Use Claude Code from Your iPhone — 3 Ways Compared (2026)

Option 1: Official Remote Control

Anthropic's Remote Control (research preview) connects claude.ai/code or the Claude mobile app to a session running on your machine. It's polished, first-party, and free with a subscription — if it covers your setup, use it.

Requirements to know about:

Requires a claude.ai subscription login (Pro/Max/Team/Enterprise). API-key authentication is not supported.
Disabled whenever ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL points anywhere but api.anthropic.com — so LLM gateways and proxies are excluded, as are Bedrock, GCP Agent Platform, and Microsoft Foundry.
The phone-side interface is claude.ai / the Claude app, so both must be reachable and installable on your network and App Store region.

Option 2: SSH + tmux (Termius, Blink…)

The classic. Run Claude Code inside tmux, SSH in from a terminal app. Works with any auth, fully under your control. The trade-offs: you need a reachable machine (static IP, Tailscale, or similar), and you get a raw terminal on a phone screen — no tappable permission cards, no notifications when the session needs you, and thumb-typing tmux keybindings is nobody's favorite hobby.

Option 3: A native client app (like PocketAI)

PocketAI is a native iOS app that drives the Claude Code on your own computer (Mac, Windows via WSL, or Linux). It renders the session as a real chat — streaming output, thinking blocks, tool cards, Markdown, diffs — and turns permission prompts into tappable cards with red/green diff previews.

Auth-agnostic: it drives your local Claude Code, so subscription, API key, or gateway setups all work.
Any network: phone and computer both make outbound connections to an encrypted relay — no port forwarding, no VPN, no Tailscale. Cellular works.
Sessions live on the computer: close the app and the run keeps going; reopen and it replays instantly. Manage multiple machines and sessions from one place.

Honest trade-off: traffic passes through PocketAI's relay (TLS; no accounts; nothing stored or logged — it only forwards bytes between your devices). End-to-end encryption between phone and computer is the top roadmap item.

Quick comparison

	Remote Control (official)	SSH + tmux	PocketAI
Works with API keys / gateways	No	Yes	Yes
Needs claude.ai reachable	Yes	No	No
Network setup	None	Static IP / Tailscale	None (relay, outbound-only)
Permission prompts on phone	Yes	Raw terminal	Tappable cards + diff preview
Native chat rendering	Yes (Claude app)	No	Yes
Multi-machine dashboard	Session list	DIY	Yes
Cost	Included in subscription	Free (DIY)	Free tier; Pro $19.99 once or $2.99/mo

PocketAI setup (about two minutes)

On the computer (with Claude Code installed & logged in): curl -fsSL https://juelegan.com/install.sh | bash — a pairing QR code opens in the browser.
Install PocketAI on your iPhone and scan the code. Pairing persists across restarts.
That's it. Create sessions, pick model and permission mode, and go outside.

Get PocketAI on the App Store

The free tier is genuinely usable — one machine, one session, the full chat experience, and permission prompts included (safety features are never paywalled).