Native Mobile
Early-access iPhone and Android client for your Matrix computer, with Chat, Apps previews, and Terminal.
The Matrix OS mobile app gives you a terminal and session browser that connect directly to your Matrix computer. You can run commands, pick up sessions you left open on the web shell or CLI, and switch between them — all from your phone.
Early access
The native mobile app is in active development. The terminal and session browser are functional. Some features available in the web shell and CLI are not yet exposed in the native app.
Overview
Native Mobile includes Chat, Apps, Terminal, and Settings. Apps lists the personal web apps installed on your selected Matrix computer. The Terminal screen connects to that computer and gives you a terminal.
This is separate from Web Mobile, which you open in a phone browser. Native Mobile is in early access; these docs do not announce Apple App Store availability.
Apps Preview Limits
Apps can open in an embedded web preview. Native Mobile does not yet provide the Matrix database bridge used by bridged Matrix apps, so a preview opening does not establish that records save and reopen correctly. Use Web Canvas, Web Desktop, or Electron Desktop for apps that need that bridge until native app data support has been tested and released.
Matrix App Gallery is planned curated discovery. It is not yet a production discovery and installation flow on Native Mobile. See Apps and Matrix App Gallery for current support and scope.
Because sessions live on your Matrix computer, not on your phone, everything you start or leave running in the terminal is also visible from the web shell and the CLI. No SSH keys or separate credentials are needed.
Terminal on mobile
Output from your Matrix computer streams directly to your phone. The terminal fits the available screen area, and line wrapping matches what you see.
Control bar
The OS keyboard covers part of the screen when you type. A compact horizontal control bar sits just above the keyboard, giving you one-tap access to characters and sequences that are otherwise hard to reach on a phone keyboard.
The bar contains:
- Special keys: Esc, Tab
- Control combos:
^C(interrupt),^D(EOF),^Z(suspend),^L(clear screen),^R(history search),^A(line start),^E(line end),^U(clear line),^K(kill to end),^W(delete word) - Arrow keys: left, up, down, right
- Symbol shortcuts:
|,~,/,-,_,*,$ - Paste: reads from the system clipboard and sends the text to the shell
- Font size: A− and A+ to step the terminal font down or up
- Clear: clears the local display
Starting and ending a session
Open Terminal
Open Terminal. If you have a running session from a previous visit, the app reconnects to it automatically. If no session is running, the surface shows an empty state.
Start a new session
Tap the + button in the top-right corner. The app creates a new named shell session on your Matrix computer and attaches to it.
Switch sessions
A chip row below the header shows all running sessions by name. Tap a chip to detach from the current session and attach to the selected one. The active chip is highlighted.
End a session
Tap the stop icon in the header and confirm. This kills the session and its processes on the Matrix computer. The action cannot be undone.
Ending a session is permanent
Ending a session stops all processes running inside it. If you only want to leave a session running while you do something else, switch away or leave the screen rather than ending the session.
Maximize mode
Tap the expand icon in the terminal header to hide the session chip row and give the terminal surface more vertical space. Tap again to restore the normal layout.
Sessions
The Sessions screen lists all shell sessions on your Matrix computer grouped by status.
Open it by tapping the terminal title in the header while the terminal is visible, or navigate to it from the terminal screen.
Session groups
Sessions are organized into three groups:
- Needs attention — sessions where a command is waiting for input
- Active — sessions with a process currently running
- Background — sessions that are idle or finished
Each row shows the session name, its status, and a badge when the session is also open on the desktop. Tap a row to attach to that session in the terminal. Use the menu icon on a row to end the session.
Creating a session from Sessions
Tap + in the top-right corner of the Sessions screen. A new session is created and the app navigates directly to the terminal attached to it.
Cross-surface sessions
Sessions are shared across the web shell, CLI, and the mobile app. A session you start on mobile shows up immediately in the web shell and vice versa.
Sessions persist when you leave the app
Closing the mobile app does not end your sessions. Processes keep running on your Matrix computer. When you reopen the app, the terminal reconnects to the last active session automatically.
Related
How is this guide?