Touch Portal

Brief Overview of Touch Portal

Touch Portal is a remote macro control deck designed for PC (Windows, Linux) and Mac OS, allowing users to control their desktop software and machine using a mobile device (Android or iOS). It primarily solves the problem of needing a flexible and customizable interface to execute complex or repetitive tasks quickly, especially for streamers, gamers, content creators, and other professionals. The core approach involves using a mobile app to send commands to a desktop application, turning a phone or tablet into a powerful control surface. Touch Portal supports a wide array of applications through direct integrations and community-developed plug-ins. Notable differentiators include its multi-action macro buttons, highly customizable grid layouts and pages, support for older mobile devices, and the ability to use sliders for variable controls.

Key Features for Content Creators

• Multi action macro buttons: This feature allows creators to execute several actions with a single button press. Buttons are customizable with icons, colors, and text. Users can add multiple actions to a button to create powerful macros, and even incorporate logic functions for complex conditional executions. This significantly saves time by automating common sequences in streaming or editing software.
• Custom Grid Size per page: Creators can design pages with up to 110 buttons by customizing the grid size (maximum of 15 rows or columns with Pro upgrade). This enables them to have a dense control panel tailored to specific applications like OBS or Photoshop, keeping all essential commands at their fingertips.
• Unlimited amount of pages (with Pro Upgrade): The ability to create an unlimited number of pages allows for dedicated control sets for different software or tasks. For instance, a streamer could have separate pages for OBS, Twitch controls, sound effects, and lighting.
• Customize buttons and pages: Extensive visual customization options are available for buttons and pages, including background colors and images (Pro Upgrade), and animated GIFs on buttons (Pro Upgrade). This helps creators personalize their control deck to match their brand or preferences.
• Integrated Services: Touch Portal offers direct integrations for key creator software. This includes OBS Studio (scene switching, source control, audio, stream/recording, filters), Streamlabs Desktop (similar controls to OBS), XSplit (scene, source, audio, stream/recording control), Twitch (start ads, set markers, regulate chat, send messages), Photoshop, and Lightroom Classic.
• Control Software through available Plug-ins: The functionality of Touch Portal can be expanded via plug-ins for a vast range of software relevant to creators, such as Youtube, TikTok Live Events, Spotify, Discord, VoiceMod, vMix, Ecamm Live, VTube Studio, and many more. Note that using plug-ins developed by the community requires the Pro upgrade.
• Sliders: Users can implement sliders on their control pages for actions like controlling volume, light brightness, and other variable parameters, offering more nuanced control than simple on/off buttons.
• Logic Functions: The true power of Touch Portal is revealed with logic functions. These allow buttons to act differently based on the current state of things, enabling the creation of toggle buttons, radio buttons, master-slave buttons, and more complex automated workflows.

Target Users & Use Cases

• Primary creator types: Streamers (using OBS, Streamlabs, XSplit, Twitch, Youtube, Kick), gamers, content creators (video editors, graphic designers using Photoshop, Lightroom), and professionals seeking workflow automation.
• Experience level: The base version is accessible for beginners, while the Pro features, logic functions, and extensive plug-in ecosystem cater to advanced users needing sophisticated control setups.
• Team size: Primarily designed for solo creators, but the Multiple Devices Upgrade allows connecting additional devices, which could be useful for individuals managing multiple control aspects or very small teams.
• Specific use cases:
  • Live Streaming Control: Managing scenes, sources, audio, starting/stopping streams/recordings, interacting with Twitch chat, running ads, and controlling streaming software like OBS, Streamlabs Desktop, and XSplit.
  • Video and Photo Editing: Executing macros for common tasks in Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom Classic.
  • Soundboard Operation: Playing audio files (wav, mp3) assigned to buttons.
  • Smart Home Control: Managing Philips Hue lights, LifX lights, and other smart devices through integrations or HTTP requests.
  • Application Shortcuts: Simulating key presses and mouse actions to control virtually any desktop application.
• Content types: Best suited for live streaming, video production, audio management (podcasting, sound effects), and general desktop productivity enhancement for creators.

Touch Portal Pricing & Value for Creators

Touch Portal offers a free base version with limited functionality (two 4x2 grid pages). To unlock its full potential, several one-time payment upgrades are available:

• Pro Upgrade ($13.99): This is the main upgrade, unlocking:
  • Unlimited pages.
  • Variable grid sizes (up to 110 buttons).
  • Animated GIF images on buttons.
  • Customizable page backgrounds (colors/images).
  • Remote control for OBS.
  • Use of Values (custom states) and Events (global events).
  • Ability to use community-created plug-ins.
• Multiple Devices Upgrade ($6.99): Allows connecting additional mobile devices to the same desktop instance, each with its own active page.
• Icon Editor Graphics Upgrade ($3.49): Provides tools to edit and enhance icons directly within Touch Portal (color overlays, gradients, strokes, shadows, image/text layers).
• Edge Graphics Upgrade ($1.09): Adds options for custom borders, roundness, and margins for pages and buttons.
• RGB Graphics Upgrade ($1.09): Enables pulsating and animated RGB effects for page/button borders and backgrounds.
• RetroLC Graphics Upgrade ($1.09): Offers retro sci-fi themed effects for buttons.

All purchases are one-time payments for a lifetime license but are tied to the specific app store account (Google Play for Android, Apple AppStore for iOS) and are not transferable between platforms. If you use both Android and iOS devices, you'll need to purchase upgrades on both stores.

The value for creators is high, offering a powerful, customizable control system for a relatively low, one-time investment, especially when compared to dedicated hardware macro pads.

Bottom Line: Should Content Creators Choose Touch Portal?

Yes, content creators, particularly streamers, gamers, and those who heavily use software like OBS, Streamlabs, Twitch, or Adobe Creative Suite, should strongly consider Touch Portal. Its strength lies in its deep customization, powerful multi-action macro capabilities with logic functions, and a broad ecosystem of integrations and plug-ins. The ability to repurpose an old phone or tablet into a sophisticated control deck is a significant advantage. The one-time payment model for upgrades offers excellent long-term value. For creators seeking to automate workflows, improve production quality, and have a highly personalized control interface, Touch Portal for creators is an excellent choice. The free version provides a good starting point to evaluate its core benefits before committing to paid upgrades.