Android and Mac setup finder
Tick what you want your Android phone and your Mac to do together. You get the free tool for each job, and a straight answer on whether one app would cover the lot.
Tick at least one thing to see your setup.
Where the answers come from
Each free route is what the tool’s own maker says it does, checked on 1 October 2026 and laid out in full in which app does what. We have not benchmarked any of them. The Relay column follows the same rule: it says “no” where the app does not do the job.
Sending files is a special case, because it now depends on your phone. Use the AirDrop checker to see whether yours can send to a Mac with nothing installed.
Questions people ask
Is there one free app that connects an Android phone to a Mac?
KDE Connect is the free, open-source app that covers the most: notifications, clipboard text, links, and files. It does not do everything, and its stable macOS build is for Apple silicon Macs.
Do I need a paid app at all?
Not if you want one or two things. Google Messages for web handles texting, NearDrop or LocalSend handle files, and scrcpy handles mirroring, all free. A paid app such as The Relay is for having clipboard, files, codes, notifications, calls, links, and webcam working together in one place.
What does The Relay not do?
It does not send texts from the Mac, mirror the phone’s screen, place calls, or control the phone’s hotspot. The finder shows the free tool for each of those.