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Your phone as a companion

Away from your desk, your phone, or a browser on another computer, can show what your agents need and answer them. This page shows how to pair a device, what it shows, and how its messages stay private.

Figure: Your desktop and your phone talk through Cuewire’s relay. The messages are encrypted end to end, so the relay passes them on but can’t read them.

Before you start

  • The companion is part of Cuewire Pro. Sign in first (see Sign in).
  • Cuewire must be open on your desktop. The phone talks to the app, not to your agents directly.
  • Nothing needs to be installed on the phone. The companion is a web page.

Pair a device

  1. On the desktop, press Ctrl+K (Cmd+K on a Mac) and choose Pair a phone or browser…. The Companion sheet opens.
  2. Click Pair a device. A QR code and a link appear.
  3. On the phone, scan the QR code with the camera. Or copy the link with Copy link and open it on the device.
  4. The companion page opens on the device and connects. Its top line says Connected.

Figure: Pair a device. Scan the QR code with the phone’s camera.

The QR code and link are shown only once. Close the sheet and they are gone. To pair another device, click Pair a device again. You can have up to 8 pairings.

Warning

The link holds the key to your pairing. Anyone who opens it can see what your agents ask and answer their questions. Open it only on your own devices. Don’t send it in a chat or an email.

Tip

Add the page to your phone’s home screen. It then opens like an app.

What the companion shows

Figure: The companion on a phone. An agent asks for approval under Needs you.

  • Needs you: each question an agent is asking, with the agent’s and the canvas’s name. When one key answers the question, Approve and Deny buttons appear. They press the same keys as the Needs you list on the desktop. When nothing waits, it says Nothing needs you.
  • Agents: each agent on the canvas that is open on the desktop, and what it is doing.
  • Recently: what the agents did over the last day, such as finished turns, questions and failures.
  • Send a prompt: type to an agent. This shows only when the device may send prompts (see below).

If Cuewire is closed on the desktop, the page says The desktop is offline. Open Cuewire there.

Let a device send prompts

A paired device can look and answer questions. It can’t type to your agents until you allow it.

  1. On the desktop, open Pair a phone or browser… again.
  2. Find the device in the list. It shows the device’s name, when it was paired and whether it is open now.
  3. Click May send prompts. It shows a ✓ when it is on.

Figure: A paired device. May send prompts is on.

On the device, Send a prompt appears. Choose the agent under To, type under Prompt and tap Send. Cuewire types the prompt into that agent.

Notifications

The companion can notify you when an agent needs you, even while the page is closed.

  1. Open the companion page on the device.
  2. Tap Notify me on this device.
  3. Allow notifications when the browser asks.

The page then says Notifications are on when this page is closed. To stop them, tap Stop notifications.

Note

On an iPhone or iPad, notifications work only from the home screen. In Safari, tap the share button, choose Add to Home Screen, then open Cuewire from the home screen. Now Notify me on this device appears.

Your desktop sends each notification once, and only while no companion page of that pairing is open.

Unpair a device

To cut a device off:

  1. On the desktop, open Pair a phone or browser….
  2. Click Unpair next to the device, then Unpair it to confirm.

Cuewire says Unpaired: those devices can no longer reach this computer.

On the device itself, tap forget it here at the bottom of the page. That removes the pairing from that browser.

Privacy

What your desktop and your devices say to each other is end-to-end encrypted.

  • The key is in the pairing link, after the #. Browsers never send that part to a server. The key stays on your desktop, in its keychain, and on your paired devices.
  • The relay in between passes the messages along without being able to read them. It sees only an anonymous channel id and when messages pass. It keeps nothing.
  • Notifications are encrypted for your browser too. The phone’s push service delivers them but can’t read them.

See Privacy and security for more.

When you come back

Were you away from the desktop for five minutes or more? Then a While you were away card sums up what each agent did in the meantime.

What’s next