PhoneDeck
Turn your iPhone into a free Mac controller
355 followers
Turn your iPhone into a free Mac controller
355 followers
You already own a StreamDeck. It's your iPhone. PhoneDeck turns your iPhone into a fully customizable Mac controller, media controls, app launcher, custom buttons, all on your phone's screen. No hardware. No subscription. Free. Built by a solo developer in 7 days because I needed it myself. Works out of the box. No setup headaches. Download Now: Phonedeck.io
PhoneDeck
the graveyard of phone as controller apps is full of tools that died the moment the screen locked or ios killed the background app. how does PhoneDeck survive those two? does the connection hold with the phone screen off? and since it is free with no subscription, what keeps it maintained six months from now when apple ships an os update that breaks something? solo dev in 7 days is impressive but the 7 months after is what i am curious about.
PhoneDeck
@thenameisarian This is a very fair concern. PhoneDeck reconnects when the iPhone returns to the foreground, but iOS can suspend networking after the phone is locked, so I don’t want to pretend it can permanently bypass Apple’s background restrictions. Connection reliability, sleep/wake recovery, and OS-update compatibility are priorities for me. The first version took seven days, but I’m treating the months after launch as the real work.
"No setup headaches" is the part that will make this or break this for me. Every Mac controller app I've tried needs some combo of permissions or network config that breaks the first time your router restarts. If it actually just works out the box that's worth the download by itself.
PhoneDeck
@owen_parker4 Completely agree that promise only matters if it survives real networks, router restarts, and Mac sleep/wake. PhoneDeck uses local discovery, so installing both apps and approving the required permissions should be enough. I’m currently putting most of my effort into reconnect reliability and making failure states much clearer when a network blocks local discovery. I would love for you to try it out..
That's clever. Do you plan to support app-specific button profiles, or is it always global?
PhoneDeck
@dhiraj_patel5 Yes app-specific profiles are a major part of the vision. I’m currently building context-aware pages that can automatically switch when you open a particular Mac app or supported website. The goal is for users to customize those profiles and choose exactly which controls appear for each workflow.
Reusing the phone I already own instead of buying a StreamDeck is the right insight, and shipping it free in 7 days because you needed it yourself is the kind of small utility I like. Before I map custom buttons to shortcuts, the thing I'd want to know is how the phone actually talks to the Mac: is it a direct local connection over the LAN (or USB), or does it route through a cloud relay? For a controller I'd much rather it stay on-device with nothing leaving my network.
PhoneDeck
@hi_i_am_mimo PhoneDeck communicates directly between the iPhone and Mac on the local network. There is no cloud relay, account dependency, or remote server carrying your commands.
Local-first design is important for more than privacy: it also means lower latency, fewer external failure points, and continued ownership of the workflow. A button controlling your Mac shouldn’t need to travel through somebody else’s server first.
"You already own a Stream Deck. It's your iPhone." That's a great opening line. How's the latency over WiFi compared to USB? I'd mostly use something like this for video editing shortcuts, so it really comes down to whether pressing a button feels instant.
PhoneDeck
@chielephant That’s the right test—controls only feel useful when pressing them feels causally connected to what happens on screen. Tap-to-action latency is currently under 300 ms over the local connection, which keeps ordinary shortcuts and media controls feeling immediate.
USB could offer even greater consistency for latency-sensitive workflows such as editing, but I see that as a separate future connection mode rather than something PhoneDeck supports today. The larger goal is to make the response disappear from the user’s awareness: you press, and the Mac acts.
context-aware profiles that automatically surface the relevant buttons for the active app or website, while still letting the user remain in control of what appears is something still in the prototyping stage would love to get your review on it when it comes out.
@vanshmparihar Kudos !! Works like a charm, even on a iPad. Saves money on a Elgato. I agree with some of the comments, you need to charge it as this an app in need.
Requests - Scale to ipad ratio, Have 3 default configs - AI - Design - Music etc. free on iphone but Charge for custom setups, like 3x4 grids or iphone etc.
PhoneDeck
@roopesh_donde Thank you especially for testing it on iPad. I agree that simply stretching an iPhone interface would waste what the larger screen can offer. Proper iPad support should mean larger and flexible grids, richer profiles, and more room for workflow-specific controls not merely bigger buttons.
PhoneDeck will remain free while it is being developed and the complete product is taking shape, but I’m not promising that every capability will remain free permanently. A sustainable paid model could support deeper customization while still giving people an accessible way to experience the core idea. Your AI, Design, and Music profile suggestion is also strong because good defaults help users understand the product before asking them to build everything themselves.