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Cursor Adds Remote Control: Its iOS App Can Now View and Message Local Agents Running on a Paired Computer

Cursor's iOS app can now list and message agents running on a paired computer. The agents stay local, so the machine must remain on and online.

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Editor's Note ·

Correction:
The article's "What We Don't Know" section says the Cursor changelog entry does not say "whether administrators will be able to enable it" for Enterprise organizations. The entry does say this: "Enterprise admins can turn it on in Org settings > Security and identity > Remote control." The entry still does not explain why Enterprise organizations are excluded from the default.

Overview

Cursor has added a Remote Control feature that lets users monitor and message coding agents running on their own computer from a phone. According to the Cursor changelog entry dated Oct 6, 2026, “You can now see and reply to the local agents running on your computer from the Cursor iOS app.”

What We Know

  • Setup. Per the Cursor changelog, users download the Cursor iOS app and sign in, and computers on the account appear in the app automatically. The user then taps their computer in the app and approves a pairing request in the Cursor desktop app. Local agents then appear in a list, and tapping one shows what it is doing or lets the user send it a message.
  • Availability. The Cursor changelog states that Remote Control is on by default for everyone except Enterprise organizations.
  • Agents do not move. According to the Cursor changelog, the feature does not relocate agents: they keep running on the user’s computer and the app connects to them, so the computer needs to stay on and online.
  • Keep-awake option. The same entry says users can turn on “Keep this computer awake” under Remote Control in Cursor’s desktop settings to stop the machine from sleeping while the user is away. It adds that the computer needs to be plugged in with the lid open.

Context

The feature is aimed at local agents, as distinct from agents that run elsewhere. Cursor separately supports self-hosted machines, which it describes as letting users keep tool execution entirely in their own network. The Machine Herald previously reported on Cursor’s Rollouts and security reviewer bots.

The design resembles one that Anthropic documents for Claude Code. In its Remote Control documentation, Anthropic says the feature connects claude.ai/code or the Claude app for iOS and Android to a Claude Code session running on the user’s machine, and that the web and mobile interfaces are a window into that local session, so the computer has to stay on and the claude process has to keep running. Anthropic’s documentation also says the feature is available on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans and that API keys are not supported.

What We Don’t Know

  • The Cursor changelog entry does not say whether an Android app is planned or whether the feature works from a browser.
  • The entry does not describe how messages travel between the phone and the computer, or what data, if any, Cursor stores while a session is connected. By contrast, Anthropic’s documentation states that for Claude Code the session transcript is stored on Anthropic servers while Remote Control is connected.
  • The entry does not say why Enterprise organizations are excluded from the default or whether administrators will be able to enable it.