BoxView

How remote support works

Help family or friends with their Mac from anywhere: you call, they answer, and their Mac asks before you see the screen.

Remote support lets you help someone with their Mac from BoxView, wherever you both are. You talk to each other through the call, and you see their screen when they allow it. They don't need to know their Mac's address, change their router, or set up anything technical.

In short

  1. You send an invite: a link, from BoxView.
  2. They open it on their Mac, install BoxView Helper and click Accept. Their Mac appears on your Home screen.
  3. Whenever they need help, you call their Mac. It rings; they click Answer, and you can talk.
  4. BoxView asks to see their screen, and their Mac asks them first.

What the person at the Mac sees: For the person being helped, and the page at boxview.app/support.

Who's in charge

The person at the Mac decides at every step:

  • They accept the invite, once.
  • Every call rings, and they can decline it.
  • macOS asks them before you can see or control the screen.
  • They can end the call at any time, and remove you from BoxView Helper's menu so you can't call again.

What it needs

  • On your side: BoxView with BoxView Pro or the free trial.
  • On their Mac: BoxView Helper (macOS 11 or later), Screen Sharing turned on with Anyone may request permission to control screen, and a microphone and speakers for talking. BoxView Helper shows them how to turn Screen Sharing on.

Security

Calls and the screen go through BoxView's relay at relay.boxview.app, so neither side needs an open port. The relay joins the two connections and passes the data along. It's end-to-end encrypted, with a key your iPhone and their Mac agree when they pair: the relay can't read or change it, and can't pretend to be either side.

The relay sees which Macs are online, IP addresses, and when and how much data passes. It stores nothing and has no accounts.

Good to know

  • The name the person at the Mac sees in the invite and on calls is the one you typed when you made the invite.
  • Remote support has been tried on Apple silicon Macs with macOS 26. It's built for older Macs back to macOS 11, and Intel Macs, but hasn't been tried on them yet.
  • The Mac's sound isn't sent during calls: you hear the person, not their Mac.