Panelift questions

Reading, typing and deciding in a few windows. Spreadsheets, documents, plans, support queues, admin and code all fit, as long as the app runs on your Mac.

No. That isn't what it's for. There's no sound, and frame rates are ceilings your connection decides.

It depends what you can leave behind. If you have a Mac that can stay on at home and you're usually online, an iPad mini, a foldable keyboard and a case with a stand is about as small as it gets: see the smallest remote work setup. If you need sound, offline work or file transfer, take a laptop.

Yes. It has to be on, awake, logged in, unlocked and online for as long as you're using it from elsewhere. Your Mac is doing all the work.

Locking the Mac ends your session, and Panelift can't unlock it. You'll need to stop it locking itself, which means anyone at that Mac can use it. Put it somewhere you trust.

No. In Panelift's settings, Keep this Mac awake while sharing stops idle sleep. If the Mac does sleep, it needs waking at the Mac.

Someone has to log in before Panelift can start. Open Panelift at login handles the rest. After a power cut or an update restart, you're stuck until someone can do that.

Yes, if it stays awake. Closing the lid normally sleeps a MacBook, and then Panelift can't reach it. A Mac mini on a shelf has an easier time.

No. The host is Mac only, running macOS 26 or later.

Yes. Its screen isn't blanked and its keyboard isn't disabled. Whatever you do remotely appears on the Mac's display.

Yes. Pair each one, then switch between them from the home screen.

Any on-screen window from a regular app, and any display. Each window opens cropped to itself.

macOS only reports windows that are on screen, so one that's minimised or on another Space won't appear. Some small panels and helper windows aren't listed either. Use Desktop to reach them.

On iPad, two in Split, or up to four in Free layout. On iPad mini, Free layout is landscape only, and the iPad mini remote desktop page covers its layouts. On iPhone, one at a time. Whichever you're using, the rest of your windows are one tap or swipe away.

Zooming and arranging happen on your device, so your Mac's windows stay the same size and in the same place. When you interact with a window, it comes to the front on your Mac, the same as clicking it there.

You can watch several at once, but one takes your input at a time. Tap another to switch.

It zooms, but doesn't reflow. A wide window stays wide. If you want it larger, make it narrower on the Mac.

Yes. Desktop shows any full display, with a tab for each one.

No. Panelift's connection service introduces your devices, and your Mac can ask your router for a port by itself if the router allows it.

No. Video, input and clipboard text go directly between your paired devices over an encrypted WebRTC link. The connection service sees only what it needs to introduce them, and How it connects lists exactly what.

Sometimes. Panelift needs a direct route between your devices, and some networks block it. There's no relay to fall back on. A phone hotspot is the usual plan B, and even that depends on the mobile network. Test before you rely on it.

Your session stops and Panelift keeps retrying until it's back or you disconnect. Your Mac carries on with whatever it was doing. Anything you were typing as it dropped isn't saved up and replayed.

Your device and Mac can connect over the same Wi-Fi, but the connection service needs internet access to introduce them. And if you're offline away from your Mac, nothing can reach it. That's the one thing a laptop does better, and it's a big one.

It depends on your connection and how far away your Mac is. We haven't published benchmarks. Panelift shows the round trip in milliseconds while you work, and Sharp text, Smooth motion and Low power set the ceilings: up to 30, 60 and 15 fps.

On mobile data or a hotspot, each window is capped at 5 Mbps, which is about 2.25 GB in the worst-case hour. In Low Data Mode it's 1.5 Mbps, about 675 MB. Static windows should use less, though we haven't published measurements. Figures are on How it connects.

Yes. Keyboards, mice and trackpads connected to your iPad or iPhone drive the Mac, including hover, right-click, drag and two-axis scrolling.

Mostly. Most go to the Mac. iPadOS keeps a few system shortcuts for itself, and ⌘` opens Panelift's Recent windows instead of going to the Mac.

As a precise finger. It can tap and drag, but no pressure or tilt reaches the Mac, so it isn't a drawing tablet.

Xcode, Safari and Terminal have their own. Every other app gets Undo, Copy, Paste and Save. The Mac app's menus are available in the strip along the top for all of them.

No. Sound stays on the Mac.

No. Keep using whatever you already use to sync them.

Plain text does, in both directions, up to 100 KB. You can turn it off in Settings. iOS may ask you to allow the paste, and the Mac skips items that apps mark as concealed, such as passwords from many password managers.

No. Devices identify each other with keys stored on them, and you approve each new device on your Mac.

Not yet. It has automated protocol and service tests, but no independent audit or penetration test so far. It can control your logged-in Mac, so pair only devices you trust.

Remove it from your trusted devices on the Mac. Until you do, whoever has it and can unlock it has access, because Panelift has no separate passcode or Face ID check of its own.

The camera is only for scanning the pairing QR code. The microphone isn't used.

The Mac app is free. Each device you control it from is a one-off payment, with no subscription. Everything's free during the beta, and we'll publish the price before charging anything.

Settings has Share Log on iPhone and iPad, and the Mac's menu bar has Export Diagnostic Log. It contains device names and network addresses, never keys or passwords.