Your phone, the trackpad
One finger moves the cursor and taps to click. Two fingers scroll, or pinch to zoom. Swipe three fingers for Mission Control, App Exposé and your other Spaces.
Your pocket and your menu bar
The phone does the touching. A small, free app on your Mac does the moving: it lives in the menu bar with no Dock icon, shows the pairing code, and has a pointer-speed slider and a switch to pause control.
Set up once
Nearby Macs
MacBook Pro
First, open the app on your Mac.
Nearby Macs
MacBook Pro
Then tap it on your phone.
Enter the PIN shown on MacBook Pro
482913
Type its code once. Your phone remembers it.
Connected to MacBook Pro
Now drag. That's your cursor.
Ask for a code before anyone connects
A 6-digit code from your Mac's menu bar, and TLS encryption on every connection.
Open quietly when your Mac starts
It waits in the menu bar from login, with no window and no Dock icon.
Pause control and stay connected
Turn off Enable control and your phone stays paired while its gestures are ignored.
Add Shift or Command to a remote key
Remap any remote button to any key with ⇧ ⌃ ⌥ ⌘, so Skip can be ⌘→ in your player.
Every gesture you'd
use on a trackpad
Gestures
| One finger | Drag | Moves the cursor |
|---|---|---|
| One finger | Tap | Left click |
| One finger | Tap, then hold and drag | Click and drag |
| Two fingers | Tap | Right click |
| Two fingers | Drag | Scrolls, and coasts on |
| Two fingers | Pinch | Zooms in and out |
| Three fingers | Swipe up | Mission Control |
| Three fingers | Swipe down | App Exposé |
| Three fingers | Swipe left or right | Next or previous Space |
| Thumb on Left | Hold, drag the pad | Click and drag |
| Buttons | Left or Right | Left or right click |
| Remote | Play/Pause | Space |
| Remote | Skip back, forward | ← → |
| Remote | Volume up, down | ↑ ↓ |
| Remote | Mute | M |
| Remote | Fullscreen | F |
Before you ask
Yes: the free Backup Mouse app for Mac, running in the menu bar. It's what moves the cursor. It needs macOS 14 or later, and your iPhone or iPad needs iOS 17 or later.
No. Your phone finds your Mac on the same Wi-Fi network and talks to it directly. Nothing goes through a server.
Not without the 6-digit code from your Mac's menu bar, and every connection is encrypted. You can turn the code off for quicker connecting at home; then anyone on that network with the app can connect, so keep it on anywhere else.
macOS only lets apps with Accessibility permission move the pointer and click. Turn it on in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Accessibility; the app's menu tells you when it's missing.
Swipes and pinches press your Mac's own shortcuts: Control and an arrow key for Mission Control, App Exposé and Spaces, Command and plus or minus to zoom. If a swipe does nothing, the Control-arrow shortcuts are off; turn them back on in System Settings › Keyboard › Keyboard Shortcuts › Mission Control.
Anything that listens to the keyboard: web video players, Plex, Infuse and most others. The remote presses keys in whichever app is in front, so click the player first.
Nothing. There's no account and no analytics, and your gestures never leave your network.
Get both
halves
Install the Mac app and open it, then get the app on your iPhone or iPad. They find each other on your Wi-Fi.
Install Backup Mouse
Two free apps that work as one
- Where
- Beta invites by email
- Requires
- iOS 17 or later
- Works on
- iPhone, iPhone Duo and iPad
- Version
- 1.0, 3.1 MB disk image
- Requires
- macOS 14 or later
- Runs on
- Apple silicon and Intel
- Checked by
- Apple notarization
- SHA-256
- 401dbb881a3135727375eb9335eb61e546df5c06ed82217685509719b92b33fb