OpenAI turned the ChatGPT mobile app into a remote command center for its Codex coding agent this week, letting developers approve tasks, review outputs, and steer long-running workflows from their phones. The feature, rolling out as a preview on iOS and Android, connects the ChatGPT mobile app to Codex sessions running on a Mac. Setup takes seconds: update the Codex Mac app, pull up the new "Codex mobile" section, and scan the QR code with your phone.
Once paired, the mobile app loads the live state from the machine running Codex, whether that's a laptop, a Mac mini, or a remote devbox. Users can pick up active chats, get notifications when Codex finishes a task or needs input, and kick off new work by sending a message from their phone.
"As agents take on longer-running work, a new rhythm for collaboration is emerging," OpenAI said in its announcement.
This is not a simple start/stop button. From the ChatGPT app. Developers can review outputs, approve commands, switch between AI models, and add new prompts across active threads.
Screenshots, terminal output, diffs, test results, and approval requests stream back to the phone in real time.
Files, credentials, and permissions stay on the host machine. Only the working output travels to the phone. The mobile push puts OpenAI in direct competition with Anthropic, which released a similar "Remote Control" feature for its Claude Code tool earlier this year. Codex itself only arrived on the Mac in February after starting as a command-line interface tool.
Last month, Codex gained the ability to use Mac apps without taking over the cursor, allowing users to run tasks without losing access to their machine. The feature follows OpenAI's recent launch of a Codex Chrome extension that lets the agent work directly in the browser to test web apps and pull context across tabs. OpenAI also released GPT-5.5 alongside Images 2 for image generation.
Windows support for remote Codex access is still in the works. The preview is available now to all ChatGPT plans.
Mac users can get started immediately. The latest versions of Codex for Mac and ChatGPT for iOS and Android are required.
