HelioFleetDocs

Device control

Click Control → on an available device and you land here. This is where you actually drive the phone - tap with your mouse, type with your keyboard, swipe with the D-pad, manage apps on the side.

The screen at a glance#

The control screen is three columns:

  • Left rail - device info, D-pad, gesture mode, text-input box, session controls.
  • Center - the device frame. Mouse interacts with the screen exactly as a finger would.
  • Right rail (Apps) - installed apps with launch / stop / uninstall. On some devices a Video stream card sits above it (see Typing text).

Above all of that, a thin top bar shows the session elapsed time and a couple of transport chips that tell you how your connection is routed (more on those below).

Tapping, swiping, holding#

Mouse interactions on the video map directly to touch events on the phone:

  • Click - tap.
  • Click and drag - swipe, if the cursor moves more than a small threshold; otherwise tap on release.
  • Hold the mouse button (without moving) for half a second or more - touch-and-hold.
  • Mouse wheel - scrolls the device by issuing an up/down swipe preset.

Need a specific gesture instead? Use Gesture mode in the left rail:

  • Tap / Swipe - default, behaviour described above.
  • Double tap - your next click is sent as a double tap, then the mode resets to Tap / Swipe.
  • Hold touch - your next click is sent as a long press (minimum 1 second), then the mode resets.

D-pad#

The D-pad in the left rail is a shortcut for the gestures and hardware buttons you'd otherwise miss in a browser:

  • Up / Down / Left / Right arrows - half-screen directional swipes.
  • Home (center) - the home button.
  • Lock / Unlock - sleep or wake the screen.
  • App switcher - opens the recents / multitasking view.

Note: On some devices the Lock and Unlock buttons are greyed out. Depending on how the device is streaming, locking the screen tears the video feed down and unlocking does not bring it back, so we disable the buttons rather than let you strand the device.

Typing text#

Two ways to send text to the focused field on the device:

  • Type box in the left rail - write your message, click Send text. Good for longer strings or anything containing newlines.
  • Your keyboard - once the canvas has focus, individual key presses route straight through. Enter sends a newline, Backspace sends a delete. Modifier combos (Cmd/Ctrl/Alt) are not forwarded - they're reserved for browser and accelerator keys.

Password fields look blank, and that's iOS, not us. iOS keeps secure text entry out of a device's stream, so on some devices a password field (and often the keyboard with it) comes through blank or black. Nothing is broken and nothing is lost: your taps and Send text still reach the device, so you can sign in to the App Store or anywhere else without seeing what you're typing. A Video stream card above the apps rail on the right says so on the devices where it applies.

Apps rail#

The right rail lists every app the device reports, with a search box at the top that filters by name or bundle ID. Each row has three actions:

  • Launch - bring the app to the foreground.
  • Stop - terminate the app process.
  • Uninstall - remove the app from the device. Confirmation dialog first; system apps that can't be uninstalled don't show this button.

Transport chips#

The top bar shows up to two chips that tell you how your session is connected - useful when something feels slow or you're debugging a network issue:

  • P2P / TURN - the video stream. P2P means the WebRTC connection is direct from your browser to the device's host; TURN means it's being relayed through our STUN/TURN server because direct peer-to-peer wasn't possible (typically a strict NAT or firewall on one side). Relayed sessions still work, just with slightly more latency.
  • Direct / WS - the control channel for your taps and swipes. Direct is peer-to-peer over the same WebRTC connection. WS means controls are being relayed through the hub's WebSocket. Both deliver the same actions.

If a chip is missing, that transport hasn't been established yet (or has dropped) - give the session a couple of seconds after opening.

Inactivity timeout#

If the session sits idle for too long, you'll see a Still there? dialog with a countdown. Click Stay connected to keep the session, or do nothing and the hub will disconnect you so the device frees up for someone else. Any tap, swipe, or keypress you make in the control screen counts as activity and quietly resets the timer in the background.

Adding a second device#

Hit the + Add device (1/2) button in the left rail to pick a second device. The screen switches into dual control - see Dual-device control for how that view works.

Ending the session#

Click End session at the bottom of the left rail. The lock is released, the device returns to Available for the rest of the tenant, and you bounce back to the Devices page. Closing the browser tab does the same thing.