How does this work?

My brother just played a prank on me and somehow controlled my laptop with his cell phone so that it really spun. How does he do it? Is that an app or is it sending some virus on it? If so, what is the name of the app?

Probably a setting… What brand (Apple, Microsoft, …) is your device and your brother's device?

Probably just Teamviewer or an alternative of it.

Well, team viewer or such remote control software in general are very obvious on the laptop. It is more likely that a small amount of data was simply requested or sent via Bluetooth or linked Microsoft accounts on both devices. Depending on the performance of the computer, such hang-ups can arise