• A Mac with macOS 14 or later, running Miao for Mac, with Claude Code, Codex, or Grok used in a terminal.
• An iPhone or iPad with iOS 17 or later, with Miao from the App Store.

No Mac? Tap "Try the Demo" on the app's first screen to look around with built-in sample data.

1. Open Miao on your Mac and go to Settings > iPhone & iPad. A QR code appears.
2. Open Miao on your phone and scan the code. (The Camera app works too; it opens Miao.)
3. Allow Local Network access when asked. We also suggest allowing notifications.

The QR code is valid for 10 minutes; reopen that page on your Mac to get a new one. After pairing, the app connects by itself every time you open it.

In this order:

1. Your Mac is on, awake, and Miao is running. Notifications and replies go through your Mac, so it can't connect while the Mac is asleep. To use Miao while you're out, set your Mac not to sleep automatically while it's on power, in System Settings > Battery (Energy on desktop Macs).
2. Check the connection status at the top of the app. "Mac offline" means your Mac isn't connected to the relay. Make sure the Mac is online, or quit and reopen Miao on the Mac.
3. Same Wi-Fi but no connection: turn on Miao under Settings > Privacy & Security > Local Network on your iPhone. Office, school, and hotel Wi-Fi often blocks devices from reaching each other; the app then switches to the relay by itself.
4. VPN on: the app may not find your Mac on the local network and will use the relay. If the relay doesn't connect either, try turning the VPN off.
5. New phone, or you removed this device on your Mac: open the QR code on your Mac again and rescan.

Still stuck? Email us with the Miao version on both devices and what the status at the top of the app says.

• Local network: your phone and Mac are on the same Wi-Fi and connect directly. Fastest, and nothing goes through our servers.
• Relay: when they aren't on the same network, both connect to our relay server, which passes the data along. Everything is end-to-end encrypted; the relay can't decrypt it and doesn't store it.

You don't have to choose. The app tries both and uses the local network when it can. Switching reconnects briefly, and the top of the app shows which one is in use.

1. Allow notifications, banners, and sounds under Settings > Notifications > Miao on your iPhone.
2. Focus modes (Do Not Disturb, Sleep, and others) can hold notifications back; add Miao to the allowed apps.
3. No notification is sent while you have Miao open.
4. Notifications come from your Mac: it needs to be on, online, and running Miao.
5. After installing, your phone must connect to your Mac once so the Mac knows where to send notifications.
6. You're only notified when a chat stops and is asking you something or is done, not while it's still working.

Turn on Live Activities under Settings > Miao on your iPhone. This needs iOS 17.2 or later. The Dynamic Island is only on iPhone models that have one; other models show it on the Lock Screen.

No. You can pair by scanning without an account. If you sign in with Apple or Google, a new phone or an iPad signed in to the same account can connect to your Mac without scanning again.

In the app, after signing in: Settings > Account > Delete Account. This deletes your account and device information from our server. For the full steps, and what to do if you can't use the app, see Delete your account.

No. Everything between your phone and your Mac is end-to-end encrypted; the relay only forwards data it can't decrypt and doesn't store it. See the Privacy Policy.