mobile-use: what it is, what problem it solves & why it's gaining traction

What it solves

Mobile-use allows users to control Android and iOS devices using natural language commands. It eliminates the need for manual navigation by automating tasks across various apps, such as sending messages or checking battery levels, and enables structured data extraction (scraping) from mobile interfaces.

How it works

The project uses an agentic system that interacts with the mobile device's UI. It can be powered by various LLMs (including OpenAI, Google, xAI, OpenRouter, and MiniMax) to interpret natural language and translate them into actions. For Android, it utilizes the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) to communicate with the device or emulator; for iOS, it uses Xcode and the Facebook iOS Development Bridge (idb) to control simulators.

Who it’s for

• Developers looking to automate mobile app interactions.
• Researchers interested in mobile agentic frameworks and UI automation.
• Users who want to control their phones via natural language or extract structured data from apps.

Highlights

• Cross-Platform Support: Works with physical Android phones, Android simulators, and iOS simulators.
• Natural Language Control: Perform complex tasks across apps using native language commands.
• Data Scraping: Extract information from apps and output it in structured formats like JSON.
• High Performance: First agentic framework to achieve 100% completion on the AndroidWorld benchmark.
• Flexible LLM Integration: Supports a wide range of model providers and local LLMs via OpenAI-compatible APIs.