# Headroom: Remote Desktop — Your Mac, from anywhere > Your Mac, from anywhere (iPhone/iPad app by Haruhiko Kishi.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/headroom-remote-desktop/id6790331904 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Haruhiko Kishi](https://appshunter.io/developer/942468714) - Category: Utilities, Productivity - Price: Free with in-app purchases - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 17.0 · 6 MB - Languages: American English, Japanese - Released: 2026-07-24 - Data updated: 2026-08-26 - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/headroom-remote-desktop/id6790331904/reviews.md ## What is Headroom? Headroom is a remote desktop for controlling a Mac from your iPad, iPhone, or another Mac. The big idea: nothing to install on the Mac. Turn on macOS's built-in Screen Sharing — that's the whole setup. WHEN YOU WANT IT • Drive the Mac in the next room from the couch • Manage a headless Mac mini — no monitor, no keyboard • Peek at your dev machine or build server from wherever you are • Reach your home Mac from anywhere over a VPN such as Tailscale WHY HEADROOM • Zero install on the Mac Connects straight to macOS's built-in Screen Sharing (VNC). No server app, no agent, no menu-bar daemon. • Finds your Macs automatically Macs on the same Wi-Fi appear instantly via Bonjour. Manual IP connections work too. • Fast, smooth screen Metal rendering plus ZRLE compression — feels real-time on a LAN and stays usable on thin connections. • Touch that makes sense on iPad and iPhone Tap to click, one-finger scroll, long-press to drag and select text, two-finger wheel scrolling, pinch to zoom. • Real mouse behavior on the Mac On a Mac (same app), clicks, drags, and right-clicks pass through 1:1. Option-scroll pans; Command-scroll zooms. • Full keyboard Software and hardware keyboards both work. Modifier keys (⌘⌥⌃⇧) tap once for the next keystroke or double-tap to lock — every shortcut is reachable. • Private by design Credentials live only in your device's Keychain, and passwords are encrypted in transit using Apple's standard Screen Sharing authentication. CONNECTED IN THREE STEPS 1. On the Mac: System Settings > General > Sharing > turn on Screen Sharing 2. Open Headroom — your Macs appear automatically 3. Sign in with the Mac's username and password. Done. HEADROOM PRO The free version limits connection time. Upgrade to Pro — a one-time purchase, not a subscription: • Unlimited connection time • Every future Pro feature included Buy once, use forever. REQUIREMENTS • Client: iPad / iPhone (iOS 17+), Apple Silicon Mac • Host: any Mac with Screen Sharing enabled (no extra software) • Same network; for internet access we recommend a VPN such as Tailscale — Headroom is built by MusicFlow ("music × engineering") — the tool we made to run our own headless Mac minis, polished into something we use every day. ## Pricing and in-app purchases Base price: Free. **One-time purchases** | Purchase | Price | Type | | --- | --- | --- | | Headroom Pro | $4.99 | one-time | ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 1.1.0 — 2026-08-19 Headroom 1.1.0 — A short introduction, a control bar you can actually hit, and a window that remembers its size • A short introduction now appears the first time you open the app, and the "?" button in the connection list brings it back whenever you want it. • On iPhone the control bar sat too close to the bottom edge, so reaching for a key meant hitting the home bar instead. It now sits clear of it. • Resize the window on a Mac and the next session with that Mac opens the same size. Kept per remote, so a Mac mini and a MacBook can each have their own. • A key button has been added to the control bar. When the remote Mac is showing its lock screen, tapping it types the login password and presses return for you — only when you tap, never automatically. It is disabled until a password has been entered. • A connection's details now include an optional field for the remote Mac's login password. Once entered it is stored securely, so you are not asked for it the next time you connect — and it is what the key button types. • The guide now covers the ⇤ ⇥ ⇡ ⇣ buttons that move the view, and how they differ from the ← ↑ ↓ → buttons that send arrow keys to the Mac. ### 1.0.9 — 2026-08-15 Headroom 1.0.9 — Fixed reconnecting after unlocking or returning from the background • Locking and unlocking your iPhone or iPad, or bringing the app back from the background, could show a "check your VNC password" error that had nothing to do with your password. This is now detected correctly, and the app retries automatically after a short pause. • Connection error messages have also been revised as part of this fix. ### 1.0.8 — 2026-08-14 Headroom 1.0.8 — Buttons to move the view on a Mac, a Pro marker, purchase fixes • On a Mac, arrow buttons in the control bar now move the view up, down, left and right while you are zoomed in. Until now the only way was Option + scroll, which was easy to miss. The buttons stay hidden when the whole screen already fits. • With Pro, the control bar shows “Pro” during a session. • Fixed cancelling partway through a purchase sometimes being treated as an error. • When a purchase awaiting approval (Ask to Buy, for example) is approved, the screen now moves on by itself. Until now a completed purchase could still leave disconnecting as the only way out. • Fixed an error appearing when you cancelled the sign-in during Restore Purchases. • Updated the in-app guide, including what it takes to get something copied on this device over to the Mac (same Apple ID, and the two devices near each other). ### 1.0.7 — 2026-08-10 Headroom 1.0.7 — A much better session on an iPhone • Connecting from an iPhone now shows the whole remote screen from the start. It used to open at full size, which on a phone meant seeing only the top-left corner of the Mac. • The control bar has been rebuilt for the iPhone: two rows in portrait so every key is visible, one slim row in landscape. The disconnect button can no longer end up off the edge of the screen. • The control bar now sits flush with the bottom of the screen, instead of drifting upward when you rotate the device or return to the app. • Opening the software keyboard no longer hides the control bar. The bar moves to just above the keyboard, so the key that closes it — and the disconnect button — stay within reach. • The control bar no longer overlaps the remote screen. Its top edge meets the bottom edge of the picture, so a text field or button at the very bottom of the remote Mac can be tapped. • When you have zoomed in, opening or closing the software keyboard and rotating the device now keep your zoom and position. They used to snap the picture back to the whole-screen view you started with, leaving you to zoom in again. • The bar's ⌘ ⌥ ⌃ ⇧ now apply to keys you press on the keyboard, not just to the bar's own buttons. Tap ⌘, press W, and ⌘W reaches the remote Mac — which is how to send shortcuts like ⌘W and ⌘Q that your own Mac would otherwise act on. • If your keyboard has no 英数/かな keys — a US layout, for example — the bar now offers buttons to switch the remote Mac's input mode. They stay hidden on keyboards that already have those keys. ### 1.0.6 — 2026-08-02 Headroom 1.0.6 — Held modifier keys now reach the other side • You can hold ⇧ or ⌘ while you work: ⇧-click to extend a selection, ⌘-click to add to one, ⌥-drag to copy. The things you already do on a Mac now work on the Mac you are connected to. • Control-click arrives as a right click (added in 1.0.5), so context menus work from a one-button mouse or a trackpad without secondary click. • On a Mac, pinch zoom-out now stops at the size that fits the window, instead of shrinking the remote screen into a black border. • An auto-hidden Dock on the remote Mac now appears when you push the cursor against the bottom of the window — and the menu bar in full screen works the same way. • The free tier's connection time is now a daily total rather than a per-connection timer, and the session bar shows how much of today is left. ## More apps by Haruhiko Kishi - [Home Rhythmique: Kids Music](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/home-rhythmique-kids-music/id1076496309) - [Cube by MusicFlow](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/cube-by-musicflow/id6766549951) All apps by Haruhiko Kishi: https://appshunter.io/developer/942468714 --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-26.*