I wanted a Stream Deck for my Mac, so I used an old iPhone instead

I’ve always liked the idea of having a Stream Deck on my desk. The ability to launch apps, trigger shortcuts, control meetings, and automate repetitive tasks with a single tap has always sounded like a genuine productivity upgrade. The problem was that I didn’t actually want another gadget sitting next to my Mac.

My desk already has enough devices competing for space, and adding another piece of hardware, complete with its own cable and setup process, didn’t seem particularly appealing. So when I discovered PhoneDeck, an app that turns an iPhone into a customizable control panel for a Mac, I was curious whether it could deliver the Stream Deck experience without requiring dedicated hardware.

After using it for a few days, I found myself reaching for PhoneDeck far more often than I expected.

Why I wanted a Stream Deck for my Mac

I spend most of my workday on a Mac, and a surprising amount of that time is spent doing the same things repeatedly. Opening the same apps every morning, jumping into meetings, controlling music while writing, opening project folders, and triggering the same shortcuts eventually becomes muscle memory.

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That’s why Stream Decks have always appealed to me. The idea wasn’t the hardware itself. What attracted me was having frequently used actions available without relying on keyboard shortcuts or digging through Finder and menus.

Every time I considered buying one, I came back to the same two concerns: price and practicality. A Stream Deck isn’t outrageously expensive, yet it’s still another accessory to add to a setup that already includes a MacBook, monitor, keyboard, mouse, and a growing collection of gadgets.

PhoneDeck offered a different approach. Instead of buying new hardware, I could turn an older iPhone into a control panel for my Mac. Since I already had a spare device lying around, getting started cost me nothing, which made the experiment much easier to justify.

How I turned my iPhone into a Stream Deck

Setting up PhoneDeck was surprisingly straightforward and took only a few minutes from installation to having a fully functional Mac control panel on my iPhone.

Here’s how I got started:

1. Install PhoneDeck on your Mac and iPhone.
2. Connect both devices to the same Wi-Fi network.
3. Open PhoneDeck on both devices and wait for them to connect.
4. PhoneDeck starts with a few default pages, including Design, Dev, and Music. You can keep them, delete them, rearrange them, or create your own pages.
5. Click an empty slot on the dashboard preview.
   
6. Select an app, control, or website from the library below.
7. You can also drag and drop apps, controls, and websites directly onto a slot.
8. Repeat the process until your dashboard contains the shortcuts you want.
   

Any changes made on the Mac appear on the iPhone almost instantly, making it easy to experiment with different layouts.

The PhoneDeck shortcuts I use every day

After a bit of experimentation, these are the shortcuts that earned a permanent place on my PhoneDeck dashboard and ended up saving me the most time.

Safari

Safari sits in the top-left corner because it’s usually the first app I open every morning. Most of my work starts with research, so keeping it one tap away made sense.

Brightness Controls

The next two buttons increase and decrease my Mac’s display brightness. I adjust it more often than I’d like to admit, especially when moving between daytime and late-night work sessions.

Volume Controls

Another pair of buttons handles volume adjustments. They’re simple, but they get used regularly while listening to music or watching videos during work breaks.

Apple Notes

Apple Notes has a dedicated button of its own. I use it for article ideas, quick drafts, and temporary notes throughout the day.

Screenshot

There’s also a screenshot button because I spend a lot of time capturing app interfaces, settings pages, and images for articles.

Basecamp

Basecamp gets its own shortcut as well. Since it’s one of the tools I check multiple times a day, I preferred giving it a permanent spot on the dashboard instead of keeping another browser tab open.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp is another button I use regularly for work conversations and quick messages.

Gmail

The last button on the main page opens Gmail. Between newsletters, assignments, and client communication, it’s one of the websites I visit constantly.

Where a real Stream Deck still has the advantage

Most of the time, PhoneDeck did exactly what I needed. The one thing it couldn’t fully replicate was the experience of having dedicated hardware sitting on the desk.

With a Stream Deck, every shortcut has its own physical button. After a while, you know exactly where everything is without looking. An iPhone screen doesn’t work quite the same way.

Even though my dashboard rarely changes, I still find myself glancing at the screen before tapping a shortcut.

That’s not a major issue for the handful of actions I use throughout the day, but it’s easy to understand why power users who rely heavily on shortcuts often prefer a dedicated Stream Deck.

How PhoneDeck changed the way I use my Mac

One area where I use PhoneDeck more than expected is while watching movies and videos on my Mac at night.

Adjusting brightness and volume from the dashboard is often quicker than reaching for keyboard controls, especially when I’m already holding my iPhone.

The same dashboard also gives me quick access to Safari, Notes, Basecamp, WhatsApp, Gmail, and screenshots, so it ends up staying active on my desk throughout the day instead of only being useful during work hours.

What started as a productivity experiment gradually became part of my everyday workflow.

PhoneDeck limitations you should know about

PhoneDeck handled most of what I wanted from a Stream Deck alternative, but there are still a few limitations worth mentioning:

• No physical buttons
• Can’t trigger shortcuts without looking at the screen
• Requires an iPhone
• Works best if you have a spare iPhone available
• Not designed for complex macro-heavy workflows
• Some advanced Stream Deck features are still missing

For many users, these limitations won’t matter much. But if you’re heavily invested in automation workflows, a dedicated Stream Deck still offers more flexibility.

Why I’m still using PhoneDeck instead of buying a Stream Deck

Although PhoneDeck isn’t a perfect replacement for a dedicated Stream Deck, it solved the main reason I wanted one in the first place.

At the end of the day, I simply wanted faster access to the apps, shortcuts, and controls I use most often. PhoneDeck delivered most of that functionality using an older iPhone I already owned. It also gave that spare device a purpose without adding another gadget to my desk.

Will I eventually buy a real Stream Deck? Maybe. For now, though, PhoneDeck has done enough to convince me that I don’t need one.

What Mac shortcut would earn a permanent spot on your PhoneDeck dashboard? Let us know in the comments below.