IOWandYour phone is the trackpad.
IOWand turns an iPhone or iPad into a multi-touch trackpad, a keyboard and a gamepad for your Mac or Windows PC. It talks straight to your computer over your own Wi-Fi or Tailscale, with no cloud in between.
- Free, with a one-time Remove Ads purchase
- iPhone and iPad, iOS 17 or later
- Pair once with a 6-digit code
Gestures you already know, translated for each computer.
The trackpad reads every finger separately, so it can tell a scroll from a pinch and a tap from a drag. The host app turns each gesture into what your computer expects: Mission Control on a Mac, Task View on Windows.
Scrolling keeps its momentum after you lift your fingers, natural scrolling is a setting, and you can tune pointer speed. If the connection drops mid-drag, the computer lets go of every held button and key straight away, so nothing stays stuck.
| On the phone | On a Mac | On Windows |
|---|---|---|
| Move one finger | Moves the pointer, with acceleration | Moves the pointer, with acceleration |
| Tap, double-tap, triple-tap | Click, double-click, triple-click | Click, double-click, triple-click |
| Double-tap and hold | Drag | Drag |
| Two-finger tap | Right-click | Right-click |
| Two-finger slide | Smooth scrolling with momentum | Scrolling with momentum |
| Pinch | Zoom in and out | Zoom (Ctrl + scroll) |
| Three-finger swipe up | Mission Control | Task View |
| Three-finger swipe down | App Exposé | Show desktop |
| Three-finger swipe left or right | Switch Space | Switch virtual desktop |
A real keyboard, plus the keys your phone leaves out.
Type with the iOS keyboard you already use. Above it sits a control palette with three pages you swipe between: Keys, Media and System. It speaks your computer's language: Opt and Command for a Mac, Alt and Win for Windows, never a mix.
Interactive control palette. Choose the computer type, then swipe or use the arrow keys to change page. Tap a modifier once for the next key only, twice quickly to lock it.
Tap a key to see what the computer receives.
Turn it sideways for a split keyboard.
In landscape the keyboard splits into two halves at the bottom corners, sized for thumbs, with the palette split above them. Everything else, including the corridor between the halves, stays one continuous trackpad.
Bring your own keyboard on iPad.
A hardware keyboard connected to the iPad passes its keys and modifiers straight through to the computer.
Send your clipboard across.
The Push key sends the text on your phone's clipboard to the computer and pastes it.
Flip one switch and it's a gamepad.
Tap the controller button at the top of the screen and the phone becomes a gamepad with five layouts. In the Touch layout a stick appears wherever your thumb lands and follows it, so you never have to look for it.
- Windows, with ViGEmBus installedThe host creates a virtual XInput-compatible controller that XInput games can use. ViGEmBus is a free third-party driver you install yourself, once.
- Windows without it, and every MacSticks and buttons become keys and mouse movement. Pick the mapping in the host menu: WASD + mouse look, Arrow keys, or WASD + arrow keys. The game has to accept keyboard and mouse.
Sensitivity, dead zone, invert Y and haptics are in Settings. No ads or upsells appear in gamepad mode.
Small things that make it feel native.
Rotation that ignores the rotation lock
Keep the iOS rotation lock on for everything else. In IOWand you choose how the controller turns, and that choice wins over the system lock. Gamepad mode defaults to landscape and puts your previous choice back when you leave.
Control Center buttons iOS 18+
Add IOWand controls to Control Center, the Lock Screen or the Action button. Each one opens the app straight into a mode and connects to the computer you used last.
- Keyboard & Trackpad
- Last Gamepad
- One for each of the five layouts
Several computers, one switcher
Pair several Macs and PCs. The pill at the top left shows which one you're driving and whether it's connected; tap it to switch.
iPhone and iPad
One app for both. On iPad the trackpad is huge, and a hardware keyboard works too.
The real thing.
Screens captured from the app in the iOS Simulator.
Your keystrokes stay on your network.
There is no IOWand server. Your phone connects directly to your computer and nowhere else.
- Local network and Tailscale onlyEvery connection is checked. Anything from outside private home and office address ranges or your Tailscale network is dropped. There are no relays, port forwarding or cloud accounts.
- Pair once, stay pairedClick Pair New Device on the computer, then scan the QR code or type the 6-digit code. The pairing survives restarts, reboots and network changes until you remove the device from the menu bar or tray, or delete the computer in the app.
- Encrypted end to endPairing swaps keys between your two devices only, and every input packet is encrypted and authenticated with standard, published algorithms (X25519, Ed25519, ChaCha20-Poly1305).
- Built for low latencyPointer and key events travel as tiny UDP packets; clicks and key presses are confirmed and resent if one goes missing. In the project's own loopback benchmark, the median one-way time was under 0.2 ms (measured on loopback, so real Wi-Fi adds its own delay).
- Nothing stays pressedIf the phone disconnects, goes to the background, rotates or goes quiet for 1.5 seconds, the computer releases every key and button it was holding.
A quiet helper on your Mac or PC.
The free desktop app lives in the Mac menu bar or the Windows system tray, with no window and no Dock or taskbar icon. It can start when you log in, and every paired device has its own Remove button.
Pair New Device
Tailscale: 100.64.0.5
Menu and pairing window recreated from the Mac app. Names and addresses are examples.
Pair New Device
Tailscale: 100.64.0.7
Tray menu and pairing window recreated from the Windows app. With the ViGEmBus driver installed, Gamepad output also lists the virtual controller.
Set up in three steps.
Install the desktop app
Download the free host for your Mac or Windows PC and open it. It appears in the menu bar or the system tray. On a Mac, grant Accessibility permission when asked so it can move the pointer.
Get IOWand on your iPhone or iPad
Open the app. Computers on the same network show up by themselves; over Tailscale you can type the computer's address.
Pair with the code
Choose Pair New Device on the computer, then scan the QR code or enter the 6-digit code. That's it: from now on the app reconnects on its own.
Free to use. Pay once if ads bother you.
The iPhone and iPad app is free with ads. A single in-app purchase removes them for good, and Restore Purchases brings it back on a new device.
Banner ads sit only on setup screens such as Settings, the computer list and pairing. Full-screen ads are limited to moments between sessions, such as opening the app or after you disconnect. No ad ever covers the trackpad, the palette, the keyboard or the gamepad, or appears while you're connected.
- iPhone and iPad appFree, with ads
- Remove AdsOne-time purchase
- Mac and Windows desktop appsFree, no ads
- Account or subscriptionNone
Get IOWand.
You need the phone app and the desktop app on each computer you want to control.
iPhone and iPad
iOS or iPadOS 17 or later. Control Center buttons need iOS 18.
iPhone and iPadComing soon to the App StoreMac
macOS 14 or later. Menu bar app.
Download for Mac- Unzip and move IOWand to Applications.
- Turn on IOWand in System Settings, Privacy & Security, Accessibility.
Windows
Windows 10 22H2 or Windows 11. Tray app.
Download installer Download portable .exe- Installer: per-user, no admin needed, adds a Start menu entry and an optional start-at-login.
- Portable: run IOWand.exe from anywhere; it lives in the system tray.
- Optional: install the ViGEmBus driver for a virtual controller.
Questions.
Does it work when I'm away from home?
Yes, with Tailscale. Install Tailscale on the phone and the computer and sign them into the same tailnet. The host shows its Tailscale address in its menu and pairing window, and the QR code carries both addresses, so the app can reach the computer at home or away. IOWand never uses a relay server of its own; outside your network and your tailnet it simply doesn't connect.
Why does the Mac app need Accessibility permission?
macOS only lets apps move the pointer and type for you once you allow it. Open System Settings, Privacy & Security, Accessibility, and turn on IOWand. The menu bar item shows whether permission is granted and has a shortcut to the right settings page. If you replace the app with a newer copy, switch it off and on again there.
Windows shows a SmartScreen warning. Is that expected?
For now, yes. The Windows app is not code-signed yet, so SmartScreen may say it doesn't recognise it. Choose More info, then Run anyway, if you downloaded it from this site. The Mac app is not notarized yet either: if macOS blocks it the first time, open System Settings, Privacy & Security and choose Open Anyway.
How do I use Ctrl+Alt+Del and control admin windows on Windows?
Windows only accepts a software Ctrl+Alt+Del when a system policy allows it and the host runs with administrator rights. Do this once:
1. In the tray menu, turn on Run with Administrator Access (Control UAC/Admin Windows). This also lets IOWand control windows that run as administrator.
2. In an administrator Command Prompt, run:reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v SoftwareSASGeneration /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
If something is missing, the app tells you which step when you tap Ctrl+Alt+Del on the System page.
Which iPhone or iPad do I need?
Any iPhone or iPad that runs iOS or iPadOS 17 or later. The Control Center, Lock Screen and Action button controls need iOS 18; on iOS 17 everything else works as normal.
Can I use it as a game controller on a Mac?
Yes, through keyboard and mouse mapping. macOS doesn't allow apps to add a system-wide virtual controller without approval, so the Mac app turns the sticks and buttons into keys and mouse movement. Choose the mapping under Gamepad output in the menu bar. Games need to accept keyboard and mouse input.
How do I get a virtual controller on Windows?
Install the free ViGEmBus driver from its GitHub releases page (this needs administrator rights, once), then restart the IOWand host. It then creates a virtual XInput-compatible controller. ViGEmBus is a separate third-party project that is no longer updated by its author; IOWand doesn't include it. Without it, the host uses keyboard and mouse mapping and shows a one-time notice.
How do I unpair a device?
On the computer, open the menu bar or tray menu, find the device under paired devices and choose Remove. On the phone, delete the computer from the computer list. Pairings never expire on their own.
How do I restore Remove Ads on a new phone?
Open Settings in the app and tap Restore Purchases, signed in with the same Apple Account you bought it with.