Android + Mac · Local only
Your phone,
on your Mac.
Messages, notifications, files, photos, screen and camera — all over your own Wi-Fi, end-to-end encrypted. No cloud. No account. No subscription.
No cloud
Nothing is routed through a server. There is no server.
No account
Pairing is a QR code. No sign-up, no login, no profile.
One-time purchase
Buy the Mac app once — no subscription. The Android app is free.
End-to-end encrypted
AES-256-GCM between your two devices only.
A normal morning
It works before you ask it to.
Nearlink isn't an app you open. It's a connection that's already there — running everything below over the same encrypted local link, no extra setup, no extra service.
7:40
Your Mac wakes up
Nearlink is already listening on your network. There's no app to launch, no window to find.
7:41
Your phone reconnects
It finds your Mac on its own and re-establishes an encrypted link in under a second.
8:05
A text arrives
It lands in macOS Notification Center. You reply from your keyboard without touching the phone.
9:20
Yesterday's photos are here
Nearlink copied them to your Mac over your own Wi-Fi while you made coffee. Nothing went to a cloud.
10:00
A link on the phone
Copy it there, paste it here. The clipboard runs both ways.
A text arrives
8:05It lands in macOS Notification Center. You reply from your keyboard without touching the phone.
Yesterday's photos are here
9:20Nearlink copied them to your Mac over your own Wi-Fi while you made coffee. Nothing went to a cloud.
A link on the phone
10:00Copy it there, paste it here. The clipboard runs both ways.
Communication
Notification mirroring
Phone notifications appear in macOS Notification Center. Dismiss one on your Mac and it clears on your phone too.
Messages
Read, write and send SMS from a native Mac interface — threads, contacts and timestamps included.
Contacts and calls
See your contacts, start a voice or video call, and answer, mute or end an incoming call from your Mac.
Transfer
Files both ways
Browse your phone's storage from your Mac, download what you need, or drop files from your Mac onto your phone.
Photos and videos
Browse by month, select what you want, and pull it across at full quality.
Shared clipboard
Copy on one device, paste on the other.
Control
Screen mirroring
Your phone's screen on your Mac in hardware-encoded H.264 — smooth, not a slideshow.
Remote control
Tap, swipe and type with your Mac's keyboard and trackpad.
And more
Phone as Mac webcam
Your Android camera shows up as a camera source in Zoom, FaceTime and QuickTime.
Automatic photo backup
Every time you connect, new photos and videos copy to your Mac. Incremental, resumable, and entirely local.
Find my phone
Ring it at full volume from your Mac — even on silent.
Communication
Notification mirroring
Phone notifications appear in macOS Notification Center. Dismiss one on your Mac and it clears on your phone too.
Messages
Read, write and send SMS from a native Mac interface — threads, contacts and timestamps included.
Contacts and calls
See your contacts, start a voice or video call, and answer, mute or end an incoming call from your Mac.
Transfer
Files both ways
Browse your phone's storage from your Mac, download what you need, or drop files from your Mac onto your phone.
Photos and videos
Browse by month, select what you want, and pull it across at full quality.
Shared clipboard
Copy on one device, paste on the other.
Control
Screen mirroring
Your phone's screen on your Mac in hardware-encoded H.264 — smooth, not a slideshow.
Remote control
Tap, swipe and type with your Mac's keyboard and trackpad.
And more
Phone as Mac webcam
Your Android camera shows up as a camera source in Zoom, FaceTime and QuickTime.
Automatic photo backup
Every time you connect, new photos and videos copy to your Mac. Incremental, resumable, and entirely local.
Find my phone
Ring it at full volume from your Mac — even on silent.
Privacy
We can't read your messages. Not because we promise —
because there's no server.
Most 'phone on your desktop' apps relay your data through their own cloud. Nearlink has no cloud, no relay and no account system to build one on.
Authenticated key exchange
Your Mac can't be impersonated.
Pairing uses P-256 ECDH, authenticated by the secret in the QR code — so nothing on your network can impersonate your Mac.
Every frame encrypted
Every single message, sealed.
Keys are derived with HKDF-SHA256 and each message is sealed with AES-256-GCM. Forward secrecy comes from ephemeral keys per session.
Nothing to leak
No account, no server, no bucket.
There's no account database, no analytics on your phone, no backup bucket. The data lives on your two devices and nowhere else.
Works offline
Your router is all it needs.
Your router is enough. Nearlink never needs an internet connection to do its job.
How it compares
The difference is where your data goes.
Cloud-based phone companions solve the same problem by putting a server in the middle. Nearlink removes the middle.
| Nearlink | Cloud-based companions | |
|---|---|---|
| Where your data travels | Your Wi-Fi only | Through their servers |
| Account required | No | Yes |
| Pricing | Android free · Mac one-time | Usually a subscription |
| Works without internet | Yes | No |
| Phone as a Mac webcam | Yes | Rarely |
| Automatic photo backup | Yes, to your own Mac | To their cloud |
| Screen mirroring and control | Yes | Sometimes |
Where your data travels
Account required
Pricing
Works without internet
Phone as a Mac webcam
Automatic photo backup
Screen mirroring and control
Setup
Two minutes, one QR code.
No account to create, no server to choose, no configuration to get wrong.
Install both apps
One on your Android phone, one on your Mac.
Scan the QR code
Your Mac shows a pairing code, your phone scans it. That's the entire setup.
It reconnects by itself
Whenever both devices are on the same network, they find each other again. Nothing to open, nothing to press.
Direct download
Try it before Google Play does.
The Android app is free. It's finished and signed, and while Google Play review is still pending, you can install it directly from this page — this isn't a Play Store listing, it's the same app, straight from us.
Android will ask permission to install from an unknown source — that's normal for anything installed outside the Play Store. Allow your browser to install unknown apps when prompted, then continue.
Requires Android 8.0 or later.
The Mac app is on its way to the Mac App Store.
SHA-256 checksum
872484268d03bac778c644400ca526a0eb40f36084c783dc17eb8bc54c87a0b1Verify the file you downloaded matches this value before you install it.
Questions
Before you ask.
Does it need an internet connection?
No. Both devices only need to be on the same Wi-Fi network. Your router is enough — Nearlink never sends anything to the internet.
Do I have to root my phone?
No. Nearlink uses standard Android permissions that you grant in a guided setup, and you can turn any of them off later.
Will it drain my battery?
An idle connection costs very little. Screen mirroring and using your phone as a webcam are the heavy features — those use roughly as much as a video call, and only while they're running.
Does it work with an iPhone?
No. Nearlink connects an Android phone to a Mac. An iPad companion is planned, but the phone side is Android only.
Which versions are supported?
Android 8.0 and later on the phone, macOS 26 and later on the Mac. The phone app is translated into 13 languages.
Where does my data actually go?
Between your phone and your Mac, and nowhere else. There is no Nearlink server to send it to — we never built one, so there is nothing to hack, subpoena or sell.
Can I pair more than one device?
Your phone stores one paired computer at a time. Pairing a different Mac replaces the old link — scanning a new QR code is all it takes.
What if I don't like it?
The Android app is free to download directly from this page (or later from Google Play) — just uninstall it if it's not for you. The Mac app is a one-time purchase through the Mac App Store, where Apple's standard refund policy applies.
Ready when you are.
The Android app downloads directly from this page, right now. The Mac app is on its way to the Mac App Store.