MeowDisplay Is iPhone Mirroring, but in Reverse
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Hey HN and Cats, thank you for checking this out!Github: https://github.com/raiseCatError/meowdisplayEDIT 2: I should've mentioned that MeowDisplay started as a fork of OpenDisplay: https://github.com/peetzweg/opendisplay which provided the foundational screen capture, virtual display, encoding and iPhone/iPad receivers. I've since taken it in a more phone-first direction, with work on the interaction, streaming and security layers. I've credited OpenDisplay and its developer Philip in the README under "Built on OpenDisplay".MeowDisplay is my take on the control your Mac from your phone scene. Available on iPhones, iPads and Macs, with Android rn in closed testing.The website has interactive illustrative demos if you'd like to see the app demonstrated.I think MeowDisplay does a few things differently, some of which I prefer and you might too.Such as Window view: allowing multiple tabs in split-screen type panes. Traditional Mirror/Extend views exist as alternatives. Floating windows: coming in the 2.1 release.Touch input approaches: Direct Touch(Classic or Natural), experimental Smart Touch, and Trackpad mode alongside Apple Pencil support. Doesn't sacrifice display space for a trackpad, use all of the phone's screen with your preferred mode.Stage Peek: shows a scrollable and searchable list of your Mac's windows on your phone along with an app drawer when you hold and pull on the left edge of your screen.It's free and open source so you can try it and see if it's for you without having to commit to it or anything.EDIT: I've used MeowDisplay during development whilst I was travelling between cities, left my acbook at home clamshell, powered, external display attached, and used it for small tasks remotely, it was pretty reliable even on a 5G network on a moving bus.Meow, Jai
HN · launched Nov 9, 2026 · 120 upvotes (top 10%) · 0 views
Niche: screen mirroring and casting software · 76 launches, 9 in the last 7 days ▼ -18% · Explore this niche →
Category and tags
- Horizontal
- Prosumer
- Not AI
- Commercial product
Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗
More like this: all 76 launches in screen mirroring and casting software →
Could you build this?
Partial The UI, pairing, and settings can be vibe-coded, but low-latency screen capture, virtual display creation, hardware video encoding, and touch/input forwarding depend on macOS private and system-level APIs that AI assistance alone won't reliably produce.
What it would actually take: Start from the OpenDisplay fork: a macOS app using ScreenCaptureKit or CGVirtualDisplay for virtual displays and VideoToolbox for hardware H.264/HEVC encoding, streamed over USB or Wi-Fi to an iOS receiver. The hard parts are latency tuning, display-mode and permission edge cases, and maintaining compatibility as Apple changes private APIs, which calls for macOS systems and media-pipeline expertise.
Discussion
20 comments analyzed.
Competitors mentioned: Sill, RustDesk, NoMachine, OpenDisplay, Sidecar
Concerns raised: Keeping Mac awake may drain battery, Wake only works on local network, README lacks screenshots, Sidecar requires shared Apple ID
Feature requests: Wake shut-down Mac over Tailscale, Android client support, Screenshots in README, Windows access to iMessage window
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one : 621 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #88 of 622 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 376 days after the earliest competitor.
- iphone-mirror-windows · github · 2026-11-08 · 153 upvotes · similarity 0.58
- HomePlay · ph · 2026-11-13 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.55
- Beaming · ph · 2026-11-02 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.53
- MirrorAct · github · 2026-10-08 · 15 upvotes · similarity 0.52
- Spatial Display · ph · 2026-09-26 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.52
- zenlink · github · 2026-11-03 · 58 upvotes · similarity 0.51
- DuoScreen · ph · 2026-10-31 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.51
- Phone Mirror · ph · 2026-10-17 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.50
The niche, labels, vibe code rating and competitor comparison on this page are analysis by Nicheloom. If you use them, please credit nicheloom.com. How you may use our data.