Claude Code AI Agent Controls Physical iPhone via Accessibility APIs
An AI agent is controlling a physical iPhone to write and post content to Reddit without human typing. The demonstration uses Claude Code (Anthropic's AI agent) running inside Blitz, a Mac app that connects AI agents to physical iPhones.
Technical Implementation
Blitz provides access to a real iPhone via WebDriverAgent, with navigation handled entirely through accessibility APIs. The developer encountered a specific technical limitation: normal tap commands don't work on physical devices, returning a 404 "unknown command" error.
The workaround discovered: a zero-distance swipe (same start AND end coordinates) registers as a tap. Every button press in the demonstration uses this hack.
Step-by-Step Process
- Called
describe_screento find Reddit's icon coordinates on the home screen (scan_ui is simulator-only, so the accessibility tree was used instead) - Zero-distance-swiped the icon to open Reddit
- Tapped the search button, saw r/ClaudeAI in recent searches, tapped it
- Hit Create, tapped the title field, typed the title
- Tapped the post body field and started writing
Every action follows the pattern: describe_screen → parse coordinates → swipe(x, y, x, y). The agent operates the phone "blind," reading the world through an accessibility JSON tree.
The developer notes they also posted to r/vibecoding about the same session, where they got feedback about their initial title choice.
📖 Read the full source: r/ClaudeAI
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