Pair your phone

The mobile app connects to your home the same way every time: scan a code, sign in, and confirm a short code the first time, so both sides know they’re talking to the right device.

Before you start

You’ll need the mobile app installed — see How do I get the mobile app? — and a way to see the QR code your home is showing, either in the web app or on the setup screen during first-run.

Pairing your phone

1. Scan the code

   Open the app, choose to pair a home, and scan the QR code shown in the web app (in Settings) or during first-run setup.

2. Confirm the code

   When your home shows a short code on both screens, compare them before continuing — a pairing scanned right off the web app on your own network may skip this step. Confirming they match is what makes the phone trusted, and it exists to catch anyone trying to insert themselves into the pairing itself.

3. Sign in

   Scanning gives the phone a home-specific credential; signing in with your own login is a separate step, so the phone recognizes the home before it recognizes you.

Once paired, the app remembers this phone. You won’t need to scan again unless you sign all the way out of the home. From there the app works like the web dock — chat, dashboards, and device control with the same confirm-before-it-changes-anything behavior — see What can I do in the mobile app?

Why scanning matters

The QR code isn’t just a shortcut — it’s how your phone first learns to recognize your home at all. Because you scan it directly off a screen in your own house, there’s no step where that trust has to be taken on faith over the network. The short-code confirmation right after is what catches the one scenario that first scan alone can’t rule out: something between your phone and your home pretending to be one or the other during that very first handshake.

What’s protected

Traffic between your phone and your home — chat, device commands, dashboards, and camera streams — is encrypted in transit. Comparing the short code at pairing is what proves the two ends are who they say they are. Chat that’s routed to Charyl Cloud is the one exception: Charyl has to read what you send her to answer it.

What the relay sees

Routing details, such as which home a message is for, are visible to the relay — that’s how it’s delivered.

Phone pairing vs. Charyl Cloud pairing

These are two different things. Pairing your phone connects it to your home directly — chat, dashboards, and device control all work from a paired phone whether or not your home is connected to Charyl Cloud at all.

Push notifications are the one feature that needs both: your phone paired to the home, and the home itself paired to Charyl Cloud (see Connect your home to Charyl Cloud). If your phone is paired but pushes never arrive, check your home’s Cloud connection before assuming pairing itself failed.

Managing a paired phone

• Sign out clears your login but leaves the phone paired — you’ll just need to log back in.
• Forget this home, from the app’s settings, clears both the login and the pairing itself, and returns you to the pairing screen.

Sign in with Face ID or a fingerprint

Once paired and logged in once, you can turn on Face ID, Touch ID, or a fingerprint as a faster way back into the app on that phone — it’s a shortcut layered on top of your password, not a replacement for it. It’s a check the phone itself performs before it hands over your already-stored login; your home’s own sign-in process underneath is unchanged. early access

If you get a new phone

Pair the new one the same way — scan the code, confirm it matches, and sign in. If you still have access to your old phone, use “Forget this home” on it before you set it aside.