AnyDisplay

Turn any Android phone or tablet into a second monitor, touch screen and pen tablet for your Mac or Windows PC.

USB or Wi-Fi · hardware H.264 / HEVC · pressure-sensitive pen · encrypted pairing · open protocol

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Closed-source apps such as SuperDisplay, Duet Display and spacedesk already turn a tablet into a second screen. Most of them support only one desktop OS and keep their protocol private. AnyDisplay is a free, MIT-licensed alternative:

• One Android app works with both a Mac and a Windows PC.
• A real extended display, not a mirror. On macOS AnyDisplay creates a virtual monitor of the device's resolution, so you can drag windows onto it.
• Open, documented protocol with a Python reference implementation and test vectors, so anyone can write a client or a host for another platform.

Website & setup guide →

Features

🖥️ Display	Extended or mirrored desktop, HiDPI (Retina) on macOS, up to 120 Hz, follows device rotation
🎞️ Video	Hardware H.264 and HEVC on both ends, low-latency encoder and decoder settings, at most 3 frames in flight, keyframe on request
✍️ Pen	Pressure, tilt, hover, eraser and barrel button. Batched samples keep strokes smooth
👆 Touch	Direct multi-touch (up to 10 fingers on Windows), trackpad mode with tap, drag, two-finger scroll and momentum, pen-only mode, palm rejection
⌨️ Keyboard	Hardware keyboards and the on-screen keyboard, including non-Latin text. Toolbar shortcuts for undo, redo, copy, paste and Esc
🔊 Audio	Computer audio plays on the device
🖱️ Cursor	Drawn on the device as a separate layer, so it stays sharp and responsive
📋 Clipboard	Text clipboard sync in both directions
🔒 Security	P-256 key exchange, a 6-digit code to compare when pairing, AES-256-GCM on every Wi-Fi frame
📡 Discovery	Finds devices with Bonjour / mDNS on Wi-Fi and with adb on USB

Performance

Measured on a Huawei P30 Pro (2340×1080, HiSilicon HEVC decoder) with a MacBook Pro host:

Link	Frame rate	Dropped frames	Decode time	Round trip
USB (adb forward)	60 fps	0	5–7 ms	~3 ms
Wi-Fi, encrypted	60 fps	0	5–8 ms	7–20 ms

How it works

flowchart LR
    subgraph Host["Mac or Windows PC (host)"]
        VD["Virtual display"] --> CAP["Screen capture"]
        CAP --> ENC["Hardware encoder<br/>H.264 / HEVC"]
        INJ["Input injection<br/>pen · touch · keys"]
    end
    subgraph Client["Android device (client)"]
        DEC["MediaCodec decoder"] --> SURF["Full-screen surface"]
        IN["Touch, pen and<br/>keyboard events"]
    end
    ENC -- "video, audio, cursor" --> DEC
    IN -- "input events" --> INJ

Loading

1. The Android app listens on TCP port 47820 and announces itself over mDNS (_anydisplay._tcp). Over USB, the host reaches the same port through adb forward.
2. The host connects. Both sides do an ECDH key exchange. The first Wi-Fi connection asks you to confirm a 6-digit code on both screens; later connections use the stored pairing secret.
3. The host creates the virtual display, captures it, encodes it in hardware and streams it. Input travels back on its own channel, so a big video frame never delays a pen stroke.

The full wire format, handshake and key schedule are in docs/PROTOCOL.md.

Download

Download	For
AnyDisplay.apk	The Android phone or tablet (Android 8.0+)
AnyDisplay-macOS.zip	Mac (Apple silicon and Intel, macOS 14+)
AnyDisplay-windows-x64.zip	Windows 10 (1809) / 11, experimental

These links always serve the newest version. Checksums and older versions are on the releases page.

For a guided first connection and common fixes, see the setup guide. USB requires Android SDK Platform-Tools on the computer and a data-capable USB cable.

1. Android: open the APK on the device and allow installing from that source. For USB, also turn on USB debugging in the developer options.
2. Mac: unzip and move AnyDisplay.app to Applications. The app is not notarized yet, so macOS blocks the first launch: open it once, then choose System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. Or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/AnyDisplay.app. AnyDisplay lives in the menu bar.
3. Windows: unzip and run anydisplay-win.exe list, then anydisplay-win.exe usb or anydisplay-win.exe connect <device IP> from a terminal. See windows/README.md.

Open the app on the device, then connect from the computer. The first Wi-Fi connection shows the same 6-digit code on both screens; accept it on both.

Build from source

1. Android app

Requires Android 8.0 or newer.

cd android
./gradlew assembleDebug
adb install -r app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk

Open AnyDisplay on the device. For USB, enable USB debugging in the developer options.

2a. Mac host

Requires macOS 14 or newer and Swift 6.

cd macos
scripts/bundle.sh                         # builds build/AnyDisplay.app, a menu bar app
open build/AnyDisplay.app

Or use the command line:

swift run anydisplay discover             # list devices on Wi-Fi and USB
swift run anydisplay usb                  # connect over USB
swift run anydisplay connect 192.168.1.20 # connect over Wi-Fi; the first time, compare the code

Grant Screen Recording (for the display) and Accessibility (for touch, pen and keyboard) in System Settings → Privacy & Security when asked.

2b. Windows host

Requires Windows 10 (1809) or newer and Rust. Install the open-source Virtual Display Driver to get an extended display; without it, AnyDisplay mirrors a monitor.

cd windows
cargo build --release
target\release\anydisplay-win.exe list
target\release\anydisplay-win.exe usb

See windows/README.md for options and driver setup.

Project layout

Path	What	Stack
android/	Client app	Kotlin, MediaCodec, Material 3
macos/	Mac host: CLI and menu bar app	Swift, CGVirtualDisplay, ScreenCaptureKit, VideoToolbox
windows/	Windows host	Rust, DXGI Desktop Duplication, Media Foundation, synthetic pointer input, WASAPI
docs/PROTOCOL.md	AnyDisplay Protocol v1
tools/anydisplay_ref.py	Reference host and client, test vector generator	Python, cryptography, ffmpeg

Testing

(cd macos && swift test)
(cd windows && cargo test)
(cd android && ./gradlew testDebugUnitTest)

python3 -m venv tools/.venv && tools/.venv/bin/pip install cryptography
tools/.venv/bin/python tools/anydisplay_ref.py vectors | diff - tools/vectors.json

All three implementations check themselves against tools/vectors.json. The reference tool can also stand in for either side of a live session:

tools/.venv/bin/python tools/anydisplay_ref.py host 127.0.0.1:47820   # streams an ffmpeg test pattern to a device
tools/.venv/bin/python tools/anydisplay_ref.py client                 # acts as a device for a host under test

Status

AnyDisplay is young. What has been tested:

• Android client ↔ Mac host: tested end to end on real hardware (Huawei P30 Pro, MacBook Pro) over USB and Wi-Fi: pairing, encryption, video and touch. Audio, cursor and clipboard were each verified against the reference implementation.
• Windows host: a community report confirms USB connection, handshake and hardware HEVC streaming at 2200×1440 on a TCL NXTPAPER 11 Plus (Android 15). Other Windows features still need device testing. See PR #3.
• Pen input: verified with on-device tests that use synthetic stylus events. It still needs a test with a real stylus device.
• USB accessory (AOAP) transport: implemented but untested.

Tested devices

These are specific test reports, not a guarantee for every feature or device.

Android device	Host	Verified	Source
Huawei P30 Pro	MacBook Pro	USB and Wi-Fi video, pairing and touch; 60 fps at 2340×1080	Maintainer testing; measurements above
TCL NXTPAPER 11 Plus (9469X), Android 15	Windows 11	USB discovery with an empty serial, handshake, hardware HEVC stream at 2200×1440	@dionisvl, PR #3

Tried another device? Send a device report. Real stylus pressure/tilt, Windows touch, audio and clipboard need more hardware reports.

Roadmap

• Notarized macOS app and a Windows installer
• Google Play and F-Droid listings
• Linux host
• Several devices connected to one computer at the same time
• iPad client

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md. Any change to the protocol must update docs/PROTOCOL.md, the reference implementation and tools/vectors.json together.

License

MIT