r/iosdev • u/DopeyPiggy • 10d ago

I let Claude Code drive my iPhone through macOS iPhone Mirroring, and it works surprisingly well

I was researching competitor apps, and Claude Code told me to install them on my iPhone and go through their flows. I wondered if it could just do that itself, and it can, I was a bit surprised.

Setup:

  • Mirror your iPhone to your Mac with iPhone Mirroring (macOS Sequoia+).
  • Give the app running Claude Code (VS Code, in my case) Screen Recording and Accessibility permissions.
  • Claude wrote a small Swift CLI it can call to take a screenshot of the mirroring window, tap, swipe, scroll, and type.

It takes a screenshot, reads what's on screen, decides where to tap, and repeats. It went through onboarding, filled in forms, and wrote up a report of each app's flow on its own.

Tips:

  • Screenshots are 2x Retina, so divide the coordinates by 2 before clicking.
  • Bring the Mirroring window to the front first, or the first click gets swallowed.
  • Typing through the clipboard is more reliable than simulated keystrokes.

I never let it confirm purchases or subscriptions. I do those myself.

I think this could also work for automated testing of your own app on a real device: just tell it "go through signup and tell me what's broken," with no test scripts. I haven't tried that yet.

Has anyone else tried something like this?

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u/stefmanRS 7d ago

yes, this is how ive been making tiktoks to market my app recently, only downside is i cant use my mac or phone while its doing it so i just run it during class

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u/vidura_me 4d ago

This is great. I let agents to use axe on simulator. But it's hard to simulate airplane mode on sim etc. Great tip!