Screen Mirroring in the Web Dashboard

The Screen Mirror view in the web dashboard renders your Android phone's screen in a browser tab — and it's the only place this feature has a real user interface. On the phone side there's no dedicated Screen Mirror screen; a background service starts streaming as soon as you begin a session from the browser, and every control lives here.

Because the stream is decoded with WebCodecs and painted to a <canvas>, the page must be served in a secure context (HTTPS or localhost). PlainApp's local server already meets this requirement — but if you've somehow loaded the dashboard over plain HTTP on a non-localhost address, the page shows a needs HTTPS prompt with a link to the secure URL instead of trying to start the stream.

Key capabilities

• Live canvas mirror — frames are decoded with WebCodecs and painted to a <canvas> element. No plugin, no native client — just the browser.
• Full remote control — once control is enabled, clicking, dragging, and scrolling on the canvas is translated into real taps, long-presses, swipes, and scrolls on the phone, normalized to the actual screen coordinates. Dedicated buttons send Back, Home, and Recents.
• Fullscreen mode — expand the canvas to fill the screen; press Esc (or the toolbar toggle) to exit.
• HD / Smooth quality modes — switch quality mid-session: HD prioritizes sharpness, Smooth trades resolution for lower latency on congested Wi-Fi.
• Screenshot capture — one click downloads a .png of the current frame.
• Session recording — record the canvas locally to a video file, with a running recording timer in the toolbar.
• Audio mirroring — request audio passthrough from the phone and mute/unmute it independently in the browser.
• Relaunch and pause — pause the stream to stop consuming bandwidth without ending the session, or relaunch the phone's mirror service if it hangs.

Walkthrough

1. Open the Screen Mirror page from the dashboard sidebar. If the phone isn't currently mirroring, click Start to request that the phone begin casting.
2. View the live mirror — once the phone grants the screen-capture permission, frames appear on the canvas within a second or two.
3. Enable remote control from the toolbar, then click, drag, or scroll on the canvas to interact with the phone as if you were holding it — plus dedicated Back/Home/Recents buttons.
4. Switch to fullscreen by clicking the fullscreen button; press Esc to return to the dashboard layout.
5. Change quality with the HD/Smooth toggle in the toolbar — the switch takes effect on the next keyframe.
6. Capture a screenshot or start a recording from the toolbar, and Stop when you're done to end the session.

Tips & tricks

• Mute audio from the toolbar if you're mirroring in a shared space — it only affects your browser, not the phone's speaker.
• Pause without disconnecting by clicking the play/pause button — useful when you need to read a static screen without burning bandwidth on updates.
• Relaunch the app from the toolbar if the mirror service on the phone has hung — this restarts it without rebooting the phone.
• Remote control coordinates are normalized to the actual video resolution, so control still lines up correctly even if you've resized the browser window or gone fullscreen.

Privacy & security notes

Related features

• Photos, Videos & Music in the Web Dashboard — browse media files instead of a live screen.
• File Management in the Web Dashboard — pull screenshots and recordings off your computer.
• App Manager in the Web Dashboard — another way to manage the phone remotely from a browser.