HearthWire
DE Windows and Mac FAQ
One private network at home · no cloud, no accounts

Your films and files,
on every screen you own.

Nothing gets copied. Nothing gets uploaded. Nothing gets emailed to yourself. Your devices already share the same Wi-Fi, so HearthWire simply lets them read each other. A film on the study PC plays on the television. A photo on the phone lands on the Mac. One app per device, paid once.

🔒 Everything stays inside your home. No servers, no accounts, no subscription, no tracking.

Pick two devices. See what they can do.

Every device below talks to every other one. Choose the two sitting in your home and the answer is exact, including what it costs and what it will not do.

Click one device, then another. Click the same one twice for two of them, like two PCs in the house.

Connect

Five things people actually do with it

Not a feature list. These are the reasons families install it and keep it.

🎬

Watch what you already own

The films and series on a computer play on the television, the tablet or the phone, streamed over your Wi-Fi. A two hour film starts in seconds because nothing is copied first. Series keep their seasons, their artwork and their subtitles.

PC and Mac → TV, phone, tablet

📤

Move a file without a cable

Drag a file onto a computer to send it. Share to HearthWire from any app on the phone and it lands where you chose. No cable, no cloud account, no emailing yourself a photo and hoping the quality survives.

Every device to every other

🖥️

Help someone from the next room

They press "I need help" and choose whether you may look or take control. A red bar with a Stop button sits on their screen the whole time. No support fee, no stranger with remote access to a parent's computer.

PC, Mac, phone and tablet

💬

Reach the house without a group chat

A message pops up on the other screen, including the television in the middle of a film. Ask for a reply and it stays there until they answer. Every message is kept on your own machine, so nothing is lost.

Every device

🖨️

Use the printer that lives on one PC

Plug the printer into one computer and print from the others. It appears in every app's print dialog like a printer of your own, with no drivers to hunt down.

Windows PCs

🖼️

Keep the family photos in one place

One shared album everyone can add to, living on your own computers instead of on somebody else's server. Look through it on the big screen with a remote instead of a mouse.

Every device

What it costs, in full, up front

One app per kind of device. Tick what is actually in your home.

Your household

No trial that expires, no subscription, no upsell inside the app.

$0.00 Pick the devices you own
Paid once, in the store your device already uses. Each app then installs on the devices signed in to that same account (Microsoft allows up to 10 Windows PCs, Apple and Google set no number). Prices are the store list prices and may vary by country.
🔒

Private because there is nowhere else to go

This is not a privacy promise, it is the architecture. There is no server to send anything to and no account to sign into. Your devices find each other on your own Wi-Fi and talk directly, encrypted. We could not read your files if we wanted to.

And the honest part: HearthWire works on your home network, not across the internet. Everything has to be on the same Wi-Fi. Viewing or controlling somebody's screen always needs their permission first, and they can stop it at any moment.

Privacy Policy · Terms of Use

Before you buy

The five things worth knowing first.

Do I need it on every device?
Yes, and that is how it works. Each device runs the app for its own kind of hardware, and that is how they find and talk to each other. There is no central box, nothing to install on your router, and nothing to configure. The first device creates the home network, the rest ask to join and you approve them by matching a short number on both screens.
Does it need the internet, or an account?
Neither. It runs over your home Wi-Fi or cable. There is nothing to sign up for, nothing in the cloud, and no password to forget. Your internet can be down and HearthWire keeps working.
Is it a subscription?
No. You pay once per kind of device, in the store that device already uses, and it is yours. There is no trial that expires, no monthly fee and no upsell inside the app.
I have three PCs at home. Do I pay three times?
No. You buy each app once, in the store that device already uses, and it installs on the devices signed in to that same account. Microsoft allows a purchased Store app on up to 10 Windows PCs on one Microsoft account. Apple and Google publish no number at all: the Mac App Store licence covers the Apple products you own or control, and Google Play covers the devices on your Google account. So a house with four PCs and two Android phones pays for the Windows app once and the Android app once.
Will it work on my television?
HearthWire TV is built for Android TV and Google TV, which covers most sets sold since 2017, plus Chromecast with Google TV and NVIDIA Shield. It does not run on Samsung or LG televisions, which use their own systems. If yours is one of those, an inexpensive Android TV stick is the usual answer. The television also needs a PC, a Mac or an Android phone at home running HearthWire, because that is where your films actually live.
What are the limits I should know about?
Three, and we would rather you heard them here. An iPhone or iPad shares its own folders only while the app is open, because Apple suspends apps in the background. On Android, the system only lets an app see media, so films, photos and music are shared while documents are sent instead of browsed. To let somebody take control of a Mac, you add the free Mac Helper. Everything else works in both directions.
Can somebody else join my network?
Only a device you approve. When a new one asks to join, a short number appears on both screens and you approve it only if they match. Until you do, it cannot see your shared folders or send you anything, and you can block a device at any time.

Start with the two devices you use most.

Add the rest whenever you like. They all join the same home network.

🖥️ HearthWire for Windows and Mac 📱 For Android 📲 For iPhone and iPad 📺 For the television