Phone and Mac together
Iris is one assistant across your devices. When your phone and your Mac are signed in with the same email, they share your chat, your memory and your files, and your phone can ask your Mac to do things.
Link them #
- Sign in to Iris on your Mac with your email.
- Sign in to Iris on your phone with the same email.
That is all. On your phone, tap Iris at the top of the chat and look under Your Mac. It says whether your Mac is connected.
Use one Mac per account during the alpha.
Is my Mac awake? #
The top of the phone chat shows your Mac's state:
- Your Mac is awake: Iris is running and ready.
- Your Mac is working on something: she is busy with a job.
- Your Mac is asleep: she cannot be reached right now.
Errands: get something done on your Mac from your phone #
Needs your Mac, on and signed in, with Iris open.
In the phone app, open Errands.
Type what you want, for example "Play some old Kishore Kumar songs", "Remind me to pay rent on Friday", or "Open Spotify".
Tap Send errand.
Iris does it on your Mac and tells you on your phone when it is done, or why it failed. You get a notification.
Screenshot: the Errands screen on the phoneScreenshot coming soon
If your Mac is asleep or Iris is closed, the errand waits. It runs as soon as your Mac is back. If your Mac does not pick it up within 24 hours, it expires and Iris tells you: "Your Mac didn't catch this one in time." That stops a day-old request from suddenly running.
Some errands do not need your Mac at all, like a question or a document. Iris does those in the cloud, even when your Mac is off.
See your Mac's screen #
From your phone, use Mac screen (or ask "Show me my Mac screen"). Iris takes a screenshot of your Mac and sends it to your phone. This needs the Screen Recording permission on your Mac.
Your conversation follows you #
What you say to Iris on your Mac, and her replies, are copied into your phone chat, marked as from your Mac. So you can carry on from your phone where you left off.
Documents Iris makes, on either device, show up on your phone under Media, links and docs.
What works where #
| Feature | Phone alone | Needs your Mac |
|---|---|---|
| Chat, questions, looking things up | Yes | |
| Documents (Word, Excel, slides, PDF) | Yes | |
| Photos, voice notes | Yes | |
| Memory | Yes | |
| Errands to your Mac | Yes | |
| Music on your Mac | Yes | |
| Yes | ||
| Reminders, calendar | Yes | |
| Timers and alarms ringing out loud | Yes | |
| Opening apps and websites | Yes | |
| Screenshot of your Mac | Yes |
What to test #
- An errand sent while your Mac is asleep: does it run when the Mac wakes?
- The awake, busy and asleep states: are they right?
- Iris saying "Done" on your phone when nothing happened on your Mac. That is a real bug.
- An errand that ran twice, or ran on the wrong thing.