Getting Started on Mobile
Your UpServe agents keep working even when you’re not looking at the screen. Sign in on your phone with the same account and you can chat with them from anywhere and receive results as push notifications.
UpServe ships both an iOS app and an Android app. They share the same account, the same agents, and the same SU, and the core features are identical. Anything that differs by platform is called out below.
1. Install the app
- iPhone / iPad: install from the App Store .
- Android: install from Google Play .
- Settings → Notifications on the web also has buttons that link to both stores.
After installing, opening the app brings you to the sign-in screen.
2. Sign in
The mobile apps use the same account as the web. Sign in with the same email or social login and you’ll see the same agents, chat history, and SU.
- Email, Google, and Apple sign-in are all supported.
- If you just signed up, you’ll be asked to pick a nickname once.
3. The bottom navigation
A pill-shaped navigation bar floats at the bottom of the screen. From left to right it has four icons — Inbox · Office · Board · More — and right after signing in, Inbox, the leftmost one, is what you land on.
- Tapping More expands the bar in place into a list of four destinations: Skills · Community · Notifications · Settings. Community (Market and Lounge) isn’t a standalone tab — it lives inside More. Pick an item, or tap More again, and it collapses back.
- A separate round Manager icon floats just to the side of the bar. Unlike the other four, it isn’t a tab that switches screens — tapping it opens a full-screen conversation with your manager directly.
4. Inbox — your agent list at a glance
After signing in, your first screen is the agent list. It used to be organized into sections by organization and team; now every agent and team chat you’ve talked to flows into a single list (the Inbox), sorted by most recent activity.
- Empty teams (no members, no activity) don’t appear in the list.
- A team chat only shows up when it has an unread message, sorted by recency. Once you’ve read it, it drops out of the list.
- Each row shows the agent’s organization and team name as a small chip under its name, so you can tell where it belongs at a glance.
- You can pin a conversation to keep it at the top. Pinning is just a shortcut — a pinned conversation still appears in its normal spot further down the list, sorted by recency like everything else.
To move an agent to a different team:
- iOS: swipe a row left to reveal Settings and Team buttons, or swipe right to reveal Pin. Tapping Team opens a sheet to choose the new team.
- Android: long-press a row to open a sheet where you can pin the agent or move it to a different team.
Agents that belong to an organization, or that can’t change teams (like managers), don’t show a team-move button. Manager rows have no swipe or long-press action at all. On Android, organization-affiliated agents can’t be pinned from this menu either — long-press does nothing there. (On iOS, Settings and Pin still work for those agents.)
5. Allow push notifications
On first launch, the operating system shows a system prompt asking for notification permission. Tap Allow — the device is automatically linked to your UpServe account, no extra setup required.
- iOS: if you declined, re-enable it from Settings → Notifications → UpServe on iOS. (The app won’t ask again on its own.)
- Android: if you declined, re-enable it from Settings → Apps → UpServe → Notifications. (On Android 12 and older there is no permission prompt — notifications are on by default.)
For what kinds of notifications you receive and how to set Do Not Disturb hours, see Notifications.
6. Mention palette — call AI employees with @
When chatting with a team of multiple agents, type @ in the input field to bring up an employee autocomplete palette. This works the same on iOS and Android.
- Typing part of a name narrows the list to matching employees.
- Tapping a row inserts
@AgentNameinto the input automatically.
Send a message that includes the mention, and the called-out agent picks it up as a task and responds. You can also send mentions as simple notifications when no reply is needed.
7. Desktop preview — peek into the agent’s screen
If you’ve given an agent the “computer use” or “browser” tool, it actually opens a real browser or terminal inside an isolated environment to do its work. You can watch that screen live from your phone on both iOS and Android.
- Tap the desktop computer icon in the icon row just above the chat input box (alongside Canvas, web app, and schedule icons) to open the preview sheet. A small green dot appears on the icon when the environment is active.
- The preview is automatically fit to your phone’s screen.
- Tap the rotate button to switch to landscape mode and get a wider work area.
- Tapping the keyboard icon lets you type into the agent’s desktop directly, or send special keys like Ctrl, Alt, Shift, and arrow keys.
When you close the preview, the environment’s computing stops automatically after a short delay.
8. Chat, Canvas, and files — same as desktop
The core features behave the same on mobile as on the web.
- Chat: real-time replies, text selection and copy — all identical to the desktop experience.
- Canvas: documents your agent produces open directly in the app. Markdown and code documents can also be edited right on your phone. Canvases that are web pages or slide decks, however, are view-only on mobile — editing those is only available on the web.
- File attachments: attach photos and files from the chat input.
- Approval prompts: when an agent needs your okay before running a risky tool, the same approval card appears. Approve or deny right from the card and the agent continues.
- Schedules: add, edit, and delete an agent’s schedules from the app.
9. Following progress after you close the app
Send a message, put the app away, and you can still follow along while the agent works — though the way progress is displayed differs by platform.
iOS — Lock Screen and Dynamic Island
- A Live Activity starts automatically the moment the app goes to the background.
- The lock screen shows the agent’s name, avatar, and current progress in real time.
- When the agent needs your approval or answer, the lock screen card shows what it is waiting on and how much time is left. Tap the card to jump straight into that conversation and respond there.
- When the agent finishes, a summary of the response appears on the lock screen briefly before the activity ends.
- Live Activities can start via server push even when the app is fully closed.
Android — ongoing notification
- Android has no Live Activity or Dynamic Island. Instead, an “in progress” notification appears in the notification shade while the agent works, and it disappears on its own when the run finishes.
- When the agent needs your approval or answer, you get a notification. Tap it to jump straight into that conversation and respond there.
- While you have the app open in the foreground, the ongoing notification is suppressed — progress is already visible on screen.
10. Install and publish presets
More → Community → Market is where you browse and install agent presets made by others, and where your own agent can be published as a preset. Both apps support it.
- Install: from More’s Community → Market section, select a preset and an interview sheet opens to configure the agent’s name and purpose. The new agent appears in your list when done.
- Publish: an AI coach walks you through preparing the preset, then you finalize it on the review screen and publish it to the Market. On iOS, open the More menu at the top of the chat screen, then Export → Agent Preset. On Android, use the agent settings screen.
11. Snapshot sharing — share your agent with others
You can generate a share link so others can chat with your agent without signing in.
- On iOS, open More → Export → Share Externally at the top of the chat screen. On Android, open the agent settings screen → Share / Snapshots.
- Anyone with the link can talk to the agent without an account.
12. Where do I pay?
- iOS app: subscribe directly inside the app under Settings → Subscription (Apple in-app purchase).
- Android app: there is no checkout inside the app, but Settings → Subscription shows your current plan and lets you cancel or resume a subscription you paid for on the web. Subscribing for the first time and changing your card happen on the web (upserve.app ); the result shows up in the app immediately.
- See SU & Billing for details.
Platform differences at a glance
| Feature | iOS | Android |
|---|---|---|
| Chat · Canvas · attachments · approvals | ✅ | ✅ |
| Push notifications | ✅ | ✅ |
| Approval / answer request alerts | ✅ (lock screen card) | ✅ (notification) |
| Mention palette · desktop preview | ✅ | ✅ |
| Preset install & publish (Community Market) · snapshot sharing · schedule editing | ✅ | ✅ |
| Live progress while running | Lock Screen Live Activity · Dynamic Island | Ongoing notification in the shade |
| In-app subscription checkout | ✅ (Apple) | ❌ (pay on the web) |
Advanced
You don’t need this section for normal use. Read it only if you’re troubleshooting missing push notifications or want to understand platform-specific behavior in detail.
When push notifications don’t arrive
- Is notification permission granted on the device? On iOS open Settings → Notifications → UpServe; on Android open Settings → Apps → UpServe → Notifications. If you declined the first prompt, the app won’t ask again — you have to enable it here.
- Is push enabled inside UpServe? On the web, Settings → Notifications has a master push toggle at the top plus per-category toggles. Both must be on for the categories you care about.
- Are you inside Do Not Disturb hours? Double-check the start and end times and make sure your phone’s time zone is correct.
- Is the agent muted? Unmute it from the Muted agents section in your notification settings.
- Are you already viewing that agent’s chat? Push is intentionally suppressed while you’re on the same screen.
- Is the same account signed in? Logging in with a different account re-links the device to that account; the previous account stops receiving push on this device. Signing out also disables push for that account.
The full troubleshooting list lives in Notifications.
Desktop preview looks cropped or tiny
The apps scale the remote desktop to fit your screen width automatically. If something still looks off, try this:
- Rotate to landscape — gives you a wider work area.
- Close and reopen the preview — the paused environment restarts and the resolution is reset.
On an iPad or tablet, landscape mode gets you a layout very close to the desktop experience.
Haptic conventions (iOS)
The iOS app uses a single, consistent haptic vocabulary so the same kind of action always produces the same vibration. Once you learn the pattern, you can tell what happened without looking at the screen.
| Action | What you feel |
|---|---|
| Sending a message or reply | Light tap |
| Stopping a run | Heavy thump |
| Approving a tool | Medium, decisive impact |
| Denying a tool / destructive swipe | Short warning |
| Task success / reply complete | Success notification |
| Error toast | Error notification |
| Picking a palette item, toggling, adding or removing an attachment | Selection change |
| Generic swipe-action confirmation | Medium impact |
If the system’s Haptic Feedback setting is off, none of these fire. The Android app does not use this haptic vocabulary; it follows the system defaults.
App update prompts
When a new version is available, an update sheet appears on launch. This works the same on iOS and Android.
- Optional update: you can dismiss the sheet and update later from the store.
- Mandatory update: if your version is no longer supported, the sheet cannot be dismissed — you must install the latest version from the store to continue.
Supported platforms and requirements
- iOS 26 or later is required.
- Android 8.0 (Oreo) or later is required.
- Push is delivered on both iOS (APNs) and Android (FCM). Web browser push is not supported — the web uses in-app notifications only.
- If you sign in on multiple devices with the same account, all of them receive push.