Phone Remote: Your Phone as a Remote Control for Your PC

SlyPilot Pro. This feature is part of SlyPilot Pro, the optional one-time purchase (the free SlyPilot works without it). It is locked until you enter a licence: tray icon > Help and Backup > SlyPilot Pro... opens the window with the Buy button and a box for your licence key. The key is activated online once (no account), and Pro then works offline for up to 30 days between automatic renewals; an offline licence file works too.

Your phone is already in your hand. SlyPilot Phone Remote turns it into a trackpad, a keyboard, a microphone, a window switcher, a second Touch Bar and a view of your PC's screen, over your own Wi-Fi, with nothing to install on the phone. Scan a code once, open a web page in Chrome, and your PC is in your pocket.

   ┌──────────────────────┐        your own Wi-Fi         ┌───────────────────────────┐
   │   Phone (Chrome)     │  encrypted, paired, local     │   PC running SlyPilot     │
   │                      │ ───────────────────────────►  │                           │
   │  Home · Pad · Talk   │                               │  Touch Bar buttons, mouse │
   │  Win · Screen · AI   │ ◄───────────────────────────  │  keys, windows, dictation │
   │  Tools               │   pictures, state, requests   │  voice commands, AI, screen│
   └──────────────────────┘                               └───────────────────────────┘
         a web page, no app                       no cloud, no account, no relay server

Local by design. The remote works on your private network only. There is no cloud service, no account and no relay server in between: the phone talks straight to your PC. It is off until you switch it on, and every phone has to be paired with a code shown on your own screen.

✨ At a Glance

🚀 Set Up in About a Minute

1. On the PC: tray menu → Utilities → Phone Remote → Pair a Phone... The first time, SlyPilot explains what it does and asks if you agree.
2. Choose what the phone may do: Everything (the default: your PC, your phone), Everything except protected windows and risky keys, Buttons and media only (a guest), or Run a presentation.
3. On the phone (same Wi-Fi): point the camera at the code and open the link in Chrome. Chrome warns once that the connection is not private, because your PC makes its own security certificate. Tap Advanced, then Proceed.
4. Name the phone. Done. From now on, opening the page reconnects by itself. Add it to your home screen from Chrome's menu to open it like an app.

The pairing code works once and only for 2 minutes. A fresh one appears by itself while the window is open.

Read the full Phone Remote guide, with troubleshooting →

🖱️ Pad: A Trackpad With Real Gestures

• Tap to click, tap then drag to drag, two fingers to scroll (sideways too) or tap with two fingers to right-click.
• Pinch to zoom (sent as Ctrl + wheel), three fingers sideways to flip virtual desktops, three fingers up for Task view.
• A scroll strip along the right edge scrolls with one finger.
• Pointer acceleration: slow movements stay precise, a fast swipe travels further. Speed, scroll speed, pad height, natural scrolling, tap-to-click and vibration are all adjustable and remembered on the phone.
• Sticky modifiers: tap Ctrl, Alt, Shift or Win once for the next key, twice to hold it until you tap it again. Rows for Esc, Tab, Enter, arrows, F1-F12, Copy / Paste / Undo, Alt+Tab, Show desktop, Snip and Task Manager.
• Presentation panel: big previous / next buttons, Start (F5), From here, End, and a timer.

🖥️ Screen: A Remote Desktop in Your Pocket

The Screen tab shows a picture of one of your monitors, live if you like, and lets you work on it.

• Zoom that stays sharp: pinch into a corner of a big monitor and the PC sends that part of the screen in more detail, so small text is readable.
• The PC's pointer is drawn on the picture, so you always see where you are.
• Live view that is polite: at most five pictures a second, one in flight at a time, slower while nothing changes, paused when you leave the tab or lock the phone.
• Picture quality: Fast, Balanced or Sharp. Multi-monitor PCs get a Screen picker.
• Keyboard and Keys: open the phone keyboard to type on the PC, or use the key panel (Esc, Tab, arrows, Win, Alt+Tab, Copy / Paste...).
• Full screen: hide everything but the picture; turn the phone sideways for the biggest view.
• Save the picture to your phone as a PNG.
• Protected windows stay black (see below) unless you give a phone the unrestricted permission.

Your Touch Bar, on the screen

Tap the Touch Bar on the picture and it works like it does on the PC. Hold a hold-to-talk button and it stays pressed for as long as your finger does; tap a toggle button and it toggles. The Peek Pill, the radial menu, the snap card and the window peeker work the same way. SlyPilot's settings and approval windows are never clickable from the phone.

🎙️ Talk and Type

• Hold to talk or tap to start / stop (for long dictations), with a level meter and a timer so you know you are being heard.
• Dictate types what you say into the window in front on the PC, using your word list, per-app rules and (if switched on) the polish step. Command runs what you say as a SlyPilot voice command ("snap left", "new desktop"); anything risky still asks you to confirm.
• Live typing: a text box on the phone whose text appears on the PC as you type, with Enter and a "new line" button. A second box sends a whole text at once. Google's keyboard microphone works in both.
• The page always tells you which program the typing and dictation will go to.

Speech is recognized on the PC with your own speech engines, not in the cloud. See Offline AI Speech & Dictation.

🔎 Home: Every Command, Your Touch Bar, Volume and Media

• A search box for every SlyPilot command: the same list as the command palette and the voice engine. Type "snap left" or "new desktop", tap the result. Your last six commands stay under the box for one-tap repeats.
• Your Touch Bar buttons for the program in front. They change when you change program, and hold-to-talk buttons are always released if the phone disconnects.
• A real volume slider with mute, play / pause / previous / next, the microphone mute with its live state, and desktop buttons.

🪟 Win: Windows at Your Fingertips

• Every open window with the desktop it is on. Tap one to see a preview and a menu: bring it forward (switching desktop if needed), snap it (halves, thirds, corners, centre, next screen), maximise, minimise or restore.
• Show on screen: brings the window forward and opens the Screen tab zoomed to exactly that window.
• A phone never closes a window, and password-manager windows are not listed unless the phone is unrestricted.

🤖 AI and Agent Requests

• AI actions on a selection: select text on the PC, then Fix, Polish, Shorten, Summarize, Explain, Draft reply, Translate, or type your own instruction. The answer shows on the phone and on the PC; copy it, replace the selection, or insert it. It uses the model you set up for AI actions; a model on your own PC keeps the text on your PC.
• Approve your agents from the phone: if you use AI coding agents through SlyPilot's MCP / Agent API, their requests for approval or questions pop up on the phone as a card with Allow once / Deny or the answer buttons. It is the same answer as clicking the card at the PC. The phone vibrates when one arrives.

🧰 Tools: Clipboard, Files, Power

• Clipboard both ways: put text on the PC's clipboard, paste it there, or fetch what is on it. A clipboard marked sensitive by a password manager is not read out to a normal phone.
• Send files and photos from the phone to the PC (they land in Downloads\From phone, up to 200 MB; programs and scripts are refused unless the phone is unrestricted).
• "Send this to my phone": say it (or pick it in the command palette) and SlyPilot sends what you are looking at: the files selected in Explorer, else the selected text, else the address of the page in your browser. Text arrives with Copy, a link with Open, a file with Save (up to 200 MB; it goes to the phone's downloads when you tap Save).
• Send Files to Phones... and Send Clipboard to Phones in the tray do the same for a file you pick or the text on the clipboard.
• Notices: when a timer ends, a transcript or meeting notes are ready, or a screen recording is saved, the phone buzzes and shows it, so you can walk away from the PC while it works. They reach the phone while the remote page is open on it; switch them off in Paired Phones.
• PC power: lock, screen off, sleep; restart and shut down wait 20 seconds and can be cancelled from the phone.

🔒 Built to Be Safe

Controlling a PC from a phone deserves careful design. Here is what protects you:

• Off until you switch it on, and it only answers devices on your private network, never the internet.
• Pairing with proof, both ways. The code on your screen is single-use and expires after 2 minutes. The phone and the PC each prove they know it, so a stranger on the same Wi-Fi cannot pose as your PC. All traffic is encrypted (TLS), and the PC's certificate is created on your PC and protected for your Windows user.
• Permissions per phone. Buttons, media, trackpad, keyboard, voice, windows, AI, screen, clipboard, files, power, agent approvals, and an unrestricted level. Change them any time; a connected phone is told at once and its tabs appear or disappear. Remove a phone and it is cut off immediately. Give a phone a time limit if you like.
• Protected windows. Password managers and similar windows show black in the screen view, are not listed, and cannot be typed into or clicked unless a phone has the unrestricted permission. SlyPilot's own settings and approval windows, and Ctrl+Alt+Del, are never reachable.
• Pause or end everything: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F12 stops every phone (and every AI agent) at once, and Disconnect All Phones and Turn Off in the tray menu ends every connection and closes the port. A small indicator is on screen while a phone is connected.
• A new phone is never silent. The moment a phone pairs, a small window on the PC asks "A new phone was paired. Was that you?" with It was me and Remove it now. It stays until you answer; closing it with Esc only postpones the question to the next start.
• It switches itself off when forgotten. If no phone has connected for 30 days (you can change that), the remote turns itself off and tells you.
• Safety rails: a phone that goes silent or disconnects lets go of any held mouse button or key; a connection that floods the PC is dropped; connections that say nothing or drip in slowly are cut off, and rate limits and size limits apply to every message. The helper is also tested against hundreds of random and malformed requests and messages (a five-minute run of almost 1,900 cases without a single failure), and its TLS settings and security headers are scanned with a script whose report is kept in the repository.
• Private by default: the log records only that a phone connected or disconnected. Typed text, keys, audio and spoken words are never written to it.
• Windows rules still apply: like any normal program, the remote cannot send input to programs running as administrator, to the sign-in screen or to the lock screen.

How it works inside → · Privacy details →

✅ What You Need

• A PC running SlyPilot on Windows 10 or 11, and a phone on the same Wi-Fi.
• Chrome on Android is what the remote is built and tested with, and the only browser it is supported with. It has not been tested with an iPhone or other browsers, so no support is claimed for them.
• Nothing installed on the phone, no account, no subscription.

Some pieces use features you set up separately: dictation and the Talk tab need a speech engine, and AI actions need a model. Everything else works as soon as you pair.

Next Steps

• Phone Remote guide: setup, every tab, permissions, troubleshooting →
• Use cases: presenting, couch control, hands-free →
• The Touch Bar → · Voice commands → · Agent automation →