Remote Control
Viewer toolbar
A breakdown of every button on the viewer control panel — refresh, mute/unmute, unlock, rotate, Picture-in-Picture, resize, reboot, and the Android navigation buttons.
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Once the viewer connects, the control panel appears alongside the video. On desktop it is a 230px-wide vertical column with the device name at the top, a row of primary controls, a search box, the Actions menu, the Apps list, and three Android navigation buttons pinned to the bottom. This page covers the primary control row and the Android navigation buttons — the other sections are documented separately.
Primary controls
The primary controls sit in a single row right under the panel header, in this fixed order from left to right: Refresh → Mute/Unmute → Unlock screen → Rotate → Picture-in-Picture → Resize screen → Reboot.
All buttons (except Refresh) are disabled while the cloud phone is not connected.
Refresh
Tooltip: Refresh.
Restarts the video stream without rebooting the cloud phone. Use it when the image freezes, stutters, or goes black even though the phone is still running. This button works even while the connection is flapping.
Mute / Unmute
Tooltip: Mute when audio is playing, Unmute when muted.
Silences or restores the audio coming from the cloud phone to your speakers. The viewer starts muted by default (browser autoplay policy) — click to enable sound. Mute state is stored per device.
Unlock screen
Tooltip: Unlock screen.
Sends an unlock signal when the cloud phone is at its lock screen. Equivalent to swiping up to unlock on a physical phone. It does not bypass PIN, password, or fingerprint locks — only the swipe-style lock screen.
Rotate
Tooltip: Rotate to landscape when in portrait, Rotate to portrait when in landscape.
Switches the phone between portrait and landscape orientation. Some apps only render correctly in one orientation — games, for example, often require landscape.
Picture-in-Picture (PiP)
Tooltip: Enter Picture-in-Picture or Exit Picture-in-Picture depending on state. If the browser does not support PiP, the button is disabled and the tooltip reads Browser does not support Picture-in-Picture.
Shrinks the viewer into a small floating window on your desktop, using the browser's Document Picture-in-Picture API. While in PiP, you can keep watching the cloud phone while working in other windows.
PiP requires the Document Picture-in-Picture API. Recent Chrome and Edge support it; Safari and Firefox currently do not.
Resize screen
Tooltip: Resize screen.
Opens a popover with a slider that lets you change the video display size within the allowed range. The popover shows the current value in pixels, a percentage within the range, and two buttons: Cancel and Apply. The Apply button only activates after you move the slider — click it to save, or Cancel to discard.
When the viewer is running inside a PiP window, the resize slider is also embedded directly in the panel header (in addition to the popover) so you can stretch the PiP window faster.
Reboot
Tooltip: Reboot.
Opens a confirmation modal titled Reboot Device with the message "The device will restart. Any ongoing actions will be interrupted. Continue?". Click Reboot to confirm or Cancel to back out. After confirming, the viewer shows the toast "Rebooting device...".
Reboot from the viewer and Reboot from the device card on My Devices are the same action — use whichever is more convenient.
Android navigation buttons
These three buttons live at the bottom of the panel and mirror the three navigation keys (or gestures) on most Android phones. The order from left to right in the panel is Recent apps → Home → Back.
| Tooltip | Equivalent |
|---|---|
| Recent apps | Recents button — see running apps |
| Home | Home button — go to launcher |
| Back | Back button |
All three buttons are disabled while the cloud phone is not connected.
Tap Recent apps, then swipe sideways on the video to switch between open apps inside the cloud phone — faster than going home and reopening from the launcher.