Bring one Mac window onto another Mac

A Numbers report appears beside Mail and Notes as a separate window. It stays visible while you answer a message or consult a note. You do not have to enter another desktop, find the report there, then return whenever new work arrives.

To use one Mac app without sharing the whole desktop, beam that app’s window. With Beam, the window you choose on the other Mac appears as a separate window on your desktop. It keeps its size, gets a Dock icon, and takes a place in ⌘ Tab. That is Beam’s working model.

Choose Numbers and keep writing beside Mail and Notes on the Mac in front of you. The other Mac can sit untouched while its selected window joins your current workspace.

Choose the window you need

Both Macs run Beam and macOS Sonoma or later. With both Macs on the same network, open Beam and sign in on each. The connection is encrypted and pinned to Macs you trust.

A new Mac waits for your approval, given from a Mac you already approved or from a link we email you.

On the Mac that shares the window, macOS requests Screen Recording and Accessibility. It also requests clipboard and local-network access when you use them. Apple gives each kind of access its own explanation for screen and system-audio recording, control through Accessibility, and finding devices on the local network.

The selected window arrives among the windows already open on the Mac in front of you. It keeps the size it has on the other Mac. The other Mac is where the app runs. The Mac in front of you is where you work.

The window joins the Mac in front of you

Resize a beamed window from a corner, and its counterpart on the other Mac changes size. Your typing, including shortcuts, goes to the app. Turn on its speaker to hear the app on the Mac in front of you. Your mouse, keyboard, and familiar window controls stay with the workspace already under your hands.

The picture is streamed at your display's exact resolution, so text stays crisp. A line of type in Numbers or a small control in another app looks suited to the display in front of you. The app window appears on its own rather than inside a reduced picture of the desktop.

The window also has its own Dock icon and place in ⌘ Tab. Move between Mail, Notes, and the beamed Numbers window in the same ways you already move among local windows. You can place it beside a local document, minimise it for a while, then bring it back from the Dock when you need it.

A window, not a screen describes the unit you handle: the window you selected. The surrounding desktop does not become a second workspace that you must navigate. One useful part of the other Mac takes its place beside the work already open in front of you.

The other Mac keeps its place

A beamed window leaves the display on the other Mac undisturbed. The picker offers the chosen window while excluding password managers by default. Switch the window to Fluid and it moves off that Mac’s screen and onto the Mac in front of you.

The picker lets you choose a single window or one complete display. The choice is explicit in the picker. Selecting an app window gives that window its own place on the Mac in front of you. You bring over the part you need and leave the rest where it is.

You can also send that window to someone without Beam by creating a guest link. It opens in a browser on their device, served by the Mac that owns the window. The link starts as view only, can accept input with your permission, and lasts an hour unless you choose 8 hours, a day or a week.

Each choice begins with the object you mean to share. Pick a Numbers report and the result is that report’s window. Pick a whole display and the result is that display.

The Macs speak directly to each other

Install Beam on each Mac. Put them on one network and the connection between them is direct.

When apart, they communicate over your Tailscale tailnet, whose path may be direct or relayed. Your tailnet carries the connection between the two Macs.

A tailnet is the private network Tailscale creates for your own devices. When the Macs are away from the same physical network, that existing connection lets them find and talk to each other. You sign in to Beam once on each Mac you control.

During a beamed session, the window picture and your keyboard and mouse input pass between those two Macs. Clipboard content joins them when clipboard sync is enabled. The local network or tailnet carries the live window between the machines you chose.

Read Beam’s direct connection for more detail on the privacy model. From your chair, the visible result is straightforward: the selected window stays beside your local work while the app runs on the other Mac.

Keep the desk in front of you

Some days the whole Mac mini display may be the thing you want. Choose one complete display in Beam’s picker, and that display becomes the item you view and control from the Mac in front of you. The display-shaped workflow fits a task where the whole workspace needs attention.

At other times, one app window is the useful object. Choose Numbers in the picker, and it takes its place beside Mail and Notes. You stay with the desktop on the Mac in front of you while the selected window remains ready for typing, resizing, audio, and the shortcuts you already use.

Numbers is a native Mac app. Keep Mail and Notes exactly where you left them. The selected native window joins the windows on the Mac where you are sitting, and the report becomes part of the desk you were already using.

A headless Mac can join the desk

A headless Mac is a Mac without a monitor attached. A Mac with no display attached can share its windows too. Apps running there can provide the window you select from the Mac in front of you.

That makes the window-first workflow useful for a headless Mac mini at your desk. Its command line includes a doctor for checking that Mac's permissions and network. Run the doctor for a focused check when the setup needs attention.

Beam is made by Noats, Inc. Sharing your Macs is always free, and so is joining a link.

Each Mac needs macOS Sonoma or later. One plan covers every Mac you use, whether the other Mac sits across the desk, waits in another room, or joins through the tailnet you already use.