Couchside — Remote

Remote console for your HTPC

Free · In‑App Purchases · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.

Couchside turns your iPhone into the monitor, remote console, game launcher, and controller for your living-room Linux gaming PC — a SteamOS or Bazzite HTPC, a docked Steam Deck, or any systemd Linux box. When the TV shows a black screen and the box seems dead, Couchside is the screen. See what's actually happening, read the logs, restart the display session, launch a game, or pick up a virtual controller — all from the couch, entirely on your own home network. LIVE CONSOLE A real-time dashboard of your box: CPU temperature, load averages, memory, per-disk usage, and uptime, plus the health of the systemd services you care about — display manager, media apps, the agent itself. When the box drops off the network, a clear "unreachable" banner tells you when it was last seen. FIX IT WITHOUT A KEYBOARD One-tap runbook actions, grouped by danger level, each confirmed before it runs (and confirmed twice when it's destructive): • Restart the display session — the classic fix for a wedged gamescope black screen • Switch to Desktop / Return to Game Mode — flip the box between Game Mode and a desktop session, no keyboard needed • Reboot • Power off READ THE LOGS Browse recent journald lines for any watched service straight from your phone. No SSH session, no laptop. LAUNCH GAMES FROM THE COUCH The agent discovers the Steam games installed on the box, and the app lays them out as a grid of cover art. Tap a cover and the game launches on the TV. Add your own custom launchers — a label and a command — for anything else the box runs, and remove them anytime. VIRTUAL GAME CONTROLLER The agent creates a genuine virtual Xbox 360 controller on the box, so Steam, Big Picture, and your games see real gamepad input. Three modes, one tap apart: • Gamepad — full layout with dual analog sticks, D-pad, ABXY, bumpers, and analog triggers • Swipe — an Apple-TV-remote-style surface: swipe to move, tap to select. Perfect for Kodi and Big Picture menus. • Trackpad — a real relative-mouse trackpad with tap-to-click, two-finger right-click, two-finger scroll, and light acceleration for desktop sessions Plus an on-screen keyboard bar that types straight to the box, and haptic feedback throughout the app — every button, swipe, and confirmation — with a toggle in Settings. EASY PAIRING Install the open-source agent with one command; it prints a QR code. Scan it with the iPhone camera and the app opens with everything prefilled — the code is a couchside.tv/pair link, so it works from any camera app. Prefer to type? Manual host/port/token entry works too. And if the box's .local name stops resolving — as it can in Game Mode — the app automatically falls back to the box's last known IP, so the connection just keeps working. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Couchside talks only to the agent on your own LAN. No cloud, no relay, no accounts, no analytics, no third-party services. Auth uses a bearer token stored in the iOS Keychain; on the box, the agent's privileges are limited to an exact, audited allowlist of commands. The whole project — app and agent — is open source. TRY FREE FOR 7 DAYS, PAY ONCE Couchside is free to download with a full-featured 7-day trial — every screen, no account, no card. After the trial, a single one-time unlock keeps everything forever. No subscription, ever. The agent on your box is free and open source. Prefer to compile the app yourself from the public source? That's allowed and documented. Buying the unlock gets you the signed, auto-updating build and supports development. REQUIREMENTS • A SteamOS, Bazzite, or other systemd-based Linux machine on your home network • The free open-source Couchside agent installed on it (one command, no dependencies) • iPhone and box on the same LAN

Ratings & Reviews

  • 5.0
    out of 5
    1 Ratings

New in 2.9.9 • Stream from PC: play games from another Steam PC or Steam Deck on your network, right on the box. Open the Launch tab, pick the machine, and tap a game — nothing extra to install.

Version 2.9.9

The developer, Taylor Emery, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .

  • Data Not Collected

    The developer does not collect any data from this app.

    Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

    Accessibility

    The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More

    Information

    Seller
    • Taylor Emery
    Size
    • 42.9 MB
    Category
    • Utilities
    Compatibility
    Requires iOS 16.4 or later.
    • iPhone
      Requires iOS 16.4 or later.
    • iPad
      Requires iPadOS 16.4 or later.
    • Mac
      Requires macOS 12.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
    • Apple Vision
      Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
    Languages
    • English
    Age Rating
    4+
    In-App Purchases
    Yes
    Copyright
    • © 2026 ETS3D LLC
  • Developer Website
  • Privacy Policy

    • More by Taylor Emery