Synergy roadmap - Upcoming features

Recently shipped

To see the full list of recently shipped features, check the release notes.

ARM64 support for Linux (and Raspberry Pi OS)

We recently shipped support for ARM64 in both Synergy 1 and Synergy 3. This allows Synergy to run on ARM64 devices such as the newer Raspberry Pi.

Synergy 1 (v1.19.0) and Synergy 3 (v3.4.0)

Flatpak for Linux (support for all Linux distros)

We've reintroduced support for all Linux distros by shipping Flatpak by popular demand. We still ship our standard .deb and .rpm packages, which we intend to support for the forseeable future, but for those running non-Debian/non-Fedora distros, the Flatpak is a good alternative.

Synergy 1 (v1.19.0) and Synergy 3 (v3.4.0)

Ideas for the future

Please note: These are ideas and not promises; there is no guarantee that these ideas will be implemented. The feature ideas and their descriptions can change at any time without notice.

Configuration profiles for different locations

Some customers tend to have multi-computer setups in different locations. Maybe you take your laptop to work and use it next to your workstation, then when you go home, you set your laptop down by your gaming rig. Whatever the use case, Synergy doesn't play nice with multiple locations using the same config. The only workaround at the moment is to reconfigure every time you move between work and home, which is not ideal.

So, to solve this, we'll introduce multiple configuration profiles; a separate configuration for each location so you can have different layouts depending on where you are.

Easier layout editing for large setups

Synergy 3 introduces a grid-free screen layout, but still limits you to a relatively small number of screens due to the size of the window.

There are two ways that we plan to solve this. Simply by allowing you to resize the window to give yourself more real estate to edit the screen layout. The second way is that we're improving our screen editor to add a pan and zoom feature, for people who are trying to edit their layout on a smaller screen.

Screen positioning and complex screen layouts

Right now, Synergy treats each computer's monitors as one big screen. For example, if you have two computers, each with two screens for a total of four screens, only two screens will be shown in the screen layout editor (one for each computer). Because Synergy has been around for a long time, this is a vestigial artefact from before multi-screen support was common. Showing multiple monitors as one big screen causes issues when they're in complex configurations relative to each other. It means that, for instance, if you had one large screen and one small screen of different dimensions, it won't appear to make sense on the screen layout editor.

Our solution to this will be to show all screens for each computer on the config screen, meaning that for each computer you'll see multiple screens (if you have multiple screens). This will allow you to accurately represent your real life screen layout on the screen layout editor.

Auto-update and one-click update all

Right now, to update, you have to download and run the installer individually on each of your computers, and sometimes you even have to dig out your physical mouse and keyboards and plug them back in.

We plan to automate this for customers who want to update all of their computers quickly and easily. You'll be able to select automatic update or manual on-demand update. We will still enable security conscious customers to approve the update using the OS admin-level security, but we'll ensure that you can do this while Synergy is still running. No more digging out that old mouse to update Synergy.

Auto-switch the primary computer

Synergy 3 makes it much easier than before to select which computer is the primary; the computer where your mouse and keyboard is shared from. But, what if this could be done automatically?

We plan to introduce a feature where just moving your mouse or pressing a key will switch that computer to be the primary computer, so you won't have to manually select it. This feature will be useful for people who still want keyboards and mice connected to all computers, but don't want to think about which computer should share it's keyboard and mouse; it will just happen.

Auto-disable when running certain apps

Some apps don't play well with Synergy. Games are a good example of this. Because games use the mouse and keyboard input in a very different way to Synergy, conflicts can happen, and a game may behave strangely (full-screen mode breaks, the cursor goes crazy, etc). To solve this, the user must disable Synergy before starting a game, and then re-enable it when they want to go back into work mode.

Wouldn't it be useful if Synergy simply disables itself when an incompatible app (like a full-screen video game) is running? You'd be able to customize exactly which apps caused Synergy to auto-disable when they start.

Cursor wrap around at screen edge

Some customers have a ton of screens. Sometimes more than four in a row! This creates an annoying problem: you can't move from the far right screen to the far left screen in one swift mouse movement (and vice versa).

We plan to add a feature where you can teleport your cursor from the far right screen edge to the far left edge (also vice versa). Technically, this is already possible with a custom config, but we need to make this feature easier to access by adding an easy to use GUI setting.

Sync the lock screen on all computers

In casual use environments, unlocking each computer manually can be annoying, especially if you have more than two computers.

As an optional feature for lower security environments, we plan to will let you unlock other computers from your current computer.

Wake-on-LAN (WOL) for sleeping computers

Most computers come with energy saving settings enabled by default, meaning your computer will go to sleep after a number of minutes to save power.

We plan on adding a feature for this scenario. When you resume one computer or try to mouse over to a sleeping computer, it'll automatically resume all the other computers using something called Wake-on-LAN (WOL), which wakes your computer up using the network connection.

Copy files and folders between computers

While you can indeed copy the contents of a file (i.e. text and images) between your computers in Synergy right now (known as clipboard sharing), you actually can't copy an actual file or folder between your computers.

We plan to add a feature in Synergy where you can copy a file or folder from one computer, then move your cursor to another computer and specify where you want it.

Mirror a folder on all of your computers

Windows file sharing has evolved into a difficult to use, unpopular feature. It’s been supplanted by cloud sharing because that’s what the mass market wants. Sadly, this leaves us multi-computer users to come up with our own custom solutions (such as setting up a file share or by using a NAS).

Wouldn’t it be neat if Synergy allowed you to easily share a folder to all of your other computers? We're not talking about on-demand copying of single files, but a shared folder that is easily accessible by you on any of your computers that synchronizes over the your LAN (not the cloud).

Portable version for user-only environments

Synergy 3 currently depends on components that need system-level access. We intend to make these components optional so that customers without admin access can use Synergy.

Multi-touch gesture support for macOS

macOS supports multi-Touch gestures: "With a Multi-Touch trackpad or Magic Mouse, you can tap, swipe, pinch or spread one or more fingers to perform useful actions."

We do plan on investigating the possibility of supporting gestures across multiple computers, but it will depend on the capabilities of the operating system.

Scriptable API for software developers

Wouldn't it be great if you could write some JavaScript or a Python script which is triggered by an event in Synergy? For example, when your mouse leaves the screen edge, or when pressing a certain key combination, etc. Or, maybe you can send Synergy a command and leverage the existing power of your multi-computer system.

We're not entirely sure what our users will come up with, but it could be great.

Share audio from one computer to another

Screen sharing apps such TeamViewer are commonly able to share sound from one computer to another. This is a feature that many customers have now come to expect.

We plan on bringing this feature to Synergy so that you can do the same, mixing all of your computers' sound into one audio output. Until then, you can always use two digital audio USB devices to share sound between your computers.