Overview
- OpenClaw released native iOS and Android apps on Monday, June 29, 2026, that pair to a private gateway running on a user’s Mac or PC to provide mobile access to the assistant.
- The apps let users pair by QR code or setup code and offer chat, realtime and background talk modes, action approvals, sharing of text and media, and optional device capability access such as camera, location, contacts, calendar and photos.
- Gateways remain self-hosted and let users plug in API keys for models from Claude, OpenAI, Gemini and others so those models can act on messaging, files and browsers stored on the gateway machine.
- Security and privacy trade-offs include exposure to prompt-injection attacks and the need to grant broad system permissions to the gateway, while device access is controlled by platform permissions on iOS and Android.
- Early Android feedback shows rough UI and pairing problems for some users, and the native apps mark a wider trend of self-hosted agent tools moving from desktop-only setups to always-available mobile control, which raises convenience and new attack-surface risks.