PhoneMyPC

PhoneMyPC is an exciting tool that lets you use your PCs from any Android device. No network knowledge or configuration required; features work from anyplace, so long as you have an internet connection.

PhoneMyPC has the widest range of features of any remote-access app, and is continuously improved by a our team, and by you; our customers are our planning team–whatever people ask for, we do.

Follow us on Twitter @PhoneMyPC. Or, check out our FaceBook page. You can also join our Forum to get tips and tricks and for troubleshooting.

What can I do with PhoneMyPC?

Use your PC as though it were a remote monitor, mouse and keyboard, from anyplace–work from the beach or doctor’s office. Monitor your children while they use the PC. Monitor your home through an attached webcam, or listen through an attached mic. Take your Android device with you to keep watching your online movie while you leave the room. All with one quick and easy setup–and this is just the beginning!

See Quick Start to get PhoneMyPC working now.

See the links at left for details about each feature.

Supported Devices

PhoneMyPC works on all known Android devices.

We used to buy every device on the day it became available to us. Given the popularity of Android, that’s just not possible any longer, so instead we buy at least some of each ‘type’ of device (small phone, medium phone, large phone, small tablet, large tablet, TV box, etc.).

This time, for example, we have included several updates specific to larger tablets.

How it Works (connectivity, security)

PhoneMyPC is a hosted solution. When you install the PC app on your PC, it connects to our servers and alerts them of its presence and of your account. When you run the Android app, it contacts our servers and asks for your list of PCs.

When you begin to use features on a particular PC, the Android and PC apps negotiate to find the best possible network connection: direct, through a LAN, direct through the internet, or hosted through our servers.

** All communications are secured with industry standard SSL.

This approach provides the best of all worlds:

1 – You needn’t understand networking to make it work; just install and go
2 – If you would like direct-connections (not hosted), you can configure your firewall to allow it
3 – You never need to configure IP addresses; PhoneMyPC does this automatically

If you would like to try configuring for direct-connections, see our Optimization page. Also note that in the near future, PhoneMyPC will be able to direct-connect without user intervention–one of the many great improvements coming in PhoneMyPC 3.0.

Android Permissions

Each Android application lists the permissions that it requires on the device. Many of us have downloaded applications that required permissions that made no sense, such as a Timer app wanting to access Phone calls. We believe developers should be completely transparent about what permissions we require, and exactly why. Here is the list of permissions required by PhoneMyPC, and how the data is used:

Full Internet Access

This is required to connect to our servers and to your PC.

Phone Calls

This is used for licensing–a feature that is not yet implemented. We do not read any call data, but only your phone number and device ID. We then hash them irreversibly into a unique ID we can use for licensing purposes in the future. Thus, none of your data (phone number, serial number, etc.) leaves your device in a reversible form.

Storage

This is necessary to save screen snapshots from the View features (such as Interact Live and Webcam) on the SDCard.