Remote phone control from any browser

Remote phone control is seeing a smartphone’s current screen on another computer and sending real input to that handset: a tap at a coordinate, a swipe with a start and end, a long-press, or text into the focused field. On FleetDeck that happens in the browser for devices you enroll yourself — not a virtual Android image, and not a rented cloud iPhone you can check out today.

The hardware stays wherever you left it. A small agent on that hardware streams frames to a FleetDeck relay and applies the events your browser sends. Relays hold frames in memory only long enough to forward them. The session is not recorded, archived, or used to train models.

People who already have a spare phone on a desk, in a drawer, or in another room and want to use it without walking over. Typical jobs: checking an SMS, finishing setup on a device that has to stay on a specific SIM, reproducing a mobile bug while you sit at a keyboard, or handing a teammate a live view of one enrolled phone.

If you are building a whole shelf of devices, read phone farm for the physical side and remote phone farm for shared access. If you do not want to own the hardware, the cloud iPhone waitlist is the honest path. Nothing on this page assumes a rental is in stock.

The live view forwards a small, named set of events. You do not run ADB from your laptop for day-to-day control, and you do not expose the phone with a public IP.

• Both platforms. Tap, double-tap, long-press, swipe, and typed text into the focused field.
• Android extras. Home, Back, Recents, lock, and screenshot, mapped from the live-view chrome.
• iPhone extras. Gestures go through FleetDeckTouch after you click Start touch. FleetDeckTouch has no useful home-screen UI; Start touch launches it. After a reboot you click Start touch again — the runner does not auto-start.

Two people should not fight over one device at the same time and expect a clean cursor. Treat the phone like a single seat. Team assignment lives on remote phone farm.

You add a device in the dashboard and copy a one-time token. On Android you install the FleetDeck APK, paste the token, grant screen-capture consent, and enable the accessibility service. On iPhone you follow Install: SideStore, FleetDeckConnect (broadcast the screen), a one-time USB Bootstrapper run for Apple pairing records, then FleetDeckTouch for gestures.

After that, the agent connects out to a hosted relay (Europe, United States, or Asia, plus extra European regions). Your browser joins the same relay. Input events are normalized (tap, double-tap, long-press, swipe, text, key, system button) and mapped to device pixels. There is no inbound port-forward and no requirement that you share a LAN with the phone.

Android can run this path without root. Root is optional for people who want input-based injection. The default is the stock accessibility path. One Android step cannot be skipped without root: you must tap “Start now” on the system screen-capture prompt after install or reboot.

A stock Android phone, the FleetDeck APK from the dashboard pair flow, the accessibility service on, and MediaProjection consent accepted. USB debugging helps the first-time dashboard USB helper. Mobile data is fine for the outbound relay. There is no free tier — a paid plan has to exist before the phone can stay connected.

FLAG_SECURE apps (many banks, some authenticators) capture as black. That is an operating system rule. FleetDeck does not bypass it. After some reboots, someone still has to tap “Start now” on the capture prompt unless you are on the optional root path.

A stock, non-jailbroken iPhone on iOS 14 or later (the install guide lists tests on 17.x and 26.x). You use a free Apple ID, not a paid Apple Developer Program. First-time setup is about 20 minutes on a Mac or Windows PC; afterward you do not need that computer on the desk for day-to-day control.

1. Enroll the device in the dashboard: Add device → iPhone → SideStore · no jailbreak → copy the access key.
2. Install SideStore 0.6.4 nightly or newer over USB (SideServer on Windows, AltServer or SideServer on Mac). Stable 0.6.3 breaks refresh on newer iOS — do not install that build. Sign in with the free Apple ID, enable Developer Mode if asked, and turn on SideStore’s LocalDevVPN.
3. SideStore-install FleetDeckConnect, paste the access key, Start Broadcast. The dashboard should show Online and a live picture.
4. Run the USB Bootstrapper once. It uploads the UDID and Apple pairing records — you never type the UDID. Then SideStore-install FleetDeckTouch with the same Apple ID.
5. In live view, wake and unlock the phone, then click Start touch. If the iPhone is away from the Mac that started touch, follow the FleetDeck VPN (Tailscale) step in the iPhone setup guide. That VPN reaches Apple’s developer services. It is not a substitute for the outbound screen relay, and it is not SideStore’s LocalDevVPN.

A jailbreak is not required. Already-jailbroken devices can use the separate path at /install/ios. Stock iPhones should stay on SideStore.

Remote touch has a hard gate: the iPhone must be awake, unlocked, and on Wi-Fi whenever you control it. iOS shuts down the developer services we use if the device is locked or Wi-Fi is off. Cellular-only is not supported for that touch path. A passcode is fine — you just cannot control the device while that passcode screen is up.

Plan the lock screen before you walk away. Set Auto-Lock to Never (Settings → Display & Brightness), disable attention-aware lock if it keeps sleeping the phone on a stand, and keep it on power. After a reboot, Start Broadcast again on the phone and click Start touch in live view.

SideStore’s LocalDevVPN should stay enabled so the two sideloaded apps re-sign every 7 days. A free Apple ID can sideload three apps and hold two development certificates. FleetDeckConnect and FleetDeckTouch use two of those app slots. If refresh fails, remote touch dies even though the phone still has a signal. If FleetDeck will not open: Wi-Fi on, LocalDevVPN on, then open SideStore once.

Self-serve pricing is per connected phone, billed monthly in USD, card required. There is no free tier. Solo is $35 per month for one phone. Two to four phones are $25 each. Five to ten are $20 each. Eleven or more is enterprise: $500 registration, credited against $2000 setup, plus a dedicated server. Full numbers live on pricing.

Payments are final and non-refundable. Cancelling stops the next renewal. The period you already paid for keeps working until it ends. A failed card gets 3 days of grace (devices stay online), then enrolled devices are removed.

That fee is for control of hardware you own. It is not a rental. If you wanted a shipped iPhone with data included, that product is still a waitlist. See rent cloud iPhones.

Use a cable when the phone is already on your desk and you want the shortest path. Use FleetDeck when the phone has to stay somewhere else and you still need tap, swipe, and type from a browser.