Claude Code on your phone: the four real options
You started a long run, you're away from the desk, and the agent is sitting on a question. There are four honest ways to deal with this. They trade convenience against privacy differently, and one of them is ours — so we'll tell you plainly when the others are the better choice.
1. ssh / mosh + tmux — the classic
Run Claude Code inside tmux on the Mac; ssh (or better, mosh) in from a phone terminal like Blink or Termius and attach.
- Good: free, no third party anywhere, works today, full control.
- Rough: no push when the agent needs you — you have to go look. Multi-choice prompts and plan review are miserable on a phone keyboard. You need reachable ssh (VPN/Tailscale) and the Mac must stay awake.
If you live in a terminal anyway and check in on your own schedule, honestly, start here.
2. Anthropic's own remote control — the default
Anthropic now ships first-party ways to reach Claude Code sessions from other devices (mobile app / web session channels). It's free and it validates this whole category.
- Good: zero setup, first-party, free. If you're all-in on Claude and fine with the cloud path, use it.
- Rough: sessions transit Anthropic's cloud relay; Claude only (no Codex); no Apple Watch app; nothing about rate-limit windows or multiple accounts; your Mac still has to stay awake on its own.
3. Hosted relays (Omnara, Happy, and friends) — the convenient
A cloud service relays your session to their mobile/web app. Works from any network with zero thought.
- Good: easiest offsite access; polished apps; some support several agents.
- Rough: your session content (code, paths, whatever the agent prints) lives on their servers under their policies, and it's typically a monthly subscription. See our detailed Omnara comparison.
4. Local-only mirroring — DevFob (that's us)
A Mac menu-bar app mirrors the sessions to your iPhone, Apple Watch, or Android device directly over your own network (or the Mac's hotspot), end-to-end encrypted. No cloud, no account.
- Good: push the moment the agent needs you; real tappable forms for multi-choice questions; plan text readable (and approvable) on a watch; Codex too; per-account rate-limit meters with auto-switch; keeps the Mac awake lid-closed in a bag. Nothing ever leaves your machines.
- Rough: phone and Mac must share a network (LAN, hotspot, or a relay you self-host) — by design there's no vendor cloud to fall back on. $15 once for the Mac app; the phone/watch apps are free.
Which one should you pick?
- You want free and manual: tmux + mosh. It's fine. It's what we did for years.
- You want zero setup and trust the cloud: Anthropic's remote control.
- You want anywhere-access and don't mind a relay + subscription: a hosted relay.
- Your code is sensitive, you want the watch, you juggle rate-limit windows, or you just want to own the tool: that's exactly the corner DevFob was built for.
Competitor and platform details as of July 2026; things move fast — if something here is stale or unfair, tell us and we'll fix it.