Android Tablet as Mac Display

7 pointsby jefferyabbotthace 6 meses4 comments

Hi HN,

I wanted to use an Android tablet as a second display on macOS, similar to Apple’s Sidecar — and I wanted it to work at the same time as an iPad running Sidecar so I could have 2 external displays with my MacBook (Sidecar only allows 1 iPad).

I couldn’t find anything that I liked, so I built Caboose.

Caboose lets you use an Android tablet as an additional macOS display via USB or Wi-Fi. It’s optimized for low latency and works well even wirelessly. You can use it alongside Apple Sidecar to drive both an iPad and an Android tablet from the same Mac.

To use Caboose and Sidecar together, Caboose needs to be started first, and the iPad added via Sidecar afterward. This is due to how macOS manages display devices.

I’ve been using this daily while traveling with a MacBook + Android tablet + iPad and it’s been very solid for my workflow.

Website: https://www.jefferyabbott.com/caboose

This is my first time posting to HN — happy to answer questions or talk through technical tradeoffs.

4 comments

mcsniffhace 6 meses

Clickable link:

https://www.jefferyabbott.com/caboose

For those interested it would be nice to include that the Mac app costs $24.99 and the Android app isn't available in the Play Store (yet?).

scottydeltahace 6 meses

Shows €29.99 in Europe. The author should display price on their website as well.

smuenkelhace 6 meses

That looks really neat! Love that you basically made yourself a triple monitor setup :)

swahhace 6 meses

I bought an Arzopa before knowing about this :)