Live Agents (Live Activity and widgets)

  • Mobile app
  • All plans
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What it does

Shows the state of your AI agents where you look without opening the app: one Live Activity for the whole room on the iPhone lock screen, in the Dynamic Island, on the Apple Watch and in StandBy, plus home-screen and lock-screen widgets. On Android, the same information lives in an ongoing "Live agents" notification (a Live Update with a status bar chip on Android 16 QPR2 and later) and a home-screen widget. It covers every agent CLI and every computer signed into your account.

It has three moods. While agents work: a status ring and each agent with its task and a running timer. When an agent waits for you: its question comes first, the Dynamic Island turns red, and a structured question or an approval can be answered with a button. When everyone is done: a summary card (duration, agents, files, lines) that stays 20 minutes.

Where to find it

  • Phone: Settings > Notifications > Live agents (Automatic, Manual, Off) and Discreet mode.
  • Phone: Activity tab > Follow on the lock screen (Android: Show the live notification).
  • iPhone home screen: long press > Edit > Add widget > AgentsRoom (Live agents, Quota).
  • iPhone Control Center or Action button: the Talk to Bot control.

How to use it

  1. Sign in on the phone with the same account as the desktop app, and keep the desktop app running.
  2. Leave Live agents on Automatic: the Live Activity appears as soon as an agent starts working on any of your computers, and leaves on its own once the room has been quiet for three minutes. It also leaves, with no summary card, when no computer of yours has reported for 15 minutes (lid closed, app quit), or when your agents have been waiting on unanswered questions for 30 minutes with nothing else moving; the next answer or the next working agent brings a fresh one. Only one Live Activity is kept on the phone: a new one replaces the older ones, and the phone checks it each time you open the app.
  3. When an agent waits for you, tap an answer on the lock screen (Face ID is asked first), or tap the banner to open that agent's conversation.
  4. On Manual, start it from the Activity tab with Follow on the lock screen; Stop following ends it.

Settings

  • Live agents (phone, Settings > Notifications): Automatic (default), Manual or Off.
  • Discreet mode (phone, Settings > Notifications): hides project names, questions and the answer buttons on the lock screen and in widgets (open the app to answer); counts and agent names stay visible.
  • The desktop's Send notifications to phone (Settings > Mobile) also gates what the desktop publishes for the lock screen.

Agent tools (MCP)

None.

Providers

All providers, no difference for the states. Answering from the lock screen works with Claude Code for its single-choice questions and its permission prompts (Allow / Deny), and since 2026-10-01 with Codex for its command and file-edit approvals (Allow / Deny). With the other CLIs the banner shows the agent's last message and an Open button.

Mobile

This is a phone feature. iPhone: Live Activity and widgets (iOS 17+; started by push while the app is closed from iOS 17.2), Talk to Bot control (iOS 18+). Android: live notification and widget; the status bar chip needs Android 16 QPR2 or later, and Samsung phones keep the regular ongoing notification.

Limits

  • Agent names, tasks and questions are end-to-end encrypted: the AgentsRoom server only relays counts. A computer the phone has never connected to shows counts and generic labels.
  • A Live Activity lives 8 hours at most (iOS rule); a longer session is split.
  • Widgets refresh on a system budget (about every 15 to 60 minutes, sooner when an agent starts waiting on iOS 26): the Live Activity is the real-time view.
  • Free text cannot be typed in a Live Activity or a widget: open the conversation to type.
  • iOS lets the user turn Live Activities off per app in the iPhone Settings app; the phone's Settings card says so when it happens.

Common questions

  • Why don't I see agent names, only numbers? The phone has never connected to that computer, so it does not hold its key (or that computer runs an older AgentsRoom). The card then says "Open AgentsRoom to see the details". Open the app once while that computer is online.
  • Does it replace push notifications? On iPhone, while a Live Activity is shown, the pushes for a finished turn or a waiting question are replaced by the banner update, and the "waiting" update still rings. On Android the live notification is silent, so those pushes keep coming.
  • I swiped it away: will it come back? Not during the same session. It comes back on its own when your agents start a new session after the room has been quiet; tap Follow on the lock screen (Android: Show the live notification) to bring it back now. On iPhone, a Live Activity swiped away while the app was closed can come back when you open the app: use Stop following or the Manual mode.
  • I tapped the Live Activity after closing the app and landed on a disconnected screen, or on "agent not found". Fixed on 2026-09-26 on iPhone: a tap that launches the app now waits for it to reconnect to your computer, then opens that agent's conversation. With the app already open nothing changed.
  • Several identical Live Activities piled up ("Computer offline", "2 waiting", up to five) and never left. Fixed on 2026-09-28 and completed on 2026-09-29: the server no longer starts a second one in the same session, the phone keeps only the freshest each time you open the app (not only when it launches), and one is removed when your computers go silent for 15 minutes or when questions sit unanswered for 30 minutes. "Offline" now only shows between 10 and 15 minutes of silence. Update the desktop and the phone app. Cards already piled up are cleared the next time you open the updated app; until then you can swipe them away one by one.
  • Why did the card turn grey and lose its timer? Nothing refreshed it for 10 minutes, so it stops looking alive: the ring goes grey, the running timer is removed, and the line under the count reads "Computer offline" followed by the time of its last update. It is removed on its own once your computers have been silent for 15 minutes, or replaced when the next update arrives.
  • Can I hide what my agents work on? Yes: Discreet mode.

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