Connect a spare Android phone to Allternit Desktop, with no cable, and your bot can look at its screen, tap, type, swipe, open apps and do plain-English tasks on it. With your approval each time, it can also send a text or place a call from the phone’s own SIM. Connecting a phone is Desktop only: adb runs in the Desktop app. On ai.allternit.com and the m.allternit.com phone app, Settings → Computers → Phones shows “Connect a phone from Allternit Desktop.” and the paired phone is usable from every device. For a bot’s own number and live AI calls, see Messaging channels and Calls and texts in threads.

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What you need

  • A spare Android phone on Android 11 or newer, on the same Wi-Fi network as your computer.
  • Allternit Desktop (macOS, Windows or Linux).
  • Optional: scrcpy to watch and control the phone from a window on your computer. The bot works without it.
  • Optional, for plain-English tasks: Python 3.12+ tooling (git and uv) and a model key for Google ARTEMIS, which Allternit installs on request.

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Connect a phone

Open Settings → Computers → Phones → Connect a phone.
  1. On the phone, open Settings → About phone and tap Build number seven times to turn on Developer options. Then open Settings → System → Developer options and turn on Wireless debugging.
  2. In Wireless debugging, tap Pair device with QR code, then scan the code Desktop shows. No QR scanner? Tap Pair device with pairing code instead, and type the address and six-digit code into Desktop.
  3. Desktop pairs, connects, and shows the phone with its model, Android version, battery and SIMs. Allow the “Allow USB debugging?” prompt on the phone and tick Always allow from this computer.
  4. Try it: choose Open the Settings app. The phone’s Settings app opens.
Paired phones are remembered and reconnect on their own when they come back on the network. Wireless debugging picks a new port whenever it is switched on; Desktop finds it again by itself.

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What your bot can do

Bots reach these tools through the allternit-phone MCP server that Desktop runs while a phone is paired.

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Texts and calls always ask you first

Every phone.sms.send and phone.call.dial shows a confirmation on your computer with the exact recipient and message. The default button is Deny, an unanswered request expires after two minutes, and approval applies to that one action only. Texts and calls are person-to-person. Limits: a text at most every 15 seconds, 10 an hour and 30 a day; a call at most every 10 seconds, 10 an hour and 30 a day. There is no bulk sending, and emergency numbers are blocked. A text is reported as submitted to the phone’s messaging service, not delivered. A call is dialled only: the bot cannot speak or listen on a carrier call (Android does not allow apps to capture call audio). Live AI voice calls use your Allternit number instead.

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Limits

  • Same network only for now. Phone-anywhere over the Allternit mesh is planned.
  • Wireless debugging turns off when the phone reboots or leaves Wi-Fi; turn it back on and the phone reconnects.
  • Messaging works on the phone’s own SIM; carriers may restrict automated texting, so keep it to real conversations.
  • Android’s default messaging layout varies by maker; if a text is refused, the bot is told so rather than guessing.

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For developers

  • Code: surfaces/allternit-desktop/src/main/phone-*.ts (phone-device-manager.ts, phone-tools.ts, phone-artemis.ts, phone-adb.ts, phone-gateway.ts).
  • adb is not bundled (Google’s platform-tools licence does not permit redistribution). Desktop uses an adb you already have, or downloads the pinned official platform-tools r37.0.1 from dl.google.com on first use and verifies its SHA-256 before unpacking.
  • Google ARTEMIS is pinned to one commit and installed on request into the Desktop data folder; its MCP server runs as a per-phone sidecar that stops when Desktop quits.
  • The tool gateway listens on 127.0.0.1 only and needs a per-launch token written to ~/.allternit/phone-gateway.json (mode 0600).