Starfish on your phone

Use Starfish from your phone, anywhere, while your Mac is on and Starfish is open. The phone talks to your Mac, so your chats, workspaces and connected apps are the same on both.

Turn it on

You need to be signed in to Starfish on your Mac. The phone never signs in itself.

1. On your Mac, open Settings → Remote.
2. Turn on Use Starfish from your phone.
3. Optional: turn on Keep this Mac awake while remote access is on. It stops the Mac from sleeping when idle, but it cannot keep a closed laptop awake.

Pair a phone

1. On your Mac, in Settings → Remote → Phones, click Pair a phone. A QR code and a short code appear.
2. Scan the QR code with your phone's camera.
3. On an iPhone, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. Open Starfish from your Home Screen. You can also choose Use in Safari instead.
4. Enter the code from your Mac and tap Pair.

Each code works once and expires after a few minutes. You can pair up to five phones. A phone that is not used for 30 days must pair again.

To unpair, click Remove next to a phone on your Mac, or Remove all phones. On the phone, Settings → Remote has Forget this Mac.

If your Mac cannot be reached, the phone says Your Mac is not reachable. Open Starfish on your Mac and keep it awake; the phone reconnects by itself.

What works on the phone

• Chat. Send messages, steer or stop a reply, queue a follow-up and answer Starfish's questions. Upload files and photos. Dictation works too.
• Approvals. Allow or decline actions from the phone.
• Voice. Talk to Starfish from the phone. See Voice.
• Notifications. Get a notification when a chat finishes or when Starfish needs your approval. Turn them on in Settings → Remote on the phone. On an iPhone, add Starfish to your Home Screen first.
• Artifacts. Artifacts open full screen. Back, or pulling the sheet down, closes them. Pinch or double-tap to zoom. Slide decks show one slide per screen; swipe to move between slides. Share opens your phone's share sheet.
• Studio. Open a deck, edit its text and use Tweaks. Tweaks and side panels open as sheets from the bottom. See Studio.
• Meetings. Record a meeting with the phone's microphone, read notes and transcripts, and ask about a meeting. If the connection drops, the audio waits on the phone and is sent when it returns.
• Automations. Create, edit, run and delete automations.
• Your team. See who is in your team and what it shares. See Teams.

Voice

Talk to the voice assistant from your phone. Tap New voice chat in the sidebar. Allow the microphone when your browser asks.

Your voice goes through your Mac, so the Mac must be on with Starfish open. Each start uses a one-time pass from your Mac that works only once. If your Mac cannot be reached, the phone says Your Mac is not reachable. Voice stopped.

• Mute, Pause and End sit at the bottom. Continue picks up after a pause.
• Voice pauses by itself when a call comes in or the screen locks. It then shows Paused: call or Paused: screen locked.
• Minimize the voice screen to keep talking while you use the rest of Starfish. A small button stays on screen; tap it to open voice again.
• Transcript opens the voice conversation.

When a chat needs an approval that voice cannot give, the phone shows Needs your tap with the chat's name. Tap Deny, or Open to decide in the chat.

Daily limit and one device at a time

The daily voice limit of 30 minutes is shared by your Mac and your phones. The voice screen shows how many minutes are left today.

Voice runs on one device at a time. If it is running on your Mac, the phone says Voice can run on one device at a time. Tap Stop it on the Mac and talk here to move it to the phone, or Not now. If it is running on another phone, stop it there first.

If you remove a phone on your Mac, voice on that phone ends at once.

What you do on your Mac

Some things only work on the Mac. The phone then says Do this on your Mac. It is not available from your phone.

• First-time setup, your AI key and model settings.
• Connecting apps or signing in to them. The Marketplace shows Connect on your Mac.
• Sync, Local Access and where data is kept on disk.
• The built-in browser.
• Ask about this screen.
• Changing local files, choosing project folders and Git work.
• Managing your team.
• Uploading videos over 95 MB.

Most Settings pages show on the phone but can only be changed on the Mac.