Phone Keyboard

📦 v0.1.1

💾 27.07KiB

📅 2026-06-24

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Chrome will indicate if you already have this installed.

Overview

Type into your laptop's Chrome from your phone — over your local WiFi, with
nothing leaving your network.

Click any text box on your computer, then type it out on your phone. The text
appears live in the selected input on the laptop. Built to make one-handed
laptop use comfortable (for example, when an arm is in a cast), but handy any
time your phone's keyboard is faster than reaching for the laptop.

FEATURES
• Type on your phone → text streams into the selected input on the laptop, live.
• Two-way sync — edits on either device stay in step.
• A Send button presses Enter, so you can submit search boxes, chats, and forms.
• Message history with collapse, star, resend, and reset.
• A floating, draggable bubble in the browser for connection status and settings.
• An optional desktop app (macOS + Linux) so non-technical users never touch a
terminal.

HOW IT WORKS
A Chrome extension can't host a server, so there are three small parts that talk
over WebSockets:

Phone (web app) ⇄ Local relay server (on the laptop) ⇄ Chrome extension

The relay server runs on your own laptop. The extension always connects to
127.0.0.1 (localhost), so there are no mixed-content issues and it needs no
token. Your phone connects over the LAN and must present a token that's baked
into its URL/QR code.

WHAT YOU NEED
• A laptop and phone on the same WiFi.
• Google Chrome (or Chromium) on the laptop.
• The relay server running on the laptop — either the desktop app (one click to
start) or via Node.js from the terminal.

WHY IT EXISTS
I built Phone Keyboard for my girlfriend after she dislocated a finger and spent
weeks with her arm in a cast, which made typing slow and painful. I hope it makes
working at a laptop a little easier for you too.

PRIVACY
• No data leaves your network. There is no cloud component and no analytics.
• LAN clients (your phone) must present a token, embedded in the QR/URL — keep
that link private.
• The extension connects only to localhost and needs no token.

Open source (MIT). Setup instructions and the relay server / desktop app are
linked from the homepage:
https://github.com/heolin/phone-remote-keyboard