How to Run Factory Droid from Your iPhone: Tactic Remote 1.9 Adds Droid Support

AI coding agents are entering a new phase.

We no longer use them only to complete a function or answer a question about an API. More developers are handing agents entire tasks: understand an unfamiliar codebase, plan a change across several modules, implement it, run the tests, fix what fails, and return something ready for review. Whether an agent can stay on task, understand a real project, and keep its bearings through a complex implementation is becoming more important than the quality of any single answer.

In that shift, Factory Droid has become one of the most closely watched and capable coding agents. It is built around whole-codebase understanding, end-to-end execution from planning through implementation and verification, adjustable autonomy, and model selection for different kinds of work. No single benchmark can settle which agent is “best,” but on the qualities that shape day-to-day engineering, Droid is firmly in the leading group.

As more developers and engineering teams add Droid to their toolchains, a natural question follows: if Droid can take on longer and more complete tasks, can we monitor and guide it from an iPhone or iPad just as we do Claude Code, Codex, and Amp?

Now you can. Tactic Remote 1.9 officially adds support for Droid.

Supporting Droid Is Part of Our Commitment to a Multi-Agent Future

Tactic Remote began with a mobile control experience for Claude Code, but from the beginning our goal extended beyond a single agent.

Our longer-term promise to users is this: Tactic Remote will keep expanding support for excellent coding agents, so you can choose, run, and manage the right agent for the current task from one mobile workspace.

That direction has taken shape over several releases. We started with Claude Code, then added OpenAI Codex and Amp, along with Git worktrees, agent switching, session organization, notifications, and mobile Git review. Droid is the next step on that path—and an important one.

The reason is simple. Choosing a new agent should not mean giving up the mobile workflow you already rely on. However capable an agent may be at understanding code or carrying out long tasks, that capability is still locked to a desktop terminal if leaving your computer means losing sight of its progress, being unable to add a constraint, or not knowing when it needs you.

Our job is to let the agent keep running where it works best—inside your actual development environment—while extending supervision and control to the device you carry with you.

We Did More Than Add a Name to the Agent Picker

“Droid support” would not mean much if it only put Droid in a drop-down menu.

Real compatibility requires understanding how the agent starts, how it presents state, when it is waiting for input, and which information matters most when you are away from the machine. Tactic Remote 1.9 integrates with the Factory Droid CLI—the terminal version of Droid. Droid continues to run on your Mac, Linux, or Windows development machine and keeps its native terminal interaction; your iPhone or iPad becomes the mobile control surface for that session.

That means you can:

• choose a project directory and start a new Droid session from your phone;
• watch the full terminal output from Droid on the actual development machine;
• add requirements, correct the direction, or continue to the next step while a task is running;
• move quickly between projects, branches, and agent sessions;
• use Git worktrees to isolate alternative implementations from different agents;
• check the current Droid account usage in the sidebar before starting another long task;
• manage Droid alongside Claude Code, Codex, and Amp in the same Tactic Remote workspace.

We also adapted Tactic Remote to Droid's terminal behavior. During startup, Droid may show update, sign-in, directory-trust, or mode-related screens. The system needs to tell the difference between a screen that is merely paused and a session that is ready for input. Tactic Remote waits for a clear interactive state so a queued task is not accidentally typed into a startup menu. Session identity, switching, and recovery also preserve Droid's state instead of treating it as an anonymous stream of shell output.

Our principle is not to force Droid to behave like Claude Code. It is to preserve as much of Droid's own character and capability as possible, then bring Tactic Remote's established mobile control experience to it.

Why Droid Belongs in a Mobile Workflow

Droid is more than another chat window that can write code. Factory's approach to Droid is especially well suited to longer-running work and more flexible supervision.

It Is Designed for Complete Tasks, Not Just One-Off Answers

Droid can take a natural-language task through planning, code changes, testing, and continued iteration. For a developer, that means a session might run for ten or twenty minutes—or span a much longer implementation. The longer the task, the less reasonable it is to require someone to remain at a desk and watch every line of output.

Mobile control fills that gap. The agent keeps working while you step away. When it needs a product constraint, a direction check, or a review of the result, you return to the same session from your iPhone.

It Works with the Whole Codebase

Complex features rarely live in one file. APIs, state management, databases, tests, and documentation affect one another. Droid emphasizes repository-wide understanding and coordinated changes across files, which makes it a strong fit for medium and large tasks in real projects.

Those are also the tasks where human judgment matters most at the right moments. You do not need to interrupt every step, but you do want to correct a mistaken boundary before it turns into a large diff. Tactic Remote makes this human-in-the-loop workflow independent of whether you happen to be sitting in front of the development machine.

It Supports Different Levels of Autonomy

Different tasks call for different levels of control. A small, well-bounded fix in a project with good tests can be handled more autonomously. A change involving permissions, payments, or production data deserves closer review.

Droid itself emphasizes adjustable autonomy. Tactic Remote does not replace those safeguards. It brings the session and terminal interaction to your phone so you retain a supervisory position after leaving the computer. The agent can make the most of long-running execution without removing the human from the workflow.

It Makes Choosing the Right Agent More Practical Than Betting on One

Droid, Claude Code, Codex, and Amp each have different model strategies, tools, and interaction styles. The best future for users may not be declaring one permanent winner in advance, but choosing freely for each task.

You might prefer Droid for an end-to-end feature, Claude Code for working through a difficult design, Codex for a well-scoped change, and Amp for reviewing the result from another angle. Tactic Remote is designed to organize those choices in one place, so switching agents does not require switching your entire remote workflow.

How to Use Factory Droid from an iPhone

If Droid already runs successfully in a terminal on your development machine, connecting it to Tactic Remote is straightforward.

Step 1: Make Sure the Droid CLI Is Installed and Signed In

Open a terminal on your Mac, Linux, or Windows machine and confirm that droid starts normally. Droid uses the projects, toolchain, and existing Factory sign-in on that computer. Tactic Remote does not ask you to create a separate account.

Step 2: Start the Tactic Remote Companion

On macOS, use the menu bar companion app. On Linux, use the tacticremote CLI. On Windows, use the desktop companion app. Installers and current versions are available from the Tactic Remote download page.

On the same network, the iPhone can connect over your LAN. To reach the development machine from outside your home or office, follow the Cloudflare Tunnel guide to configure remote access.

Step 3: Select Droid in the Agent Picker

After connecting to the development machine, open Tactic Remote settings and set the current agent to Droid. Then choose a project directory or Git worktree and create the session. Tactic Remote starts the official Droid CLI in that directory and presents the session on your phone.

Step 4: Give Droid a Task as You Normally Would

You can ask Droid to investigate a bug, implement a feature, add tests, explain code, or first prepare a plan for a complex change. For example:

Inspect the sign-in refresh flow on this branch and find the cause of users occasionally being signed out twice. Explain your diagnosis and intended scope first, then implement the smallest fix and run the relevant tests.

Once you send the task, you can stay and watch or put the phone away. Open Tactic Remote later and the same project, session, and Droid output are waiting in the same place. If the work needs a correction, add the next instruction directly to the session.

A Realistic Task That Suits Droid

Suppose you are migrating an older authorization module to a new policy system. The change spans more than a dozen files, two test suites, and a compatibility layer. It is not a five-minute task.

At your desk, you can first ask Droid to read the code and propose a plan. Once the direction looks right, let it implement. You head to a meeting or go for lunch while Droid keeps working on the development machine. From your iPhone, you check in and notice that it is about to remove a compatibility layer still used by an older client. You add that constraint, and Droid adjusts the implementation before continuing with the tests.

Droid has not lost any of its ability to understand the codebase, plan the work, or carry it out. You have simply removed the constraint that guiding it requires returning to that exact computer.

If the migration has two plausible approaches, create two Git worktrees. Let Droid implement a gradual migration on one branch while Claude Code or Codex tests an alternative on another. Use the phone to follow both sessions, then return to the computer to compare the diffs and test results.

That is what a multi-agent workflow means to us: not opening more chat windows for the sake of it, but letting strong agents contribute where they are most useful while the work remains clear, controlled, and reviewable.

What Droid Support Covers Today—and What Comes Next

Tactic Remote 1.9 currently supports the terminal version of Droid. You can start Droid, view and interact with its terminal, send tasks, handle native interactions, switch sessions, organize worktrees, and check account usage.

We also want to be clear about the current boundaries:

• Droid, Codex, and Amp currently use terminal mode. Claude Code's structured chat and dedicated tool-approval cards remain a Claude-specific experience.
• Initial sign-in, some directory-trust prompts, or steps that Factory explicitly requires on the local machine may still need to be completed at the development computer.
• Droid is evolving quickly. As its terminal interface, prompts, and capabilities change, compatibility will be ongoing work—not something we can treat as finished after a single integration.
• The Windows companion is still in Preview, and Droid's behavior also depends on compatibility of the official CLI with each user's Windows environment.

None of these boundaries changes our direction on Droid. On the contrary, the faster an agent evolves, the more valuable real user feedback becomes in showing us what to refine next. We will continue bringing Tactic Remote's session recovery, notifications, quick input, mobile review, and multi-agent organization into the Droid workflow. We will also keep respecting Droid's native way of working instead of defining compatibility as the bare minimum of “it launches.”

If you encounter problems specific to Droid—startup-screen detection, terminal keys, session recovery, Windows rendering, or anything else—tell us through GitHub Issues or at [email protected]. Details about your environment, Droid version, and reproduction steps directly help us improve the next release.

Frequently Asked Questions About Using Droid from an iPhone

Does Factory Droid Run Directly on the iPhone?

No. Droid runs on your Mac, Linux, or Windows development machine, where it continues to use that machine's repository, dependencies, and sign-in state. Your iPhone or iPad connects to and controls the session through Tactic Remote. You can start and use Droid from the phone, but code execution still happens in the real development environment.

Can I Use Droid Alongside Claude Code, Codex, and Amp?

Yes. You can choose a different agent for each project, session, or Git worktree and switch between them in Tactic Remote. When several agents are changing the same repository in parallel, we recommend separate worktrees so they do not overwrite one another's code.

Can I Still Control Droid After Leaving My Home Wi-Fi?

Yes. A LAN connection is ideal when both devices are on the same network. For access from elsewhere, configure Cloudflare Tunnel. The development machine must remain online, and the Tactic Remote companion service must continue running.

Why Use Tactic Remote Instead of a Generic Remote Terminal?

A generic remote terminal can transport characters. Tactic Remote also provides project-based sessions, agent detection and switching, Git worktrees, mobile-friendly input, notifications, recovery, and usage at a glance. Its purpose is not to replace the terminal, but to turn a multi-agent workflow into a control experience designed for iPhone and iPad.

From Four Supported Agents to More

Adding Droid to Tactic Remote is more than another item in the 1.9 feature list. It is another step toward the product direction we have promised.

Excellent coding agents will continue to appear and evolve quickly. Users should not have to replace their remote-control setup and reorganize every project and session just to keep up. Tactic Remote aims to be the stable mobile control layer: Claude Code, Codex, Amp, and Droid today, with support for more worthwhile agents to come.

If Droid is already your primary agent, get Tactic Remote from the App Store and install the right companion for your development machine from the download page. To see how four agents can share one workflow, continue with Mobile AI Coding with Claude Code, Codex, and Amp. If you often worry about an agent reaching its limit halfway through a remote task, read Leave AI Agent Usage Anxiety Behind.