A native app on both ends. Install on the Mac, install on the iPad, pair with a code — about 8 ms of processing latency, Apple Pencil support, 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 you get about 8 ms of processing latency — the rest is the display's own 60 Hz refresh cadence — measured internally. 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.
Point, tap, and scroll with Apple Pencil — its fine tip makes it easy to hit small controls and place a text cursor exactly in dense Mac UI. 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 six-digit code and a QR code. Scan or type it on the iPad. Keys are negotiated directly between your two devices — 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, the processing pipeline — capture, hardware encode, the LAN hop, hardware decode — costs about 8 ms; the rest is your display's own 60 Hz refresh cadence, so your tap lands before the next frame draws (measured internally). 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, hardware-decoded 60 FPS — buttery motion that 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.
Point and click your way through brush pickers, layers, and menus with the Pencil's precise tip, 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. For pressure-sensitive brush work, run the app natively on the Mac.
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 six-digit pairing code, same end-to-end encryption either way.
Five questions the iPad-to-Mac direction tends to raise — honest answers below.
About 8 ms of processing latency on LAN, Apple Pencil support, trackpad inertia, audio in sync — free, no account, no card. Average measured setup is 27 seconds.