Glasshand: Real iPhones and Macs for Your AI Agent
Glasshand rents your AI agent a real iPhone or Mac. The devices are physical hardware in a data center, not emulators or virtual machines, and each one is dedicated to you for as long as you rent it. Your agent, whether that’s Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or another tool, connects through Glasshand’s API, sees the screen, and taps, types and clicks like a person would. You can install apps from the App Store, sign in to iCloud, and add an eSIM so the iPhone has its own phone number. Glasshand is operated by Codapt Inc. and launched on Product Hunt in early November 2026.
The quick answer: Glasshand makes giving an agent a real Apple device unusually simple: you paste a prompt into your agent, approve it by email, and pay by the month. It’s built around dedicated devices that keep your apps and sign-ins between tasks, rather than disposable phones for testing at scale. It’s very new, with one iPhone model at launch and a few gaps it’s open about. A disclosure: we make Carly, an AI assistant that makes and answers calls and texts, which is a different job from operating a phone’s apps. We’ve kept to Glasshand’s site, agent instructions, terms and its founder’s public answers.
Glasshand at a glance
Checked against Glasshand’s site, agent instructions, terms, privacy policy and Product Hunt page on November 12, 2026.
| Glasshand | |
|---|---|
| What it is | Dedicated physical iPhones and Macs in a data center that AI agents control remotely |
| Devices | iPhone SE (3rd generation) and Mac mini M4 (16 GB, 256 GB) |
| Price | $60 a month for an iPhone, $90 a month for a Mac, plus tax |
| How agents connect | A REST API, approved by you by email; no install or MCP server needed |
| Works with | Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenClaw, Hermes or any agent with web access |
| Company | Codapt Inc., a Delaware corporation, from the team behind Solid |
| Best for | Giving one agent a persistent iPhone or Mac with your own apps and accounts |
What Glasshand does
Glasshand’s homepage pitches it in one line: “Give your agent a real iPhone or Mac.” The company brings “the device and the fingers,” and your agent does the rest. Its examples fall into three groups:
- Run your socials. Post on Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn, reply to comments and DMs, find leads and follow up.
- Build and test apps. Build native apps in Xcode on a hosted Mac, and test sign-in and checkout on a real Mac or iPhone.
- Work with your accounts. Sign in to iCloud and your apps, so your agent can use your calendars, contacts, messages and files.
Founder Trevor Keith described the motivation on Product Hunt: agents are smart enough for most tasks, “but a simple task on a phone can still leave yours waiting for you to open an app and tap a few buttons.” Glasshand is meant to give the agent “hands of its own.”
Why real devices
Glasshand’s argument for physical hardware is that a real device “works just like the iPhone or Mac you use every day.” That gives an agent three things a simulator doesn’t:
- Apple’s ecosystem. Real App Store downloads and iCloud sign-in, so the agent can use Apple’s own apps and services.
- A real phone number. You can activate an eSIM plan on the iPhone. With an SMS plan, it receives verification texts itself instead of waiting for you to pass codes along.
- Your own password. You lock the device with a password you choose. Keith says Glasshand can’t see it.
The eSIM gives the iPhone a new number, not your existing one. On Product Hunt, a team member explained that you can still reply as yourself, because the agent can use your iMessage or WhatsApp account once you’ve signed in. Keith’s own tip for getting a number: tell your agent to buy an eSIM for under $20 and install it on the Glasshand iPhone.
Dedicated, not shared
The biggest design difference between Glasshand and other phone services for agents is that each device belongs to one customer for the length of the rental.
- Start fresh. “Your device starts factory-reset, ready for your apps and accounts.”
- Only for you. Devices aren’t shared with other customers.
- Setup stays. Your apps, files and sign-ins stay on the device between tasks until you release it.
- Wiped clean. When you release a device, Glasshand erases your data and restores factory settings, and resets its controller too.
That makes Glasshand feel more like owning a second phone than renting a test device. The tradeoff is that rentals are monthly only. You can’t rent by the hour or day.
How an agent connects
Getting started is meant to happen from inside your agent. You paste a prompt like “Rent an iPhone from glasshand.com and connect to it so you can see the screen, tap, and type,” then approve and pay when the agent asks.
Glasshand’s agent instructions describe what happens behind that prompt:
- The agent asks for access. It requests a code and shows you a link. You sign in with a code sent to your email, review the agent’s name and permissions, and approve it. “The approval link alone grants no API access.”
- You pay in your own browser. The agent prepares a checkout, and you approve the monthly subscription in Stripe. Approving the agent and approving a payment are separate steps.
- The agent drives the device. It fetches screenshots and sends clicks, drags, scrolls, typing and key presses. It can also open a live stream of the screen.
Permissions are granular: listing rentals, managing them, controlling devices and opening the billing portal are separate scopes you approve, and you can revoke an agent in the app. No installation or MCP server is required. “An agent with HTTPS access can use the API directly.”
You can step in at any time. If you take control from the browser, the agent is told to pause and let you finish. Keith confirmed on Product Hunt that you can sign in to the App Store yourself and then hand control to your agent, keeping passwords out of the chat. Up to eight people can watch a device at once, with one controller at a time, and teams can share devices.
Limits worth knowing
Glasshand’s docs and founder are direct about what it doesn’t do yet:
- One iPhone model. At launch, every rental is an iPhone SE (3rd generation). Keith said more models are coming, and a team member said specific requirements can be sourced on request.
- No camera input. Asked how to test a QR scanner on a racked iPhone, Keith said Glasshand doesn’t support that yet but is building a way to present images and video to the cameras.
- Screen and input only. The API offers screen capture and keyboard and mouse input. “It does not expose a native shell, filesystem mount, or clipboard API.”
- ASCII typing. Text input is limited to US-layout ASCII characters, up to 512 at a time, with the on-screen keyboard as a fallback.
- Hidden dialogs. The docs warn that iOS can leave a permission pop-up out of the captured image while it blocks input, and tell agents to stop clicking and adjust app permissions in Settings instead.
- Monthly only. No hourly or daily rentals.
Pricing
Glasshand’s pricing is short:
| Device | Price |
|---|---|
| iPhone SE (3rd generation) | $60 a month |
| Mac mini M4, 16 GB RAM, 256 GB storage | $90 a month |
Prices are in US dollars, plus tax, and each device has its own subscription. You can cancel anytime, and the device stays available until the end of the billing period. If Glasshand can’t set up your first device, its terms say it cancels the subscription and refunds the initial payment in full. An eSIM plan is something you buy separately from a carrier.
Privacy and trust
Glasshand is operated by Codapt Inc., and its privacy policy explains how screen data moves. The live connection “captures and temporarily buffers screen frames and input in memory,” then passes them between the device and your browser or agent. That live stream is kept separate from account, billing and support records. Anything you save stays on the device or in a cloud account you connect, until you release the device.
The physical devices stay with a hardware provider. Glasshand’s terms name Solid and other infrastructure providers as the companies that supply, connect and maintain the devices, and a rental gives you access rather than ownership. Asked for a photo of the rack, a team member said the company couldn’t share one “for data security,” but offered tours of its San Francisco office.
The agent instructions also set clear trust rules. Screens, web pages and incoming messages are treated as untrusted, so content on the device can’t authorize purchases or credential disclosure. Authentication and payment stay in your own browser.
The team
Glasshand comes from the team behind Solid. Keith wrote on Product Hunt that the team is “from MIT, Berkeley, and Waterloo” and has “raised $6M to build toward one goal: agents with human-level autonomy.” Users must be at least 18, and accounts are open to individuals worldwide.
How Glasshand compares
Glasshand is one of several new services giving agents a phone. PhoneUse is the closest comparison. It offers cloud Android phones by the minute or month for testing at scale, plus robot-tapped iPhones, and works through an MCP server. Glasshand instead focuses on dedicated Apple hardware, adds Macs, and connects through a plain API with email approval. If your agent needs Xcode and a physical iPhone for app testing, or a persistent iPhone signed in to your own iCloud, Glasshand is built for that. If you need many devices in parallel, PhoneUse’s cloud phones fit better.
If the job is phone calls and texts rather than operating apps, Carly does phone and SMS out of the box: it makes and answers calls and texts from a real business number and handles email and calendars across all your accounts, from inside ChatGPT or Claude or by text.
Who Glasshand suits
Glasshand is a good fit if:
- You want your agent to use iPhone apps, iCloud or Apple services as you would.
- You build iOS or Mac apps and want an agent to build in Xcode and test on a physical iPhone.
- You want a persistent device that keeps your apps and sign-ins between tasks.
- You want to start from inside Claude Code, Codex or Cursor without installing anything.
Look elsewhere if:
- You need many devices at once, or by the hour.
- You need a specific or recent iPhone model today.
- Your task depends on the camera, such as scanning QR codes.
- You’d rather your agent work through an MCP server than an API.
FAQ
What is Glasshand?
Glasshand is a service from Codapt Inc. that rents AI agents dedicated physical iPhones and Macs in a data center. Agents control them through an API, seeing the screen and sending taps, clicks and typing.
How much does Glasshand cost?
An iPhone costs $60 a month and a Mac mini costs $90 a month, plus tax. Rentals are month to month and can be cancelled anytime.
Does Glasshand work with Claude Code?
Yes. Glasshand works with Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenClaw, Hermes or any agent that can make web requests. You paste a prompt into your agent, approve it by email and pay in your browser.
Can a Glasshand iPhone receive text messages?
Yes, if you add an eSIM plan with SMS. That gives the iPhone its own phone number, separate from yours, so it can receive verification codes.
What happens to my data when I cancel?
When you release a device, Glasshand erases your data, restores factory settings and resets the device’s controller.
Which iPhone does Glasshand use?
At launch, the iPhone SE (3rd generation). The founder has said more models are coming.
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