Pocket Screen

Keep any Mac window visible in a floating mini screen

Mac

Productivity

Menu Bar Apps

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That covered-versus-minimized split lines up with the ScreenCaptureKit internals: per-window capture keeps handing you frames for an occluded window because it samples that window's own backing store, but a minimized window loses its backing store so there's nothing to read until it's restored. Our freeze came from grabbing the whole display and cropping instead of capturing the SCWindow directly, which is why ours died on occlusion. Sounds like you took the cleaner path from the start.

this is one of those tools where the use case clicks immediately, i'm constantly alt-tabbing to check a doc while writing in another app. question on multi-monitor setups: does the floating window stay pinned to one display, or can you drag it across screens and have it remember where you left it next time you launch the app

The occlusion question a couple people raised is the real gotcha with this kind of tool. When we built window-mirroring on macOS, ScreenCaptureKit stopped handing us frames the second the source window went behind another one, so the mirror just froze until you brought it back to front. Did you find a way to keep frames flowing for an occluded or minimized source, or does the float only stay live while the source is at least partially on screen?

The single-display framing is the part that got me — I make music and my DAW eats the entire screen, so I'm constantly tabbing back to a YouTube tutorial or a lyrics doc and losing my place. Does the floating window survive over a fullscreen app, or does macOS shove it behind? Also nice call making Option+Cmd+P pin the frontmost window instead of asking me to pick from a list.

Very useful - however I can't figure out where to download it! Please can you help me?

How do you handle window resizing and aspect ratio changes when converting a full window to the mini PiP view?

The "captured content stays local, nothing uploaded" point is what makes this feel safe to leave running all day. One implementation question: since the mini view mirrors the frontmost window, what happens when I cover or minimize the source app — does macOS keep delivering frames so the float stays live, or does the mirror freeze until the source is visible again? And does a floating window get excluded from my own screen recordings/screenshots, or would it show up if I am recording a demo?

stuck a video in the corner while taking notes and it stayed perfectly framed the whole time—way smoother than i expected. processing staying on-device is a nice touch too.

Love that processing stays local on the Mac, keeping a floating reference window in view without shipping my screen contents to the cloud is exactly the privacy first touch that makes this genuinely usable for real work.

Working off one laptop screen is basically my whole day, so keeping something in view while I get on with other things speaks right to me. Simple and genuinely useful, Masaki.

this is one of those things that sounds small but I'd actually use daily, keeping a Zoom or a stream floating over other windows instead of alt-tabbing constantly. does it stay attached when you switch spaces/desktops or does it need to be re-pinned each time

The single-display framing is really good! A lot of PiP tools assume you already have the screen space and just want a second video running in the corner. On the frontmost-window pick though - once a window is floating, is the mini view still interactive (scroll, click, type inside it) or is it a passive mirror I have to pop back into to actually use?

the reference-without-switching use case is the one i'd actually use this for. keeping docs or a video call pinned in a corner while i work in the main window, no alt-tab dance. simple, but that's a real daily annoyance solved

This is such a simple but useful Mac utility. I spend a lot of time switching between docs, chats, browser tabs, and whatever I'm actually working on, so keeping one reference window visible without constantly rearranging everything sounds genuinely helpful :)

The opacity and click-through controls are especially nice touches. Curious how well Pocket Screen handles content that changes quickly, like video, live dashboards, or chat windows. does it stay smooth without using too much battery or CPU?

"no mention of multi monitor support, curious how it behaves if the floating window and the source app are on different displays"

"can you run more than one floating window at once, like a doc + a chat side by side, or is it one at a time?"

Love how it just keeps processing local on your Mac instead of bouncing stuff to the cloud. The always-on-top window feels really well done too, super smooth when you're dragging stuff around.