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A phone for agents · PhoneUse

One request, and an AI agent taps the phone screen itself to get into Uber and insurance apps it couldn't reach before

These are PhoneUse's own demos, released with its launch. Most of the phones in the videos are iPhones, but what plugs straight into Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex over MCP today is a cloud Android phone that PhoneUse rents out. No user results have been published yet, but the launch post passed 2.51 million views in five days. We gathered the demos and how people reacted.

Oct 26, 2026·4 cases

The launch video the PhoneUse founder posted on X on October 21 (US time). Source: Abdulla Ababakre on X
PhoneUse homepage (three Proof 'Watch it work. Unedited.' videos, 12 tools)Abdulla Ababakre — launch post 'defining a new category: phone-use', 2026-10-21 (as of 10-26: 2,514,138 views · 3,608 bookmarks)Abdulla Ababakre — launch thread 1. agents can’t use most apps (4 videos), 2026-10-21

On October 21 (US time), former TikTok engineer Abdulla Ababakre launched PhoneUse on X with a post that read "defining a new category: phone-use." PhoneUse lends AI agents phones that it runs itself. By October 26 the launch post had 2.51 million views and 3,608 bookmarks.

Sudip (YC P26), who is building the video generation infrastructure company Lamina Labs, drew on hands-on experience with phone automation: "I've experimented with phone automation myself, and getting it to work reliably is genuinely hard. Huge unlock for what agents can actually do."

The founder said agents can't get into apps like Uber, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Telegram, which have no API or keep it closed: "browser-use can't get into these apps either. only a phone can."

What connects directly to Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and Windsurf over MCP today is the cloud Android phone. It costs $0.024 per minute, or from $20 a month for an always-on phone. There is no free trial. Most of the demo videos below show a request typed into the PhoneUse console and an iPhone screen moving in response. The homepage says you can switch to a real iPhone tapped by a robot hand with a stylus ($99 a month) by changing a single setting. The docs, however, say this iPhone is a product you buy in the console that the PhoneUse team sets up for you, and that it is not part of the API, MCP, or CLI. So for now, the only phone you can call over MCP from your own Claude Code is the cloud Android one.

PhoneUse exposes 12 tools over MCP, including reading the screen, tapping, typing, swiping, opening apps, and reading texts. With them, the agent reads the screen, taps through it, and uses apps the way a person does.

Reference 01Official PhoneUse demo · Post 3 of founder Abdulla Ababakre's launch thread (Oct 21)

When a flight ran two hours late, the agent texted Alex to push the 3:15 pickup to 5:15

When a 'Your flight is delayed' notification appears on the lock screen, the console shows "I'll check what this affects." The agent opens the 'Airport pickup with Alex' event in the calendar, then texts Alex Chen in Messages: "Hi Alex, my flight is delayed by two hours. Could you pick me up at 5:15 PM instead?" The final result card says flight UA 2385 will now land at LAX at 4:50 p.m. and that the agent texted Alex to move the pickup from 3:15 p.m. to 5:15 p.m.

The founder introduced the video as "a flight gets delayed. the ai agent receives the push notification and proactively texts alex." The video doesn't show what the agent was asked to do beforehand.

Reference 02Official PhoneUse demo · 'Watch it work. Unedited.' video on the PhoneUse homepage (1:02)

It posted the latest video on the phone to Instagram, then reported back on Telegram

PhoneUse says this is an unedited recording of a real task. The console sits next to camera footage of a phone in a stand. The agent posts a video to Instagram, then reports the result in a Telegram chat. The video is in the Proof section of the PhoneUse homepage.

Request used in the PhoneUse demo

Post the latest video on my phone to Instagram with a short caption, then update Abdulla on Telegram.

Replace Abdulla with the name of the person you want to update.

Reference 03Official PhoneUse demo · 'Watch it work. Unedited.' video on the PhoneUse homepage (0:25)

Uber's API is closed, so the agent opened the app, checked the driver's status, and texted Alex an update

This video films a phone held in someone's hand alongside the console on a laptop. The console mirrors the phone screen. The agent looks at the Uber map, then writes and sends a text in Messages. The video is in the Proof section of the PhoneUse homepage.

Request used in the PhoneUse demo

Check my Uber driver status and text Alex an update.

Replace Alex with the name of the person waiting for you.

Reference 04Official PhoneUse demo · Post 1 of founder Abdulla Ababakre's launch thread (Oct 21)

It opened an insurer's app, started a renters insurance quote, and got as far as the name and birth date screen

The agent opens the app from insurer GEICO, starts a renters insurance quote for ZIP code 94107, and stops at the "About You — Let's start with your name and date of birth." screen. The video doesn't explain why it stops there. The top right corner of the screen reads 'Recorded demo'. This is the second of four videos attached to the post. The other three show the agent browsing TikTok, Instagram, and Reddit.

Request used in the PhoneUse demo

Start a GEICO renters insurance quote for ZIP code 94107.

Swap in your own insurer and ZIP code.

How people reacted

What people liked

  • “Everyone jumps to agents doing errands, but the interesting use case is testing. A phone an agent can operate is the first honest way to check whether an app actually works for a real user, taps and all. Mobile QA as a category is about to get eaten by this.”

    The founder replied, "Testing is one use case. Yes".

    Oppi (@theoppius) · Xx.com

  • “the flight delay demo is my favorite part. the agent sees the notification, works out what it means for your day and texts alex before you even check your phone. that's the kind of help people actually want from an agent”

    Adam James Hill (AI content creator) · Xx.com

  • “phone use is the next most important infrastructure primitive for agents and you're the best one to be building it congrats on the launch!”

    A congratulatory reply to the launch post.

    Dhravya Shah (founder of supermemory) · Xx.com

What fell short

  • “The part that should make people pause is "completing two-step verification". If an agent can read your codes, 2FA stops being a second factor and becomes the same one. The rule I'd use: let it navigate and fill forms, but codes, payments and password changes stay a human tap. «Stop and ask me before any one-time code, payment or account setting change.»”

    A reply to a post saying the agent can even complete two-step verification.

    JVCE (engineer and lawyer) · Xx.com

  • “the real test is whether it survives a checkout that makes you create an account first. that's where i quit as a human”

    Hasnain Bharmal (founder of jobply.ai) · Xx.com

  • “Their own docs also rule out several things: no test assertions, no running across many devices at once, no scheduler, no video recording, and no spend cap.”

    From a write-up comparing the PhoneUse docs with the author's own project.

    richard-better (maintainer of a rival open-source phone-use project) · GitHubgithub.com

  • “cool concept, don't understand why you cant just buy a second phone for less than the monthly fee then build the tap and scroll hardware yourself (and your activity is secure vs in one persons phone farm)”

    The founder replied, "we are mostly for enterprise who uses our phones / you can totally automate your own phone".

    Leon Khoshnevis (talent at EF, founder) · Xx.com

  • “true phone use when will be when an agent can use MY phone, NOT your phone”

    Sid Jain (DrDroid, YC W23) · Xx.com

  • “Won’t this just completely circumvent any sandbox? By making the full phone the MCP, it gives unrestricted internet access to models, and then gives them all the tools, and the environment to download any tools needed to do whatever they please.”

    Menachem Loriner · Xx.com

  • “Of course, giving an agent a physical phone doesn’t resolve the underlying problem. A real device isn’t proof of legitimate intent, any more than a human finger is proof that the person using it is trustworthy. An AI operating a smartphone could still make mistakes, exceed its instructions or expose sensitive information.”

    Guillaume Field · The Shrug Report on Substacktheshrugreport.substack.com

How to start

Sign up at console.phoneuse.com, get an API key, and add funds (minimum $5). Then put the https://mcp.phoneuse.com/mcp address and your key into the MCP settings of Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, or Windsurf, and paste in the starter prompt below.

  1. Starter prompt

    Read https://www.working-ref.com/en/library/phoneuse-2026-10 and suggest three first tasks worth trying on a PhoneUse cloud Android phone, based on my work and interests. They should be my own tasks, like tapping through the sign-up and payment flow of an app I built, reading notifications about my errands and texting the people I'm with, or replying to comments on my brand account. If I pick one, start right away. If none fit, open one of my apps (or an app I use often, if I don't have one), tap through it from the first screen, and tell me where it gets stuck. Stop and ask me before any one-time code, payment, or account setting change. When you're done, turn the phone off.

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