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Phone Harness

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Intro

Phone Harness is a Y Combinator F26 product for letting agents actually use a phone: via MCP / CLI, an AI agent can tap, type, and scroll on a real iPhone or Android—read the screen (vision OCR or accessibility tree), drive apps, handle SMS and 2FA—with no jailbreak, vendor API, or extra app install. Site: phone-harness.com. Open MCP repo: github.com/phone-harness/mcp.

Three modes: build a phone farm, use a cloud phone, or connect your own device (iPhone via iPhone Mirroring, including background; Android over adb). Cloud Android is pay-per-minute ($5 starter credit, ~5¢/min); real iPhones are subscription; claims real hardware, real numbers, persistent logins, and multi-device scale. Founder @shawn_pana launched on 2026-11-04 with an official Y Combinator RT. Distinct from PhoneUse / PhoneBot already tracked elsewhere.

Explain

Problem

Agents that must test apps, clear login/2FA, or drive real mobile clients often lack a reliable “phone hand”: emulators look fake, brittle UI scripts break, and cloud phones rarely plug cleanly into MCP agent stacks. Phone Harness packages see-and-tap as an agent skill across personal and hosted devices.

Differentiation

  • MCP-native: bring your own agent over MCP/CLI rather than a closed recorder GUI.
  • Real-device path: emphasizes real hardware and numbers (eSIM option); apps see a person; session state persists.
  • Named YC F26 product: not the same as PhoneUse / PhoneBot—cite Phone Harness / phone-harness.com.

Limits

  • Minute pricing and iPhone subscriptions add up; better for automation runs than idle phones.
  • The open MCP repo and docs are still moving; verify pricing/SLA before production.
  • Real-device automation still hits OS permissions, anti-bot controls, and account risk systems.

Usage

Who it is for

Teams building agent QA, login/2FA flows, mobile RPA, or any workflow where the agent must use a real app UI.

Getting started

  1. Open phone-harness.com and try cloud Android or an iPhone plan.
  2. Wire MCP or clone phone-harness/mcp into your agent.
  3. Own devices: iPhone via Mirroring, Android via adb; validate SMS/2FA on non-prod accounts first.

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