Your first agent task on an iPhone

This guide picks up where the quickstart ends. You give the agent a task that needs a few taps, watch it work on the live picture, and read the answer. Then you give it a task that makes it stop and ask you first.

Time: about 10 minutes.

You need:

• Silan on your Mac with setup finished.
• An iPhone or iPad set up by the Simple way or the Developer way (see Devices).
• An agent provider, or a connected AI app, picked in Settings › Providers.

Steps

1. Open Silan and click your phone in the sidebar. The phone’s page opens with three columns: the sidebar, a chat in the middle, and the device column on the right with Screen, Elements, Log and Info. The live picture shows what the phone shows now.
2. Click New chat. A fresh chat opens in the middle column. If the device column says No device yet, click Pick a device and choose the phone. The Send button only works once a device is picked.
3. In the message box, type Open Calculator and work out 12 × 7. and click Send, or press Return.
4. Watch the chat. The top line turns to Working with a running clock and a step count. Below it a step list grows as the agent moves: “Opened Calculator”, “Plan: 2 goals”, then a line for each tap such as “Tapped 1”, “Tapped 2”, “Tapped Multiply”, “Tapped 7”, “Tapped Equals”. Each step carries a small picture.
5. Look at the live picture at the same time. Calculator opens on the phone and the display fills in as the agent taps, ending with 84.
6. Read the answer card. It has a green check, a line such as “Worked for 26 s · 6 steps”, and the agent’s own words: it opened Calculator and did 12 × 7, and the answer is 84. The folded step list sits above the card. Click it to open every step and picture.
7. Find the chat again later under All chats in the sidebar. Every task you give the agent is kept there with its steps, pictures and answer.

The whole first task: Open Calculator and work out 12 times 7, from the plan to the answer card (recorded 32 s).

Now a task that makes the agent ask.

8. Click New chat again and keep the same device. Type Open Clock, start the stopwatch, and record one lap. and click Send.
9. Watch for an ask card in the chat. The built-in agent wants to open an app you did not name in the task, so Silan stops and shows a card that names the app and why it asks. The same card sits in your Inbox under Needs you.
10. Pick how long the answer should hold. The card offers reach choices such as For this chat or the app for 1 hour, and a Don’t allow button. Choose For this chat.
11. Watch the stopwatch start on the live picture, then a lap land in its list. The answer card says what the agent did and the Clock app shows Lap 1.

The ask card for Clock: the agent waits until you press Approve, then starts the stopwatch and records one lap (recorded 41 s).

If you want to stop the agent at any time, press Control Option Command Period or click Stop Everything. See Safety for the one switch that makes the agent ask before it pays, sends, posts or deletes.

If something goes wrong

• Send does nothing. No device is picked. Click Pick a device in the device column, or pick the phone from the device list under the message box.
• The agent cannot tap. On the Simple way the phone’s pointer must be on and the Bluetooth link alive. Open the phone’s Info tab. If it says view-only, go back to Settings › Devices & Drivers and press Set up again.
• Two apps have the same name. Silan retries with a sharper target. If the task still fails, name the app more exactly, for example “the built-in Clock app”.
• The ask card never shows. Check Settings › Safety. If the app is already under Allowed for now, the agent does not ask again until the hour is up.

Proof

Proved on an iPhone 11 (iOS 27) on a cable, 4 Nov 2026, by a Silan worker: the Calculator task gave 84 in 26 s over 6 steps, and the Clock task raised the ask card and recorded Lap 1. Source: the teaser capture report. Personal tasks on the Simple way were also proved by the owner on 3 Nov 2026 (use-case facts, 7a).