iPhone and Apple Watch

The iPhone app is a remote for your Mac. It never runs a macro itself. Every tap asks your Mac, and your Mac does the work with its own permissions. When your iPhone and Mac are on the same network the tap goes straight to the Mac (see Faster at home below); otherwise it writes a request to your private iCloud, and the Mac picks it up. If the Mac is asleep, the request waits in iCloud and runs when the Mac wakes.

Both apps need the same iCloud account as the Mac, with Sync through iCloud on in the Mac's Settings › Sync.

The iPhone app has four tabs: Pad, Sensors, Activity and Settings.

Pad #

The Pad is a grid of tiles, one for each macro you have exposed on a Mac. Expose a macro in its Agent settings (agent.exposed), and it appears on the phone a moment later. Tiles are grouped under the Mac they belong to. A Mac that is asleep shows dimmed, with a line saying when it was last seen.

• Tap a tile to run the macro. A small clock means the request is waiting for the Mac; a spinner means it is running.

• A tile with a hand marks a macro that asks for approval first.

• Press and hold for Run, Run with inputs… (a form for the macro's inputs) and Dry run. See Debugging for what a dry run does.

• Edit Pad (top right) lets you drag tiles into order. The order is saved to iCloud and shared by every iPhone.

• Pull down to refresh.

A Mac that is on the same network as your iPhone shows On this network under its name, and its tiles are never dimmed as asleep.

A request that has waited more than a day is treated as stale, and the phone offers to cancel it instead of running it long after you asked.

Faster at home #

When your iPhone finds your Mac on the same Wi-Fi, a tap goes straight to the Mac, with no wait for iCloud. The toast says "over your network". Away from home, on a different network, with the Mac asleep, or if the direct route fails, the same request goes through iCloud, so a tap never gets lost. Sensors and tiles use the same route.

• Why iOS asks. To find your Mac, the iPhone must look for devices on the local network. iOS asks for permission the first time. Switchboard explains it in plain words after your first run and asks only then. Say Not Now and tiles keep going through iCloud.

• Is it safe? Only your own devices can talk. Your iPhone and your Mac each keep a private key in their Keychain and publish the matching public key in your iCloud account; each side checks the other's signature against it before anything is sent, and everything sent is encrypted. A stranger on a café network can find the Mac but cannot run anything.

• Settings › Local network has the switch, says whether a Mac is found on this network right now, and links to iOS's setting if you turned Local Network off for Switchboard.

• The first time, the Mac may need a minute to read your iPhone's key from iCloud, and the first tap or two go through iCloud until then.

• A run started over the direct route is listed in Activity until you quit the app; it has no iCloud record, and approvals, inbox questions and the Live Activity's step line still travel through iCloud.

Sensors #

A Sensor lets your iPhone start a macro on your Mac. Each one pairs something the phone can notice with one of your exposed macros. Tap + to add one. The kinds are:

How each works:

• Arrive and Leave. Pick a name, use your current location, and set a range from 100 to 500 metres. iOS only wakes the app for a place when Location is set to Always. Settings › Switchboard › Location on the iPhone controls that, and the Sensors tab warns you if it is not. The first reading for a place only records where you are, so adding a sensor while you are at home does not run it.

• NFC tag. Scan the tag in the app. To run with the app closed, write the link switchboard://nfc?tag=<tag id> onto the tag with any NFC writer app. NFC needs a real iPhone.

• Charging. Works while the app is alive in the background. For a guarantee, make a Shortcuts automation "When Charger is connected" that runs Run Macro on Mac.

• Focus. iOS does not let apps watch Focus. In Shortcuts, make a personal automation "When your Focus turns on", add the Switchboard action Focus Changed, and enter the same Focus name.

• Watch button. Shows a Watch button row in the Watch app. Your iPhone must be nearby.

Each sensor has an on/off switch, and swipe to delete.

Approvals #

Some macros ask for a yes before a step, especially ones marked destructive, and agents (see Agents and MCP) may ask before running one of yours. The request reaches you as:

• a card at the top of the Pad, with Approve, Deny and Review;

• a notification with the same three actions;

• an Approval screen on the Watch.

Review opens the macro's steps as sentences with the waiting one marked, a countdown, and Approve and Deny. An approval expires. If you answer late, the answer is refused, because the Mac has already moved on without it.

In Settings, Require Face ID to approve from a notification (on by default) makes the notification's Approve unlock your iPhone first.

Activity #

The Activity tab lists today's requests from your iPhone and what became of them, grouped as Needs a look (failed), Running, Waiting for the Mac and Done. Each row shows the Mac, the time and the device that asked, and a failed run shows its summary. A badge on the tab counts today's failures.

This lists requests only. The step-by-step trace is in Activity on the Mac.

Live Activity #

If a run you started from the phone is still going after 10 seconds, a Live Activity appears on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island. It shows the macro, the step the Mac is on, a progress bar, and a Stop button that asks the Mac to cancel the run. It turns green or red when the run ends.

Shortcuts, Siri and widgets #

The apps provide these actions to the Shortcuts app:

Macros show up by name, with the Mac they are on, so they can be spoken to Siri through a shortcut you name.

• Pad widget. A small widget with four tiles of your first Mac's Pad. Each tile is a button that runs its macro.

• Control Center. A control that runs one macro you choose.

Apple Watch #

The Watch app gets its information from the iPhone, not from iCloud directly, so keep the iPhone nearby.

• Pad. Your Pad as tiles. Tap one to run. The tile shows a tick or a warning when the run is done or has failed.

• Approvals. A "Waiting for you" row opens the request with the macro, the step and a countdown, and Approve and Deny buttons. The same two actions are on the notification.

• Watch button. If you have a Watch button sensor, a row to press it.

If the Watch shows an empty state, it tells you what to do: add macros to your Pad on iPhone, turn on iCloud sync, or open Switchboard on the iPhone.

Privacy #

What the phone and Watch send, and what they never see (the macro's steps), is on the Privacy page.