Tablet Bridge

Tablet Bridge turns an Android tablet into an extended display for macOS over USB-C or a local Wi-Fi network. It includes a Swift macOS host and a Kotlin Android client, with hardware-accelerated video, touch input, wireless QR pairing, a virtual display, and tablet brightness control.

This is an independent fork maintained by tverma101. It was derived from tranvuongquocdat/SideScreen and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the upstream maintainer. See UPSTREAM.md and NOTICE.md.

Project status

This repository is a source release and development fork. Builds are not notarized or distributed through an app store by default. Hardware support, latency, color, and refresh behavior vary by Mac, Android tablet, cable, and network. Read the warnings in the installation section before using it with important work.

Features

• USB-C transport through ADB reverse forwarding.
• Wireless LAN transport with one-time QR pairing and a locally generated authorization token.
• A true macOS virtual display rather than a mirrored screenshot.
• H.265 with H.264 fallback where the Android device has no usable HEVC decoder.
• Touch forwarding, rotation/flip controls, HiDPI options, adaptive capture cadence, and tablet brightness control.
• Local diagnostics and test tools; no project analytics, ads, or account service are included in this source tree.

The sidescreen:// pairing scheme and several internal compatibility keys are retained so that the fork can interoperate with compatible existing peers. The display name, app bundle identity, Android application ID, repository links, and public support surface are distinct from upstream. Internal Swift module names and source package paths remain unchanged where changing them would break compatibility or unnecessarily enlarge the fork's first release.

Requirements

	macOS host	Android client
OS	macOS 13 Ventura or newer	Android 8 / API 26 or newer
Hardware	Apple Silicon or Intel Mac	Hardware H.265 decoder recommended
USB	USB-C port and adb	USB-C cable and USB debugging enabled
Wireless	Same local network as the tablet	Camera permission for QR pairing

The Mac host needs Screen & System Audio Recording permission to capture the virtual display. Wireless mode needs Local Network access. The Android client requests camera access only for QR scanning and uses network access to connect to the Mac host.

Build from source

Clone the repository after it is published:

git clone https://github.com/tverma101/TabletBridge.git
cd TabletBridge

Build the macOS host:

security find-identity -v -p codesigning
./scripts/build_mac.sh

The build requires an Apple Development signing identity. It creates TabletBridge.app and a versioned DMG in the repository root; those generated artifacts are ignored by Git. Install the exact bundle with:

./scripts/install_mac.sh --launch

Build the Android client:

cd AndroidClient
./gradlew assembleDebug

Or use the repository wrapper:

./scripts/build_android.sh

The release script uses a debug signing configuration for local artifacts. Replace it with your own release key and distribution process before shipping an Android build to other people.

First run

1. Start TabletBridge.app on the Mac and grant Screen Recording when macOS asks.
2. For USB, enable Android USB debugging, connect the cable, and tap Connect.
3. For wireless, select the Wireless tab, scan the QR code displayed by the Mac host, and connect while both devices are on the same trusted LAN.
4. Reset the pairing token before giving away or retiring a Mac that was paired with a tablet.

Do not expose the wireless listener to an untrusted network. The pairing token is an access credential for the local streaming and control endpoints.

Validation

Run the local unit tests with:

./scripts/dev-test.sh

The repository also contains focused transport, capture, lifecycle, and quality-lab tools. A passing unit test does not prove that a particular Mac, Android decoder, cable, display, or Wi-Fi network will work.

Privacy and safety

The host captures the selected macOS display and sends frames to the paired Android client. It can also receive touch and brightness commands. Pairing tokens, settings, and diagnostics are stored locally by the respective app. The source tree contains no first-party analytics, advertising SDK, crash reporter, or hosted account backend. Camera frames are used for QR scanning; they are not intentionally uploaded to a Tablet Bridge server.

See PRIVACY.md, TERMS.md, and SECURITY.md for the project policies and their limitations.

Contributing and support

• Read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a pull request.
• Use GitHub Issues for reproducible bugs and feature requests.
• Do not put credentials, pairing tokens, private logs, or personal data in a public issue. Follow SECURITY.md for vulnerabilities.

License and attribution

The source is distributed under the MIT License, subject to the copyright and license notices that accompany inherited and third-party components. The upstream project is credited in UPSTREAM.md; the Qualcomm shader includes its own BSD-3-Clause notice. See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md for the direct dependency inventory and review obligations.

This project is not affiliated with Apple, Google, Android, Samsung, Qualcomm, GitHub, or the upstream SideScreen project. Their names and marks belong to their respective owners; see TRADEMARKS.md.