Access Your Mac From Anywhere

Pair once, on your own network. After that, your iPhone and Mac find each other wherever you are.

The short version. The first pairing needs the two devices to share a network, or a scan of the Mac's device-ID QR code. Every connection after that works from a hotel, a train, or someone else's Wi-Fi: your two devices try a path straight between themselves first, and fall back to a relay only when the network will not allow one.

How the two devices find each other

Both ends sit behind networks that will not admit unsolicited traffic, so both connect outward to a relay that introduces them. Once introduced, they try a path straight between themselves; if that is not possible, the relay keeps carrying the session. The session screen says which one you got: LAN, RELAY or DIRECT·P2P, so you are never guessing.

The relay itself runs from a single location in Finland today, so a relayed session adds more of a delay the further you are from it, most noticeably from other continents. That is a starting point rather than a fixed one: more locations get added as usage grows past what one can carry well.

What the relay can and cannot see

Your devices encrypt the connection end to end and never give the relay the keys. That protects video, audio, keystrokes, pointer input and clipboard text whether the devices connect directly or through the relay.

What it does handle: device identifiers, your Mac's name, technical compatibility information, the plan in use, and relay usage needed to provide the connection. It sees the address each device connects from, as any server does, and hands each of them the other's so they can try that direct path. The full detail is in the Privacy Policy.

Keeping a Mac reachable while you're out

A Mac that has gone to sleep cannot be reached until something wakes it, which is what the away-from-home switches are for: keep it awake on its own, on a schedule, wake it up once a day, or keep it running with the lid closed. All four are optional and off by default, covered in step two of the pairing guide. Wake on LAN is also built in, for waking a sleeping Mac over the network right before you connect.

What it costs

Reaching your Mac over your own network is free and unmetered, for as long as you like. The relay, for reaching it from anywhere else, is one hour a day free, and unlimited on any paid plan starting at $2.99 a month. Full comparison on the pricing table.

Set it up

The relay path needs nothing extra to set up: pair your iPhone and Mac once, on the same network, and every connection after that already tries the relay when it has to. The pairing guide covers the first pairing itself, including a way to pair without sharing a network at all.

Download Peering for Mac Read the pairing guide