Before anything else, here’s what you need:
- A jailbroken iPhone or iPad
- Veency app (free on the Cydia store)
- A Free VNC viewer (Mac OS X comes with the Screen Sharing app built in. On a Windows PC, you can try free apps such as RealVNC or Terminals.)
- A Wi-Fi network
This trick has been around for a few years, but I thought I’d do an updated post after confirming that it still works well on the latest A5-powered devices (the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2) running the latest firmware (iOS 5.01).
In a nutshell, this trick let you access your iPhone or iPad, display it’s screen on your computer screen, and control it from the computer. That includes “pressing” the home button or double-clicking it, typing texts into text boxes (meaning you can respond to text messages without touching your iPhone), and swiping screens to get to other home screens.
Getting started
Veency is a VNC server app that will let your iPhone accept incoming requests for a remote connection. Connections can be open or require a password. Veency also installs a mouse program that simulates taps and home button presses. A left mouse click is equivalent to a tap on the screen, a right click is equivalent to a home button press, and a click and drag is equivalent to a swipe — left, right, up, down.
You can change Veency's settings via the Settings app
Once you have Veency installed, then you can connect your computer to your iPhone. Mac OS X’s built-in Screen Sharing app is buried deep within several folders: Your computer –> System –> Library –> Core Services. Scroll down through the contents of the Core Services folder and you will find the Screen Sharing app. Drag that to your dock so you can launch it with just one click. In Windows, download or install a free VNC client such as Terminals or RealVNC.
Make sure that the computer and the phone are connected to the same Wi-Fi network. Alternatively, you could create a wireless network using your computer and connect your iPhone to that network, or tether your computer to the iPhone via the Personal Hotspot feature. You can then launch your VNC client of choice and enter your device name in the window prompt (you can see your device name in Settings –> General –> About), substituting dashes for spaces (for example: “jdv-iphone-4s” for my iPhone, which has a device name of “JdV iPhone 4S”), adding a “.local” after the device name. Then press “Enter.”
Text via remote control, and many other things
Since the iPhone 4S’s native resolution is 960 x 640, you’ll have a large screen pop up on your computer monitor. You can resize the window to a more manageable size. With the VNC window active, hover your mouse over the window and try out the left and right click functions to see how well the iPhone or iPad responds. Once you confirm that it works (responses might lag on wireless networks that serve many computers), tap and swipe away to your heart’s content.
With this setup, I read and respond to messages that come in via Messages, or GroupMe, or Facebook Messenger, start downloading new podcasts via Instacast, view Path updates, and so much more, without having to pick up the phone. You can also do this with the iPad, but I don’t find it particularly useful. It’s a lot more convenient with the iPhone, especially for handling messages.
As someone who spends a great deal of the day in front of a computer, this trick has been an important time-saver for me so I also thought it’s worth sharing with all the new iPhone 4S owners who’ve taken the jailbreaking plunge as well.
