Can Beam stream my Mac screen when I am away from home?

Yes, with Beam Unlimited, if both your Mac and iPhone are on the same Tailscale network. Local WiFi streaming is free. Away-from-home streaming is part of the one-time Unlimited unlock. Beam does not run a relay server of its own: Tailscale usually connects the devices directly and can use its own encrypted relay when a direct route is unavailable.

Do I need to configure anything for remote streaming?

Usually not. If Tailscale was already running on your Mac when you paired your iPhone, Beacon shares its Tailscale address automatically and remote streaming works with no setup. If you set up Tailscale later, open Beam on the same WiFi as your Mac and tap Set Up Automatically under Settings, Away From Home. Typing an address by hand is only a fallback.

Does remote streaming send my screen through a cloud service?

Beam has no servers in the stream path. Tailscale creates an encrypted connection between your own two devices, usually directly and, when necessary, through a Tailscale relay. Your screen never touches a Beam-operated server.

Will remote streaming look as good as streaming at home?

Not usually. Local WiFi has far more bandwidth and lower latency than a typical internet connection. Expect to drop to a lower quality preset when streaming remotely, especially on mobile data.

Stream Your Mac Screen From Anywhere

Name: Beacon
Author: Beam

Updated July 2026 · 3 min read

Short answer: yes, with Tailscale.

Beam is built for your local network, and local streaming is free. Away-from-home streaming is part of Beam Unlimited. Put your Mac and iPhone on the same Tailscale network, Beam will reach your Mac from anywhere over an encrypted connection between your own two devices. The path is usually direct; if it cannot be, Tailscale can relay the encrypted traffic. There's no Beam server in the middle, and nothing to port-forward.

How Beam finds your Mac

On your home network, Beam discovers your Mac automatically using Bonjour, the same local discovery macOS uses for AirPlay and printers. It's instant, and it needs no configuration.

Bonjour is deliberately local-only: it doesn't travel past your router. So the moment you leave the house, Beam has no way to find your Mac, even though your Mac is still perfectly willing to accept the connection. That's the whole problem remote streaming has to solve. Not the streaming, just the finding.

Tailscale solves it by giving each of your devices a stable private address that works from anywhere. Beacon tells your paired iPhone what its Tailscale address is, and Beam uses that address whenever Bonjour comes up empty.

Setting it up

Tailscale is free for personal use and takes a couple of minutes.

Install Tailscale on your Mac and sign in.
Install Tailscale on your iPhone from the App Store and sign in with the same account. This matters, because devices can only reach each other inside one account's network.
Open Beam on your iPhone while you're still at home and start a stream once. Beacon hands over its Tailscale address during that connection, so there's nothing for you to type. This works whether you paired today or years ago, and it refreshes every time you stream, so it stays correct if your Mac's address changes.
That's it. Next time you're away, make sure Tailscale is connected on both devices and press Start as usual.

What the connection badge means

When you stream from outside your home network, Beam shows a small badge in the corner. It tells you which kind of connection you got, because there are two very different ones and they feel nothing alike.

Direct means your iPhone and your Mac are talking to each other straight, with nothing in between. This is the good one. Video is sharp, sound is in step, and it can carry full quality.
Negotiating means Tailscale is still working out the best route. This is normal for the first few seconds of a stream. It usually turns green on its own, so give it a moment before worrying.
Relayed means your two devices could not reach each other directly, so traffic is going the long way round through a Tailscale relay server. It still works, but it is much slower, and video may stutter or look soft. See below if you get stuck here.

You do not have to do anything with this. It is there so that if a stream feels bad, you can tell at a glance whether it is your connection or the app.

If it stays on Relayed

Two devices normally find a direct route by themselves. When they cannot, it is almost always the home router refusing to help. Two things usually fix it:

Turn on UPnP or NAT-PMP in your router settings. Both are ways for apps to ask the router to let a connection in, and Tailscale uses them automatically when they are available.
Make sure your home internet has IPv6 enabled. Most modern connections do. IPv6 gives your Mac an address that can be reached directly, which is often the easiest path of all.

Neither of these makes your Mac open to the internet. Only devices signed in to your own Tailscale account can connect, and the connection stays encrypted the whole way.

If the stream pauses

If the picture freezes and blurs with a spinner over it, Beam has lost the connection and is reconnecting. Leaving your WiFi and switching to mobile data does this, and so does coming back home again, because the route has to be worked out afresh. It picks up on its own within a few seconds. If it cannot, Beam returns you to the main screen rather than leaving you staring at a frozen frame.

What to expect

Your Mac needs to be awake and Beacon running, same as at home. Beam still prefers your local network whenever it can see it, so nothing changes when you get back.

Quality is the real difference. Local WiFi gives Beam far more bandwidth than a typical internet connection, and Tailscale will sometimes route through a relay rather than connecting your devices directly. If a remote stream stutters, drop the quality preset in Settings. 480p or 720p30 is usually the sweet spot away from home, and lower still on mobile data.

Privacy

Nothing about this puts your screen on someone else's computer. Beam operates no servers in the stream path, not on your LAN and not remotely. Tailscale builds an encrypted connection directly between your two devices, and your screen data stays between them.

Get Beam

Both apps are free to install, however remote streaming via Tailscale requires Beam Unlimited. Download Beacon for Mac or Beam for iPhone below:

Download for Mac Get the iPhone app