A native iOS app — not a browser tab. Multi-touch drives a native Windows pointer, the iOS keyboard sends real Windows scancodes, and it runs on Windows Home. No RDP, no Microsoft account, no VPN.
Remio is 100% SwiftUI — no WebView, no JavaScript bridge, no Electron in the rendering path. Video hardware-decodes through VideoToolbox onto a Metal-backed layer, so a 4K 60 fps stream costs well under 5% CPU on any iPhone since the XS. A separate, prioritized input channel means your taps always beat the next video frame — even on a saturated cellular link.
Sub-5 ms on the same Wi-Fi, under 40 ms on a direct link across the internet.
Windows assumes a mouse; the iPhone has none. So the whole screen becomes an indirect trackpad — one finger drives the pointer, a tap clicks where it rests, a two-finger tap is a right-click, and two-finger scroll spins the wheel. Pinch zooms the streaming canvas to hit a small control, and a persistent cursor with synthetic hover keeps modern Windows UI honest. Pair a Bluetooth mouse or keyboard to the iPhone and both forward as native Windows input.
The iOS keyboard maps every key to a real Windows scancode — Ctrl, Alt, Shift, the Win key, and shortcuts like Alt+Tab or Win+L.
Two installs, one PIN, no account. No VPN, no firewall rules, no port forwarding — the host never opens an inbound port.
On the PC you want to reach, download the Remio host from remio.net/download and run it. It's a signed, user-mode installer — no kernel driver, no system-wide service, admin rights only for the install itself. Works on Windows 10 and 11, Home editions included.
Search "Remio" in the App Store (iOS 16 or later), or open remio.net/download on the phone to land on the App Store page. The download is around 35 MB. Launch it — no signup, no email confirmation. It opens straight to a pairing screen with a number pad and a QR scanner.
The host shows a one-time 4-digit PIN and a QR code. Scan or type it on the iPhone. Remio picks the best route automatically — a direct peer-to-peer path on the same network, or an encrypted relay if a direct path isn't available. The PC is one tap away from then on, no PIN to retype.
A phone is the device most likely to be on cellular or a captive-portal Wi-Fi. Remio is built for exactly that.
On a metered link the stream continuously probes and adapts within a 300 Kbps to 15 Mbps envelope. Bitrate drops before frame rate does, so you keep 60 fps and never get the 30 fps stutter.
Every iPhone since the XS (A12 Bionic, 2018) decodes H.265 in hardware. A 4K 60 fps stream runs at a few percent of CPU with the battery barely warming — no software fallback, no thermal throttle.
Peer-to-peer NAT traversal punches through without port forwarding or a VPN profile, and the host never opens an inbound port so your PC is never exposed to the internet. A relay fallback carries the session when a direct path is impossible.
Every session is end-to-end encrypted with no setting to disable it. The keys live only on your two paired devices and never reach a server — even Remio cannot decrypt your stream.
A six-inch window is enough for the jobs that only take minutes — and those are most of them.
The export in Premiere, the compile, the batch encode — start it from the elevator and it's running by the time you reach the street. Glance at the progress bar from anywhere, as often as you like, without carrying a laptop for the privilege.
A quick edit in a workbook, an installer waiting on a click, a wedged Windows service that just needs a restart. Connect, do the forty-second thing, pocket the phone — instead of it waiting until you're back at the desk at 11 PM.
No VPN client to install, no router homework, no port to open. The work PC answers over cellular or hotel Wi-Fi with the same one-tap connection you use at home — and the session stays end-to-end encrypted the whole way.
Microsoft's RDP host is Pro-only — Windows Home can't accept incoming Remote Desktop connections at all, and the usual fix is a ~$99 Pro upgrade. Remio brings its own native host, so Home works out of the box, with no account and encryption on by default rather than as a setting. See how it stacks up against RDP, Chrome Remote Desktop, TeamViewer, Parsec, and AnyDesk on the compare hub.
No Pro upgrade, no Microsoft account, no exposed port — free, on the edition you already have.
Five questions the iPhone-to-Windows direction tends to raise — honest answers below.
Install the Remio host on the PC, install Remio on your iPhone, pair once with a 4-digit PIN — free, no Microsoft account, no card.