Pick your platform. The app installs as a PWA straight from the browser — no app stores.
Desktop app with full remote control: mouse, keyboard, audio, clipboard. Runs in the background and starts with the system.
Desktop app with full control: mouse, keyboard, clipboard, locking and shutting the Mac down remotely. Starts with the system.
Not sure which one you have: menu → “About This Mac”. If the “Chip” line says M1…M4, take the top file; if it says Intel, the bottom one.
Or open the web version without installingA desktop app with full control: mouse, keyboard, clipboard, remote lock and shutdown. Runs in the background and starts with the system.
Make the AppImage executable once: chmod +x RudyDesk-x86_64.AppImage. If mouse control does not work, install libXtst — the .deb package brings it along.
Input is unavailable in a Wayland session because Wayland itself forbids it: pick the “Xorg” session at login, otherwise you will see the screen but the mouse will not move.
Or open the web version without installingFull control of a PC from your phone: virtual trackpad, keyboard, monitor switching. What can connect to what
rudydesk.com/appAndroid will ask for permission to install from a file. Updates to such an install have to be downloaded by hand.
Control a PC from your iPhone: virtual trackpad, keyboard, gestures. What can connect to what
rudydesk.com/appTwo steps, without which the Mac will show its screen but refuse to be controlled. It asks only once.
On first open, macOS will say it cannot verify the developer. Nothing is broken: the app is not signed by Apple yet.
Right-click the file → Open, then confirm Open in the dialog. A plain double-click gives you no consent button here.
System Settings → Privacy & Security, then:
If the Mac suddenly stops responding after a system update, check these two switches first: macOS sometimes resets them without saying a word.
Version 0.2.14· released .Every file is signed with the RudyDesk key: the app checks the signature and SHA-256 before installing an update and refuses a tampered file.
| System | Type | Size | SHA-256 | Signature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows · x64 | NSIS (.exe) | 123 MB | 3fa7d258c1081af0348cb34e7b5ca2961d42de2f189142bfb0fbb8d0662eee4d | Yes |
| macOS · Apple Silicon | .dmg | 135 MB | af36bb339a1659c83959793d50205d87d9939b825109f7590475d128d0899c64 | Yes |
| macOS · Intel | .dmg | 141 MB | f01876821daa58d8d6c3b85b6c0b84a1372c1d57306a131a8dd874badd7b9a1c | Yes |
| Linux · x64 | AppImage | 131 MB | c65ed8f367ced089866f934539e3f6814e710dbe61ac935bb5ee7e07cb9049f0 | Yes |
| Linux · x64 | .deb | 101 MB | 06250901bdd86a432e69719d3aa446e7038565a87ee0dfd190dd094359106263 | Yes |
The connection always goes directly between two devices. The only difference is whether a device can answer the call at the moment it is dialled.
| From → to | Works | What you need |
|---|---|---|
| PC or Mac → PC or Mac | Always | Nothing. With the app installed, the computer is reachable even with the window closed — it lives in the tray or the menu bar. |
| Phone → PC or Mac | Always | Viewing works from the browser, nothing to install on the phone. Mouse and keyboard control works if the RudyDesk app is running on that computer — Windows, macOS or Linux — why. |
| PC or phone → phone | Not possible | Mobile browsers (Android and iOS) do not let websites capture the phone screen — a limitation of the systems themselves. In RudyDesk a phone is a remote: you connect from it to a computer. |
Watching someone else’s screen works from any browser. But moving the cursor and typing is only possible from a program installed on the computer being controlled. A browser tab is not allowed to move the system mouse — that is a browser rule, the same for every remote access service.
Someone opened rudydesk.com and shared their screen. You see their desktop, you can chat and send files. Mouse and keyboard do not work, and the app says so plainly.
Good for a quick look at what is on someone’s screen.
On Windows it is a single file, RudyDesk-Portable.exe, with no installer and no admin rights. On a Mac it is the app from the dmg, which needs two permissions once. After that the mouse, keyboard and clipboard work, and nobody has to share their screen every time.
It goes on the computer being controlled. Nothing needs to be installed on the phone you control from.
A phone counts as reachable only while the app is open on screen. Put it in your pocket and it drops off the network within seconds. That is a limit of iOS and Android themselves, not of RudyDesk. There is one way around it: allow notifications so the server can wake it.
Any computer with the RudyDesk app — Windows, macOS or Linux: it lives in the tray or menu bar, starts with the system and accepts connections without anyone present — by password and whitelist.
The web version (PWA) supports every remote control feature too, except autostart and running in the tray.