The second monitor you already own

What a second screen actually saves you

In 2003, Mary Czerwinski and colleagues at Microsoft Research timed people doing web and Office tasks full of switching between windows, once on a 15-inch screen and once on a curved 42-inch display as wide as three monitors. A task took 127 seconds on average on the small screen and 116 on the wide one, just over 9% faster, and 14 of the 15 people preferred the wide display. The authors suggest the gain comes from less window management: fewer moments spent finding, resizing and swapping the window you need.

It's a small study, on a projected surface rather than a tablet, so read it as a hint, not a promise. But the lesson carries over. A second screen pays off most when it holds something you'd otherwise keep switching to: the document you're quoting, a chat, a calendar, your notes.

Which tablets work

• An Android tablet on Android 11 or later, with Google Play to install the app from. That includes tablets from Samsung, Xiaomi, Lenovo, OnePlus and other makers.
• A foldable works too, unfolded. Phones aren't supported.
• The tablet shows your Mac in landscape.
• Amazon Fire tablets can't install it, because they don't have Google Play.
• On the Mac: macOS 15 or later, on Apple silicon or Intel.

Samsung Galaxy Tab

Plenty of Android tablets are Samsung Galaxy Tabs. Samsung's built-in Second screen feature is made for Windows PCs, so on a Mac a Galaxy Tab uses Wing Display like any other Android tablet. Any Galaxy Tab on Android 11 or later with Google Play qualifies, whether it's an S, FE or A model. On a model that supports the S Pen, the pen works with Pro.

Use a Galaxy Tab S9, S10, S11 or S12 as a second monitor goes through the recent models one by one.

A second screen over Wi-Fi, in the free plan

Install the free Mac app and the tablet app. On the same Wi-Fi the tablet finds your Mac by itself; on a network that keeps devices apart, turn on the tablet's hotspot and join your Mac to it. Your Mac gets one more display, which you arrange in System Settings → Displays. There's no Wing Display account.

Taking your Mac on the road? Use your tablet as a portable second screen for your MacBook.

Touch, the pen and a USB cable Pro

Pro turns the screen into a touch surface for your Mac, and the S Pen or another tablet pen arrives as a pen, with pressure and tilt where it reports them. Turn your tablet and pen into a pen display for your Mac explains how. For busy networks, Pro also connects over a USB data cable, once USB debugging is on: use your tablet as a wired USB second screen.

Questions