Install the mobile app (early access)

The mobile app is in early access, which means getting it onto your phone looks a little different than a normal app-store install — there’s no listing to search for yet, and the exact steps depend on which phone you’re using.

1. iOS — accept your TestFlight invitation

   Invited iOS testers get an email invitation to TestFlight, Apple’s own tool for pre-release apps. Accept it, install TestFlight if you don’t already have it, and TestFlight installs Charyl for you from there. Updates arrive through TestFlight the same way.

2. Android — installed with you, by our team

   There’s no public Android track open yet, so an Android install today is done directly with our team rather than through a store. If you’re an invited Android tester, this is arranged as part of your invitation.

3. Open the app

   However it arrived, opening it for the first time drops you on a pairing screen — the app doesn’t know which home is yours until you tell it.

4. Pair it to your home

   Pairing connects the app on your phone to your specific home — scanning the QR code shown in the web app is what actually links the two. The full walkthrough, including what to do if your home hasn’t finished its own first-run setup yet, is covered step by step in its own guide.

5. Sign in

   Once paired, sign in with your household account to reach the full app — chat, your inventory, dashboards, and everything else.

Why it works this way right now

Being in early access means the usual app-store path — search, tap install, done — isn’t available yet for either platform. iOS testers ride on TestFlight, which is built for exactly this kind of pre-release distribution and handles updates automatically once you’re on it. Android doesn’t have an equivalent open track yet, so for now a member of our team sets it up with you directly rather than pointing you at a store listing that doesn’t exist.

This is how it works today, not how it will stay. As public store paths open up for either platform, installing the app will get simpler, and this guide will be updated to match.

Staying up to date

On iOS, updates arrive through TestFlight the same way the install did — keep TestFlight itself installed and new versions reach you automatically, without a separate step. Android doesn’t have a public update channel yet either, so for now an update there is coordinated the same direct way the original install was.

Works the same regardless of how your home is hosted

Pairing doesn’t care whether your home runs on a Singer Intelligent Homes appliance or a server you set up and self-host yourself — the app finds your home the same way either time, through the same pairing step. Nothing about the mobile install changes based on how the rest of your home is set up.

Pairing a phone is also one of the later, skippable steps in your home’s own first-run setup — if you’d rather finish setting up the home itself first, that’s fine. You can always come back and pair a phone afterward; nothing about installing the app depends on doing it in a particular order.

What to expect once you’re in

The app you land in after pairing is the same home and the same conversation, not a trimmed-down preview (building dashboards still happens on the web) — the same proposals waiting for review, your dashboards rendering live, and your whole household record. Early access describes how you got the app, not how much of it you’re getting.

If you’d like to see what’s actually in the app before you install it, a tour of the mobile app walks through every section. Once you’re ready to connect it to your home, pair your phone is the next step.