Coast

Coast turns an iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch into a customizable control surface for a Mac. Instead of reaching for the keyboard or trackpad every time you need to trigger an action, you tap a button on your phone that fires off keystrokes, menu commands, dictation, or even logic chains that combine multiple steps into one tap. Every control clicks back with tactile feedback so you feel the Mac respond through your fingertips, which closes the loop between intention and action and lets you work confidently without having to look at your computer screen to confirm something happened. The app lives in your pocket and turns any Apple device into an extension of your Mac workflow.

The problem it solves is the constant context switching that creative professionals and power users experience when working at a desk or in a studio. A video editor might need to scrub through a timeline, switch tools, and trigger renders across several apps throughout a session. A musician might want to arm tracks, adjust levels, and start recording without leaving the mic position or breaking concentration on the performance. A presenter might need to advance slides while watching speaker notes on a second screen across the room. In each case, walking back to the keyboard or fumbling for a mouse breaks focus and slows down the workflow. Coast lets you build the exact controls you need and keep them in your hand, positioned wherever makes sense for your physical setup rather than chained to where the Mac happens to sit.

The customization runs deep. You can create buttons, sliders, toggles, and gesture zones, then map them to almost anything the Mac can do through its accessibility and scripting interfaces. Simple buttons fire keystrokes or trigger menu items directly with no configuration beyond choosing what to fire. Advanced buttons chain multiple actions together with logic gates, so one tap can open an app, navigate to a specific menu, enter text, pause for a confirmation dialog, and execute a command in sequence. You can embed dictation triggers that transcribe speech and pipe it into text fields on your Mac, or wire up AI prompts that process input before sending it to an application. The interface is drag and drop throughout, so building a custom control panel doesn't require coding or scripting knowledge. You assemble controls visually and test them immediately.

Screen mirroring extends the utility further. You can watch your Mac display on your phone while tapping controls, which is useful when you're across the room, your main monitor is blocked by equipment or people, or you're working in a studio where the computer sits in an isolation booth to reduce fan noise. The mirror updates in real time with low enough latency for most control tasks, though it's not intended for watching video at full frame rate. It's a monitoring and control window, not a streaming solution.

Apple Watch support extends the workflow to your wrist. You can assign a subset of controls to the watch for situations where pulling out a phone is too slow or your hands are occupied holding something else. An air mouse mode lets you move the Mac cursor by waving your hand through space, useful for quick navigation without touching anything physical. On screen drawing mode lets you sketch or annotate directly from the touch device and have the strokes appear on your Mac, and presenter mode combines slides, notes, and a timer in one interface for talks and demos so you don't need to carry multiple devices or glance at a laptop during a presentation.

Where Coast differs from generic remote control apps is the depth of customization and the native Apple ecosystem feel. Many remotes let you map buttons to keystrokes, but few offer logic chains, dictation integration, AI prompts, screen mirroring, and wrist control in a single package designed specifically for the Apple hardware stack. The tactile feedback closes the gap between tapping glass and pressing a real button, which matters when you're working fast and can't afford to second guess whether an action registered or wonder if you need to tap again. The response feels immediate because the confirmation comes from your hand, not from squinting at a screen.

The app is available on the App Store and also on GitHub for those who want to inspect the source or extend the functionality beyond what ships by default. Pricing details are not disclosed on the landing page, so interested users should check the App Store listing for current tiers and any free trial options that may be available. For anyone who wants fine grained remote control over a Mac with the flexibility to build exactly the layout they need, Coast offers a polished and capable solution that integrates tightly with iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS without feeling like a compromise between platforms.