Download Screens 5 for macOS

If you've ever used Apple's built-in Screen Sharing to hop onto another Mac on your network, Screens 5 feels like its more polished, globe-trotting cousin. It takes that core idea and extends it to any Mac, Windows, Linux or Raspberry Pi machine, whether it's down the hall or across the internet. Before you install, here's what people tend to ask about.

• Can it reach computers outside my local network? Yes. You can sign in with your own account or start a shared session with another Mac user for remote access, no VPN fiddling required.
• Does it handle file transfers awkwardly? It uses a shared clipboard for text, links and images, so grabbing a screenshot or a chunk of code from the remote machine feels local.
• What about keyboard shortcuts? Touch Bar shortcuts are supported, and you can set up active corners to trigger actions by nudging your cursor to the screen edge.
• How do I organise a pile of saved connections? Saved connections can be grouped, and version 5.9 lets you drag them into custom grid order so your most-used machines are always first.
• Any power-user features under the hood? It supports SSH keys and URL schemes based on RFC 2396 for launching sessions from scripts or launchers like Alfred.

The app runs natively on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs with macOS 14 or later, and the interface is available in eleven languages including German, Japanese and Portuguese. The Quick Connect widget and new Siri and Shortcuts actions make it snappy to jump straight into a session without hunting through the app.

How Screens 5 sits alongside similar apps

If you have only ever used Apple's free Screen Sharing, the jump to Screens 5 feels like trading a hallway mirror for a bay window. You get multiple displays, Curtain Mode, and a connection that survives spotty coffee-shop Wi‑Fi. Compared to Microsoft Remote Desktop, Screens 5 is the friendlier option for mixed-device households — Windows, Linux and Raspberry Pi all appear on the same shelf as your Macs, and dragging a file between them feels like spring cleaning.

Jump Desktop is the closest rival. Both handle fluid Retina streaming and remote access without port forwarding, but Screens 5 tucks its power tools into a quieter interface. The custom grid ordering and one‑tap password entry tilt the scales if you bounce between four or five machines daily; Jump Desktop’s keyboard mapping is deeper, but Screens keeps the shared clipboard snappy between Macs, especially with images. For quick family tech support, the Screens Express companion app and one‑click shared session remove the usual guesswork.

Blank the remote screen with Curtain Mode

The out‑of‑box behaviour is sensible, but a few tweaks make daily use smoother.

• Switch on Curtain Mode per machine. When you connect to your home iMac from a café, Curtain Mode blanks the remote screen and locks the keyboard. It is buried in the connection editor under the Security tab, and you will want it for any machine in a shared space.
• Pin the clipboard format. By default, the shared clipboard grabs rich text and images. If you often paste into terminals or plain‑text editors, open Preferences > Clipboard and tick “Prefer plain text.” It stops stray formatting from hitching a ride.
• Disable a remote display. Connecting to a Mac with two monitors? Under the connection’s Display settings, you can choose a single screen instead of squinting at both. Saves bandwidth and wrist strain on a laptop.
• Set a disconnect command. In the Advanced tab of any saved connection, you can tell Screens to run a command before it drops the session — useful for locking the remote screen or quitting a sensitive app.

Good to know: Screens 5 can also use iCloud or Dropbox to sync your saved connections across devices, so the Mac you added on your laptop appears on your iPad without extra setup.

• Added the Connect to Computer with Screens action for Siri, Shortcuts, Spotlight and other system features.
• Added the Quick Connect widget.
• Added custom grid ordering by dragging connections into place.

• macOS 14 or later
• Apple Silicon or Intel processor