MeowDisplay: Your Mac's screen, but on your iPhone. It's the reverse AirPlay we didn't know we needed.

MeowDisplay is a new open-source tool that flips the script on Apple's iPhone Mirroring feature. Instead of viewing your iPhone screen on your Mac, it lets you use your iPhone (or iPad or Android device) as a wireless external monitor for your Mac. It works over USB or local Wi-Fi, creating a virtual display on your Mac that you can control from your mobile device—no dummy HDMI adapters required.

The app is completely free, ad-free, and open-source under GPL-3.0, with optional donations. It supports macOS 14+ as the sender and iOS 16.4+, iPadOS, Android 10+, or another Mac as the receiver. While positioned as a 'personal-first' solution rather than enterprise remote desktop, it offers a clever workaround for anyone wanting to use their Mac headless or extend their display to a mobile screen they already own. The takeaway? Sometimes the most useful tools are the ones that reverse-engineer convenience right under our noses.