Updates & release notes

Netflix and Hulu join the Launch tab July 27, 2026 · live

• Linux service Your streaming apps show up next to your games.service 2.9.57

  The Launch tab used to list only what you had installed through Steam, which on a SteamOS or Bazzite box leaves out most of what you actually watch. Anything you have added to Steam yourself — Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Prime Video, Max, an EmuDeck launcher, a browser shortcut, Waydroid — is a “non-Steam shortcut”, and the phone could not see any of it. On the box this was built against, that was 5 things listed out of 36 that were really there. Tap one now and it opens on the TV exactly as it would if you had picked the tile with a controller, so you stay signed in. Nothing to set up, and if you have no shortcuts the tab looks exactly as it did.

• Bazzite docs Couchside is in the official Bazzite documentation.

  Bazzite now ships a Setting Up Couchside page in its own docs, plus an entry on its community links. If you run Bazzite, the install steps are right where you would look for them.

Update the box with couchside update, or let the app offer it. Streaming shortcuts appear on the app you already have — a shortcut without cover art simply renders as a plain tile.

Send a file to the box, and a preview that keeps up July 26, 2026 · live

• App Linux service Send a file to your box.2.9.29 · service 2.9.54 → 2.9.56

  A new card on the Console tab: pick anything on your phone — a ROM, a save, a PDF, a photo — and it lands in ~/Downloads/Couchside on the box. Big files are fine; they stream straight across rather than being held in memory. On the desktop, Show on box opens that folder on the TV so you can get at what you just sent.

• Linux service The screen preview works again — and is 2.4× faster.service 2.9.56

  If you had ever switched between Game Mode and the desktop, the preview would quietly stop updating — a stale picture, or nothing at all, taking about nine seconds to give up each time. It was aiming at the session you had left, which sticks around after it ends. The box now checks whether that session is genuinely still running, so the preview follows you between Game Mode and the desktop. Frames also arrive about 2.4× faster — roughly two seconds down to under one.

• App Skip 10 or 30 seconds, and a screen that stops staying awake forever.2.9.29

  New arrows on the Now Playing card jump back or forward 10 seconds; hold one for a bigger jump. And “keep the screen awake” now switches itself off after a stretch of no input, with a note about what that costs your battery — so the phone stops burning down in your pocket after you put it away mid-session.

App 2.9.29 is live on both stores. The Linux service (2.9.56) and Decky plugin (v0.2.47) shipped the same day.

Windows grows up: every launcher, one double-click July 25 – 26, 2026

• Windows service Epic, GOG and Xbox / Game Pass games appear next to Steam.0.4.0-win

  The Launch tab on a Windows PC listed Steam and nothing else, which on a Game Pass machine is most of the library missing. Your Epic, GOG Galaxy and Xbox games now sit in the same cover grid — tap one and it starts on the TV. The Launch tab also shows up on a PC with no Steam installed at all.

• Windows service A double-click installer.0.4.0-win → 0.4.3-win

  CouchsideSetup.exe sets the service up without pasting anything into PowerShell. It is unsigned for now, so Windows shows a one-time “More info → Run anyway”; the admin prompt after that is the normal Windows one. Upgrading over a running agent used to fail silently — and the installer reported success anyway — which is fixed in both directions: the upgrade stops the old agent properly, and a failed install now says so instead of claiming it worked.

• Windows service Pair with a PIN, and a Pad tab that stops going missing.0.4.2-win → 0.4.3-win

  Tapping your PC in “Scan for boxes” used to fail with unauthorized — the PC had no way to show you a PIN, so the only ways in were the QR page or typing the token by hand. It now shows a six-digit PIN on its own screen, same as a Steam Deck. Some .exe builds also shipped without the driver file the virtual controller needs, so the PC reported no gamepad and the app hid the Pad tab entirely; builds can no longer be made that way. The agent also keeps a log now, because on Windows it kept none.

• Website A place to start on Windows.

  couchside.tv/windows spells out what the phone does on a Windows PC — launch, type, drive menus and volume, act as a spare controller — and is clear that we do not stream your game off the PC. It stays on the TV; the phone is the remote.

Windows is still beta and newer than the Linux build. File anything you hit.

The trackpad stays alive July 24 – 25, 2026 · live

• Linux service No more dead mouse after the phone sits idle.service 2.9.53

  If the app was in the background — the phone locked, or you switched to Desktop mode — the connection could go quiet and the box would quietly drop it. You would come back to a green “connected” dot and a trackpad that moved nothing, and the only fix was force-quitting the app. The box now keeps the link awake itself, and your first swipe rebuilds the connection if it did die. Pointer, keyboard and controller all recover on their own.

• Linux service Updating the box from your phone finishes on its own.service 2.9.50 → 2.9.51

  On a box installed as a system service an update could quietly stop after downloading, leaving the old version running, because it had no way to restart the service without a password. It now restarts cleanly — including on boxes that also have Decky installed, which the first version of this fix missed. If it does stall, the update screen says the box is still on the old version and how to retry, instead of spinning forever. On an existing box, re-run the installer once in a terminal to enable it.

• Linux service A pairing screen that comes up in front.service 2.9.52

  On a desktop install the pairing screen could open behind the terminal window, leaving you staring at the install log instead of the QR. It now raises itself to the front. The “get Couchside on your phone” step also shows a single QR for both stores, so you scan once and pick your store on the phone.

• Linux service Desktop PCs no longer show a phantom battery.service 2.9.49

  With a wireless controller paired, its charge could appear as the machine's own battery — a desktop reading “On battery 15%” when it has no battery at all. The box now only reports its own pack, never a controller, mouse or headset.

Update your whole box from the couch July 23, 2026

• App Linux service Update everything from your phone.2.9.22 · service 2.9.47

  A new card updates your Flatpak apps and the operating system itself — SteamOS or Bazzite — without leaving the couch, together or one at a time. Because updating system software needs root, it is a deliberate one-time opt-in you enable on the box (couchside allow-system-updates on), which tells you exactly what it grants first. An OS update stages and applies on the next reboot, and the app says so plainly rather than pretending it finished.

• Linux service A guide that greets you on the box — now with store codes.service 2.9.45 → 2.9.48

  Finish a fresh install and the box's own screen lights up with a short animated walkthrough — open the app, scan, tap this box — that turns into the pairing PIN the moment you start. It now also shows App Store and Google Play QR codes, so if you do not have Couchside on your phone yet you can scan one to install it, then scan the big code to pair. And it opens reliably from Desktop Mode, where a browser-launch quirk on SteamOS used to leave the screen blank.

• App Settings you can search, and a drag trail worth watching.2.9.22

  Preferences grew enough that you can now type to filter them. Swipe traces render as a smooth glowing line instead of a row of dots, and there is a quiet, manual "check for an app update" in Setup › Account — it asks your app store directly and sends nothing about you.

• App Linux service Close Game actually closes it.2.9.22 · service 2.9.44

  The phone's Close button now reliably ends the running game instead of reporting success while nothing happened.

The Linux service (through 2.9.48) and Decky plugin (v0.2.42) are live now — run couchside update, or let the app offer it. App 2.9.22 is submitted to both stores: rolling out on Google Play and in App Store review. 2.9.21 is what is live on the stores today.

Cover art on Android, and a box that tells you more July 22, 2026 · live

• App Game art finally loads on Android.2.9.19 → 2.9.21

  Your library tiles now show real Steam cover art on Android — they never did before. You can also search your games on the Launch tab, and fold Stream-from-PC down to a single line when you do not need it.

• App Handhelds report their battery honestly.2.9.21

  A Steam Deck or Legion Go now shows its charge draw, power profile, and time until full — and storage tells the truth about how full a drive really is, including game drives like an SD card. There is also a Steam search button that opens search on the box and raises your keyboard for it.

• Linux service Deeper vitals from the box.2.9.38 → 2.9.43

  The Console reads more of what the machine is doing — memory pressure and swap, and the real shared-memory figure for the integrated GPU (it was reporting a fraction of what is actually there). You can also watch the box narrate each step while it updates itself.

• Decky plugin Keeping pace with the service.v0.2.38 → v0.2.40

  Routine signed releases tracking the Linux service.

Paste from your phone, and a keyboard that opens itself July 22, 2026

• Linux service Your phone's keyboard follows the box's.2.9.36 → 2.9.38

  When the box brings up its own on-screen keyboard — a Steam search field, a login prompt — your phone now raises its keyboard too, so you can simply start typing instead of hunting for the right control. Also new: a read-only probe of which USB devices are actually permitted to wake the machine, so "why won't it wake?" has an answer instead of a guess. Signed and out through the usual updater: run couchside update, or let the app offer it.

• App A PASTE button, and a text field you can see.2.9.17 → 2.9.19

  Typing is the worst part of a living-room PC. The keyboard bar now carries a PASTE button that sends your phone's clipboard straight to the box, and the field it types into stays visible while you work instead of hiding behind the keys.

• App The connection stopped dropping while you sat still.2.9.19

  Leave the app open without touching it and the link to the box could quietly die, so the next tap went nowhere. The keepalive now starts the moment the connection opens rather than waiting for the box to speak first. The Steam tab can also be swiped out of like every other tab, and Couch Mode no longer narrates each step it takes.

• Decky plugin Keeping pace with the service.v0.2.31 → v0.2.38

  Routine releases tracking the Linux service, signed as always.

App 2.9.18 and 2.9.19 are built and on TestFlight; 2.9.17 is what is live on both stores today. The service and plugin changes above are already out.

Hide what you don't use July 21, 2026 · evening

• App Turn off the parts you don't have.2.9.17 → 2.9.18

  Not everyone streams from a second PC, and not everyone points the volume keys at a TV. Both can now be hidden outright from Preferences, so the app shows your setup rather than every setup. Game tiles that already carry cover art stopped repeating the name underneath, and you can choose which tab the app opens on.

• App Clearer Pad labels and an Esc that's always there.2.9.18

  The Pad's mode labels now say what they actually do, Esc no longer disappears depending on where you are, and the power sheet's text is legible in both themes instead of inheriting whatever colour it landed on.

• Linux service Couch Mode puts your sound back where it found it.2.9.36 → 2.9.37

  Flinging the desktop to the TV moves audio with it. Coming back used to guess at the original output; now the service remembers the exact device it moved away from and restores that one — and if it can't be sure, it leaves your sound alone rather than guessing wrong. Disk readings also now report the drive you can actually fill, not a container mount that was never the real number.

Touch animations, and two handheld fixes July 21, 2026

• App See where you tapped.2.9.16 → 2.9.17

  Two optional toggles, both off by default: draw a ring wherever you tap, and trail the path of a drag. They exist so a screen recording or a support screen-share shows what was actually pressed — on a trackpad demo, an invisible finger explains nothing. Nothing is drawn unless you turn it on.

• App Suspend and Fling to TV work on a handheld.2.9.17

  Suspend used to insist on a wired connection before it would offer itself, which ruled out every Wi-Fi-only handheld. And Fling to TV was dead on an undocked Deck or Legion Go — the one place a "put this on the big screen" button is most obviously useful. Both fixed.

• Linux service Stop forcing X11 on a Wayland desktop.2.9.35 → 2.9.36

  On a desktop configured for Wayland, the service was pushing the session back to X11 on the way out of Couch Mode. It now leaves your desktop's own choice alone.

• Store 2.9.17 live on Google Play and the App Store.vc53 · build 71

  The first App Store update since 2.9.9 — it carries everything from 2.9.10 through 2.9.17 in one go.

Steam shortcuts one swipe from the Remote July 21, 2026 · morning

• App Steam's settings panels, one swipe past the Remote.2.9.15 → 2.9.16

  The Steam shortcuts moved off the Actions list and onto the Pad, one swipe from the Remote where your thumb already is. They only appear in Game Mode, because that is the only place they do anything. The Pad's status pill and mode tabs also stopped fighting for the same row.

• Linux service Success you can trust.2.9.34 → 2.9.35

  Some actions reported success the service had never actually confirmed, which is worse than an error — you walk away believing something happened. Those paths now verify before they claim, and say so plainly when they can't.

Five TV brands, one remote — and the right TV July 20, 2026 · evening

• App Pick which TV you're driving.2.9.12 → 2.9.15

  With more than one TV or display on the network, the remote used to drive whichever brand happened to rank highest. Now you choose the target, and the app tells you what is actually at an address before you try to pair with it — so aiming at the wrong device explains itself instead of just failing. TV discovery also genuinely finds sets now, and a successful pairing is visibly confirmed rather than silently assumed.

• App A swipe stopped latching the d-pad.2.9.14 → 2.9.15

  Swiping between Pad tabs could leave a d-pad direction stuck down, and Steam would happily repeat it forever. Fixed. Pairing a box now also lands you straight on the swipe Remote rather than somewhere you have to navigate out of.

• Linux service LG commercial panels, and text that goes somewhere.2.9.32 → 2.9.34

  Added a backend for LG commercial and signage panels, which speak a different protocol from consumer sets. Typing into a TV that has nothing focused now says so instead of quietly dropping what you typed, and TV navigation keys lost a round-trip that made them feel sluggish. Settings changes also save reliably again — they were following the working directory instead of the config location.

Cyberpunk Console, and stream hosts that tell the truth July 20, 2026 · morning

• App Console and Fleet, redrawn.2.9.11 → 2.9.12

  The dashboard got a proper visual identity — a living, breathing readout instead of a list of numbers. It is built as a swappable skin rather than a repaint, so the previous look is retained underneath and the two can be compared directly whenever something looks off.

• App Offline stream hosts stop pretending.2.9.12

  A stream host that is switched off now dims and says why, and you can hide the section entirely. The check reads Steam's own record of when each machine was last seen. It is deliberately cautious: anything ambiguous is treated as offline, because a wrong "online" is exactly what makes Steam offer you a multi-gigabyte install instead of a stream.

• Linux service Screen preview recovers on its own.2.9.31 → 2.9.32

  If the service started before the graphical session was up, screen capture froze on "capturing…" until you restarted it by hand. It now re-checks instead of deciding once at boot and living with it.

Stream from PC, what's running now, and Steam's settings July 19, 2026 · night

• App Stream from another PC.2.9.8 → 2.9.9

  Games your other gaming PC offers to stream now appear as tiles you can launch from the couch, using Steam Remote Play — no need for them to be installed on the box you're sitting in front of.

• App A live card for what's running right now.2.9.9 → 2.9.10

  Console gained a card showing what is actually playing on the box, and a companion card for when the box is serving a stream to something else. Both read the machine's own state rather than asking you to remember what you started.

• App Steam's settings panels, without the menu-diving.2.9.10 → 2.9.11

  Nineteen of Steam's settings screens — controller, display, audio, Wi-Fi and more — reachable in one tap instead of four in Big Picture. Every one of them was tested on real hardware; the ones that don't exist aren't offered.

• Linux service Faster recovery, and a controller you can pair from the app.2.9.22 → 2.9.31

  A trackpad connection that had half-died now recovers in seconds rather than sitting there feeling broken, and an abandoned session is cleaned up in twelve seconds instead of hours. A "Pair a controller" action opens Steam's own Bluetooth screen on the TV, and the Steam Controller is finally detected properly on the gaming card.

Boxes that come back on their own July 19, 2026 · evening

• App No more "offline" after an update.2.9.7 → 2.9.8

  Update a box from the app and it could still show as "offline" until you closed and reopened the app — most often on boxes you'd added by name instead of an IP address. The remote now keeps each box's current address fresh on every check-in, so the moment the box finishes restarting the app finds it again on its own. Proven end-to-end on real hardware before shipping. Rolling out on Google Play now; on TestFlight for iOS.

• Linux service Reports the address it was reached on.2.9.18 → 2.9.22

  The box now tells the app exactly which address the app reached it on — the missing piece that powers the self-healing reconnect above. Signed and served through the usual one-line updater: run couchside update, or let the app offer it.

The reliability night July 19, 2026

• App Input that heals itself.2.9.5 → 2.9.6

  An evening of live instrumentation — driving the real app while watching the box's internals — turned one vague bug report ("the trackpad stopped working") into five shipped fixes. The big one: if the connection to your box goes quietly dead (a Wi-Fi blip, a mode switch), the remote now notices within seconds and reconnects itself — no more live-looking trackpad that does nothing until you flip tabs. Rolling out on Google Play and TestFlight now.

• App No more silent tug-of-war.2.9.6

  Two phones on one box now play fair in the open: when the other phone holds control, your Pad shows exactly that — who has it, why your input is paused, and a one-tap Request Control — instead of silently ignoring your swipes. The Couch button also no longer vanishes for capable boxes after an app restart.

• Linux service Restart Decky from the couch — and honest buttons.2.9.14 → 2.9.18

  Decky Loader sometimes stops itself and its menu quietly vanishes until reboot. A new Restart Decky action in the Actions tab fixes that from your phone — and it only appears on boxes where it can genuinely work. Getting that honesty right surfaced a subtle, three-day-old bug class: a system file ordering quirk could silently disable every privileged action while everything looked configured. The installer now writes its permissions so they always win, and the service verifies them the same way the system actually evaluates them. Also fixed: a controller-device leak that could confuse Steam's controller settings over time.

• Decky plugin Self-healing installs.v0.2.26 → v0.2.30

  The plugin now repairs older installs on its own: settings storage, permissions, and the service template all migrate automatically on a plugin update — no reinstall, pairings preserved. All releases signed, as always.

Hold the guide button, land in Game Mode July 18, 2026 · evening

• Linux service A controller can now start Couch Mode.2.9.14

  Sitting at the desktop with a controller in hand? Hold its guide button (the Xbox / PS logo) for about a second and the box flings itself into Game Mode on the TV — no phone needed. A quick tap still does whatever Steam normally does; only the long hold belongs to Couchside. It's off by default: flip it on per box under Setup → your box → Controller, pick how long the hold should be, and optionally pin it to one specific controller so a guest pad can't trigger it. Works with Xbox and PlayStation controllers over USB or Bluetooth, and it never fires while you're already in Game Mode. Validated end-to-end on real hardware before shipping.

• App 2.9.5 — the Controller card, plus honest labels.2.9.4 → 2.9.5

  Rolling out on Google Play now, iOS to follow: the new Controller card in Setup (the switch for the guide-button hold), Actions labels that say what an action actually does ("ends your session") instead of shouting DANGER, the setup link landing on the install instructions, and the Settings footer finally reporting its own version correctly.

• Decky plugin Settings that save — and one template everywhere.v0.2.23 → v0.2.26

  Found while testing on a Decky-only box: the plugin kept the service's settings file somewhere the service itself wasn't allowed to write, so TV pairings and preferences silently failed to save. Fixed — existing installs migrate automatically on the next plugin update, pairings preserved. The plugin also now ships the same service template the one-line installer uses instead of its own copy, so the two install paths can't drift apart again. v0.2.26 bundles service 2.9.14; all releases signed as always.

• Linux service Naming: it's the Couchside service now.

  Testers told us "agent" sounds like an AI thing. It isn't — it's a small service that runs on your box — so the app, the docs, and this site now just call it that. Nothing technical changed; every existing install keeps working untouched.

PIN pairing, five TV brands & wake-by-relay July 18, 2026

• App Pairing without typing an IP.2.8.6 → 2.9.4

  Tap Scan for boxes and the app finds every Couchside box on your network; pick one and it shows a PIN on its own screen — type that in and you're paired. No IP addresses, no tokens, no QR hunting. (iPhones can't use the usual network broadcast — Apple blocks it — so the app quietly sweeps the network over HTTP instead. Same result, both platforms.)

• App The TV side grows up: five brands, one remote.2.9.4

  The Pad tab now drives LG webOS, Samsung, Roku, Google TV, and Hisense sets: scan the network to find your TV, pair from the app, then use the D-pad, a dedicated SOURCE key for input switching, power and mute, and text entry that pops your phone keyboard when a webOS search field wants typing. Your phone's hardware volume buttons drive the TV from every remote surface — the button you already reach for just works.

• Linux service One box can wake another.2.9.5 → 2.9.13

  New wake relay: an awake Couchside box can send the magic packet that wakes a sleeping one. That matters on iPhone, where Apple blocks the app from sending Wake-on-LAN directly — now the app just asks any awake box to do it. Also in this run: TV discovery on the box side, the Hisense (VIDAA) backend, and the settings store moved to a proper home so TV pairing can't hit a permissions wall.

• Store 2.9.3 and 2.9.4 live on Google Play.vc34 · vc37

  Two production rollouts in one day, and Play release notes are now part of the release pipeline itself — every future update ships with real notes instead of "bug fixes and improvements".

Apple-TV-fast, marquee select & honest downloads July 17, 2026

• App Instant, no-stick control.2.8.2 → 2.8.6

  A pass on responsiveness after real-world use: the app now reaches your box by its cached IP first (a ~1.6 s name-lookup hitch on reconnect is gone), recovers instantly after a Wi-Fi blip, and the first swipe or keypress of a session lands immediately instead of dropping. Measured warm input is 6–8 ms — the occasional "sticky" feel is gone.

• App Double-tap-and-drag to select.2.8.6

  On the trackpad surfaces, tap then keep your finger down and drag to rubber-band a selection — just like click-dragging over files on a desktop.

• App Downloads that tell the truth.2.8.6

  The Launch tab now separates what Steam is actually downloading from its queued-update backlog (which used to look like a dozen downloads stuck for days). Plus: the Fleet dashboard no longer hangs on "probing…", and Setup gains a "Set up a box" link and an app-version line.

• Linux service Instant first input; active-vs-queued downloads.2.9.0 → 2.9.4

  The virtual controller/mouse/keyboard are ready the instant you connect (no half-second warm-up), control hand-off between two phones is immediate, and /api/downloads reports only what's truly moving.

• Decky plugin Service 2.9.4 bundled.v0.2.11 → v0.2.15

  Boxes on the Decky plugin self-update to service 2.9.4.

Couch Mode field fixes, same day July 16, 2026

• App Keyboard can't get stuck; trackpad circle fixed.2.8.0 → 2.8.2

  Two fast-follow builds from real-world testing. 2.8.1: a floating hide pill pinned to the top of the screen while typing — the old dismiss button could vanish behind the keyboard on newer iOS builds. 2.8.2: the remote's trackpad circle no longer fights the page for your finger (it used to scroll the view instead of moving the pointer), and the Couch button updates the moment a switch starts instead of waiting for the box to reappear on the network. iOS builds 31–32 / Android versionCodes 17–18.

• Linux service Bazzite: couch mode everywhere it can work — and a real display picker.2.9.0

  Couch Mode now works on Bazzite deck images (Bazzite's session tooling differs from SteamOS under the hood; the service now tries each mechanism in order), single-monitor desktops qualify, and on Bazzite the app's display picker genuinely chooses which monitor Game Mode lands on. Where the platform ignores the choice (SteamOS hardcodes its preference), the picker hides instead of pretending. Boxes update with the usual one-line installer.

Couch Mode & desktop navigation July 16, 2026

• App Couch Mode: fling your desktop to the TV.2.7.0 → 2.8.0

  Run your SteamOS or Bazzite box as a desktop with a TV wired in? A new Couch button in the header flings it straight into Game Mode on the TV — display, audio, even waking the TV over HDMI-CEC — and a one-tap Back to Desktop brings it home. The button appears only on boxes that can actually do the handoff. iOS build 30 / Android versionCode 16, rolling out now.

• App Desktop navigation from the remote.2.8.0

  On a Plasma desktop the remote grows Start-menu, Overview, and Esc buttons, and the navigation circle can flip into a mini trackpad (drag to point, tap to click, two-finger scroll). Every optional Pad row — mouse buttons, Steam buttons, desktop nav, the keyboard bar, hints — can now be hidden under Setup → Prefs → Pad Layout.

• Linux service Couch Mode endpoints + a first-input fix.2.8.4 → 2.9.0

  New /api/couch-mode and /api/desktop-mode drive the desktop↔TV handoff, validated end-to-end on real hardware. Also fixed: the very first keypress or click of each remote session could be silently dropped while the box was still registering the virtual input device — it now lands every time.

• App Gentler trial, easier reviews.2.6.0 → 2.7.0

  Shipped earlier this week: the app now warns before the trial paywall appears instead of springing it, and asking for an App Store review got friendlier and better-timed.

• Decky plugin Service 2.9.0 bundled.v0.2.10 → v0.2.11

  The plugin release carries the new service, signed as always — existing installs can self-update from the Decky panel.

Aerial screensaver, Fleet view & adaptive tabs July 14, 2026

• App Aerial screensaver, a Fleet dashboard, and tabs that adapt to your box.2.5.1 → 2.6.0

  Turn your box into an Apple-TV-style aerial screensaver from the power menu, with a theme picker (space, landscapes, cities, underwater) at 1080p or 4K. A new Fleet tab shows every machine you own at a glance. Tabs now appear only if the box you're on actually supports them, so a Windows PC and a Steam Deck each show the right controls. Plus live sparklines on the console metrics. iOS build 28 / Android versionCode 14.

• App Purchase and empty-state fixes.2.6.0

  The unlock now has a permanent row on the Setup tab during the trial instead of being buried under Setup → Account, and a bug is fixed where a briefly-unreachable App Store could make the app consider itself already unlocked and hide the purchase and restore buttons. With no box paired, the Actions and Launch tabs now show a calm “No box configured” hint instead of a red network error that retried forever.

• Linux service Screensaver routes.2.8.1 → 2.8.4

  New /api/screensaver endpoints drive the aerial screensaver on the box, registering themselves as a Steam shortcut so the video actually surfaces in Game Mode. Capability reporting lets the app hide controls the box can't do.

• Windows service Desktop shortcut buttons.0.3.0 → 0.3.3-win

  Windows key, Alt+Tab, Lock, and Task Manager as one-tap buttons — the things you actually need when a Windows HTPC is misbehaving from across the room. The Guide button no longer pops the Xbox Game Bar dialog.

• Decky plugin Self-update.v0.2.2 → v0.2.10

  The plugin can now update itself from the Decky panel — no more re-running the installer over SSH. Releases are signed, and the plugin refuses anything that doesn't verify.

Crash fix, media & screen preview July 8, 2026

• App Pad crash fixed.2.5.0 → 2.5.1

  The Pad tab could crash the app for boxes paired by IP address (with no host name). It now handles an empty host cleanly. Also new since 2.4.2: a live screen preview, a sleep timer with scheduled wake, media / now-playing transport (MPRIS), text-input passthrough, and Steam download progress. iOS build 24 / Android versionCode 13.

• Linux service Media, screen preview, and on-box fixes.2.7.0 → 2.8.1

  The service now serves cover art itself instead of the Steam CDN, reports now-playing over MPRIS, streams a live screen preview, and picked up on-box gamescope corrections found while testing on Bazzite.

• Windows service Parity build.0.2.0 → 0.3.0-win

  The Windows service tracks the same feature set — screen preview, media transport, and the shared TV-command plumbing that hands power to the Pi CEC bridge.

• Decky plugin Game Mode panel ownership fix.v0.2.2

  When the one-line installer drops the Couchside Game Mode panel into Decky Loader, the plugin files are now chowned root:root after extraction — matching a store install so Decky loads the panel reliably instead of skipping it on ownership mismatch.

Android launch & a personal pricing promise July 7, 2026

• Stores Couchside is live on Google Play.

  The Android app went public — no more beta track. iOS is submitted and sitting in App Store review; until it clears, iPhone users can ride along on the TestFlight beta.

• Website Pricing spelled out, in writing.

  The site now commits to it plainly: one payment, one time — $4.99 summer launch price through August, $7.99 from September 1. No subscription, no account, ever. Unlock early and keep a permanent Early Adopter badge.

• Website Linux-first, and honest about Windows.

  Couchside now clearly targets SteamOS, Bazzite, and Steam Deck living rooms first. The Windows service stays downloadable in beta — usable today, with rough edges being sanded off in the open.

• Website Pi bridge guide, and this page.

  A dedicated Raspberry Pi CEC bridge page explains how the TV-power relay works and walks through the full setup, with the installer now hosted right here. And the page you're reading — a permanent, running track record of Couchside — went live too.

• Website The in-browser demo is the real, current app.

  The try-it-now widget on the homepage was rebuilt from the latest app code, talking to a simulated 2.7.0 service — so what you play with in your browser, including the new TV remote, is exactly what ships.

The phone becomes a TV remote July 6, 2026

• App Full TV-remote mode.

  A fourth input mode joins pad, swipe, and trackpad: a classic remote layout with a circular D-pad, OK, menu/back keys, volume and brightness rockers, and a BOX/TV switch so the same remote drives either the PC or the display itself. Plus a true 0–100 volume slider (hold mute to reveal it) instead of tap-tap-tapping, and Logs tucked into Settings where they belong.

• Linux service Exact volume and every remote key.2.6.9 → 2.7.0

  Set volume to a precise level on both the PC and the TV, pick any display input from your phone (PC, HDMI 1–3, Home), and drive serial-connected panels with the full key set — arrows, OK, menu, settings, brightness — so the phone fully replaces the display's remote.

• Pi bridge New: Raspberry Pi TV power bridge.

  A tiny add-on service for a Raspberry Pi on your TV's HDMI port. It relays power, volume, and mute over HDMI-CEC on behalf of PCs whose own graphics card can't send CEC — common on Windows gaming rigs. Token-secured, LAN-only, one-script install. How it works and how to set it up →

• Windows service TV power on Windows, via the bridge.0.2.0

  The Windows service hands TV commands to the Pi bridge, so your phone can turn the TV on even when the PC itself can't.

• Windows service Taskbar tray widget.

  A tray icon shows at a glance whether the service is running, and opens a panel to start, stop, or restart it, show the pairing QR, and toggle start-at-logon.

• Stores iOS build 22 submitted for App Store review.

Windows installer & a Settings redesign July 5, 2026

• App Settings, redesigned.

  Setup grew into clean tabbed sections instead of one long scroll. Also new: TV input-switch and screen-blank buttons, a Done bar above the iPhone keyboard, and an “input paused” hint when Windows temporarily blocks remote input instead of the pad appearing silently dead.

• Linux service Screen blank without powering off.2.6.8

  Serial-connected panels can jump straight to the PC's input or blank the screen while the PC keeps running — so the display sleeps but your game doesn't.

• Windows service One-line install, friendlier pairing.

  Windows setup became a single PowerShell paste. The installer adapts its firewall rules so pairing works even when Windows calls your home Wi-Fi a “Public” network, and input survives lock screens and admin prompts without dropping the connection. A Steam Big Picture one-tap action came along too.

• Stores 2.4.2 submitted to both stores.

  The production release went off to Apple and Google, with Android builds auto-submitting from here on.

Windows arrives, volume gets serious July 4, 2026

• Windows service New: Windows support (beta).0.1.0

  The service now runs on Windows gaming PCs, not just Linux boxes — pairing QR, live status, power controls, your Steam library, keyboard and touchpad input, and a real virtual Xbox controller via ViGEmBus.

• Linux service PC volume, sleep, and wake-over-network.2.6.0 → 2.6.6

  Control the PC's own audio from the couch, put a wired box to sleep, and wake it over the network — the installer arms wake-on-LAN for you. A rapid-fire polish series followed the same day: volume shows Steam's on-screen overlay, targets the PC by default (TV opt-in per box), first presses land, and mute works in Game Mode with real muted-state reporting back to the app.

• App Power & volume bar, and more knobs.2.4.0 → 2.4.2

  A slim power-and-volume strip lives in the header on Console and Pad. TV on/off buttons, a wake-address field so a sleeping box can still be woken, keep-screen-awake for the Pad, a live mute indicator, and a batch of new preferences: sleep confirmation, default input mode, refresh rate, log depth, and pad-feel tuning.

• Stores Android beta begins on Google Play.

Couchside gets its name — and a website July 3, 2026

• Website couchside.tv goes live.

  CouchPilot became Couchside, app, service, and site all at once, and the site moved to its own home with an interactive demo — which within the same day was upgraded from a simulation to the actual app running in your browser. A dedicated pairing page went up at couchside.tv/pair.

• App Trackpad, typing, and your game library.2.1.0 → 2.2.1

  Trackpad mode with two-finger right-click and scrolling, a keyboard bar that streams typing straight to the PC, a Launch tab showing your Steam library as a cover-art grid, a landscape controller layout, and haptic feedback throughout. Manage several boxes with an Apple TV-style device switcher in the header, and the “stuck on connecting” Wi-Fi name-resolution issue was fixed by remembering each box's IP.

• App TV control debuts.2.3.0

  Power and volume for the TV itself — over HDMI-CEC, or RS-232 for commercial panels like Newline touch displays. Controls appear automatically when the box detects compatible hardware. A Quick Access Menu button joined the Pad.

• Linux service Multiple PCs, Game Mode switching.2.1.0 → 2.5.0

  Flip between Game Mode and Desktop from your phone, launch games remotely, and pair by pointing your phone's regular camera at the QR — no special scanner. The service also stays reachable when local name lookup drops out.

Day one July 2, 2026

• App Couchside is born (as “Rescue Remote”).1.0.0 → 2.0.0

  Built in a living room, for a living room: a live status dashboard for the gaming PC, one-tap power and maintenance actions with double confirmation, a log viewer, and guided setup. Within hours the phone became a full virtual Xbox-style controller with QR pairing, gained an Apple TV-style swipe mode, and was generalized for public release with a one-line installer for SteamOS and Bazzite.

• App The pricing promise, from day one.

  A 7-day free trial, then a single one-time unlock — $4.99 summer launch price, $7.99 from September 1, Early Adopter badge for early buyers. No subscription, no account. And since the app's source is public, anyone who builds it themselves is never locked out.

• Stores First iOS betas ship via TestFlight.
• Website First site goes live.

  The original marketing page launched the same day the project started (then at couchpilot.ets3d.com).