brush dynamics — Shape Dynamics, Transfer, Brush Tip Shape — respond to real Pencil pressure and tilt, with your Mac's full plugin library and undo history intact. A two-finger tap is a right-click for the context menus you live by.
Scrub a 4K HEVC timeline with J/K/L, use the Pencil as a jog-wheel substitute in Final Cut Pro, and drive Logic Pro's transport and automation curves by touch — with the monitored audio arriving in sync through AirPods.
Sidecar makes the iPad a secondary display of a nearby Mac signed into the same iCloud. Remio streams the full Mac desktop as the iPad's primary view — over Wi-Fi or cellular, on older iPads Sidecar won't touch, and to any Mac regardless of Apple ID. And if what you actually want is extra screen real estate, Remio can do that too: see how to use the iPad as a second monitor for the Mac.
Same host app, same one-time 4-digit pairing, same end-to-end encryption either way.
Five questions the iPad-to-Mac direction tends to raise — honest answers below.
Sub-5 ms latency, Apple Pencil pass-through, trackpad inertia, audio in sync — free, no account, no card. Average measured setup is 27 seconds.