Apperture

Overview

Apperture is designed to show and control windows from a Mac that you own. Before an iPhone or iPad can view or control Mac apps, it must be paired with that Mac and approved by the Mac owner.

Pairing

Pairing starts on the Mac. The Mac owner chooses Pair Phone, then Apperture shows a QR code that expires after two minutes. The iPhone or iPad scans the QR code and sends a pairing request, but access is not allowed until the Mac owner explicitly approves the device.

The QR code is short-lived and single-use. It proves that the device is physically near the Mac at pairing time; it does not grant ongoing access by itself.

Remembered Devices

Successful pairings are remembered on both devices. Pairing trust is stored in the device Keychain and is not synced through iCloud. A user can pair more than one Mac with an iOS device, and a Mac can trust more than one device.

On Mac, revoking a phone prevents future access from that phone.
On iPhone or iPad, forgetting a Mac removes saved trust and connection details for that Mac.

Private Network Access

Apperture allows paired devices to connect only over private networks, such as local Wi-Fi, private VPNs, and Tailscale-style tailnet addresses. Public internet endpoints are rejected by the app.

Active Sessions

When a paired device connects, the Mac shows the trusted device state and can stop live view or revoke access. A paired device can choose from streamable windows currently running on the Mac.

The Mac keeps a local 30-day session history for owner review. The history records which paired device connected, when it connected, the private network kind, and selected app or window names. It does not record keystrokes, pointer movements, video frames, screenshots, or window contents.

Permissions

Apperture asks for permissions only to provide the remote window experience.

Local Network to discover and connect to the paired Mac.
Camera on iPhone or iPad to scan the Mac pairing QR code.
Screen Recording on Mac to capture the selected Mac window.
Accessibility on Mac to send approved input to the selected app.