Apps
Android app
How to install the APK, sign in and grant permissions, and what the optional phone-control build adds.
Last updated
On this page
The Android app is the same Escanor you have on the web, built for your phone: chat, voice, approvals, your computers and your machines, and the ability to use your phone by voice.
Install
- Download a build from the home page: Standard (
remote-harness-<version>.apk) for most people, or Phone control (remote-harness-<version>-phone-control.apk). See Two downloads below. - Chrome: "File might be harmful". Chrome shows this for every app file downloaded outside an app store. Choose Download anyway.
- Open the file. If Android asks, allow installs from your browser or file manager, then choose Install.
- Play Protect: "App scan recommended. Play Protect hasn't seen this app before." Escanor is not on Google Play yet, so Google has not seen it. Choose Scan app. When it says This app looks safe, choose Install. (Google's scan rates Escanor safe; the message is about the app being new to Google, not about anything found in it.)
- On a Samsung phone with Auto Blocker on (Settings > Security and privacy > Auto Blocker), Android refuses every app installed from a file. Switch it off to install, and back on afterwards if you like.
- Open Escanor and sign in.
It needs Android 7 or newer. Updating means installing the newer APK over the old one.
Coming from 1.23 or older
From 1.24 on, Escanor is a rebuilt app with a new app ID (com.escanorlabs.escanor), so it installs next to the old app instead of over it. Sign in to the new one, then uninstall the old one: in Settings > Apps, the old Escanor shows version 1.23 or lower. Your account, chats and computers are on the server; pair your computers again from the new app.
Two downloads
| Standard | Phone control | |
|---|---|---|
| File | remote-harness-<version>.apk | remote-harness-<version>-phone-control.apk |
| For | Almost everyone | People who want Escanor to operate the phone when asked |
| Chat, voice, "Hey Escanor", approvals, automations, computers, machines | Yes | Yes |
| Calls | Opens the dialer with the number filled in | Places the call directly |
| Home, Back, open apps, scroll, tap and type for you | No | Yes (Android's Accessibility service, after you agree) |
| "Hey Escanor" over the lock screen | No | Yes |
| Installing from a file | Usual prompts, then Play Protect's "App scan recommended" | Play Protect is stricter, and in some countries, including India, Android refuses to install an app with an Accessibility service from a browser or file manager at all |
| Payment and banking apps | Never affected | Phone control switches itself off while you use them |
Both are the same app, account and version: install one or the other, and the second replaces the first. Phone control installs normally once Escanor is on Google Play.
What you can do
- Chat with your assistant, with photos, PDFs and text files, dictation and voice mode.
- Automations: see and run your automations.
- Connections: see and reconnect your integrations.
- Computers: pair your computers and chat with them, see their activity, approve what they ask. See Computers and pairing.
- Machines: servers running the agent, shown as cards with their chats.
- Settings: account, plan and billing (inside the app), workspace and team, security, privacy, notifications, appearance, companion, voice and phone control.
Permissions, and why
| Permission | Why | When it is asked |
|---|---|---|
| Microphone | Talk to Escanor and dictate. | First time you use voice. |
| Camera | Scan a pairing QR, take a photo to attach. | When you use them. |
| Contacts | So "call Mom" finds the right number. Matching happens on the phone. | First time you call by name. |
| Phone | Place calls directly. Only in the phone-control APK; the normal app opens the dialer with the number filled in. | Only if you turn on "Call directly". |
| Notifications | Approvals and alerts. | At first start, or in Settings. |
| Full-screen notifications | Let "Hey Escanor" show over the lock screen. Only in the phone-control APK. | Android 14 and later ask in Settings > Voice and phone control. |
| Accessibility | Phone control (the separate APK). | Only if you choose it, after a disclosure and I agree. |
You can change any of these in Android's settings, and turn voice features off in Settings > Voice and phone control. Escanor never asks for Display over other apps: payment and banking apps refuse to run next to an app that can draw over them.
Phone control, step by step
- Install the
-phone-controlAPK. - Open Settings > Voice and phone control, read what it can see and do, and choose I agree.
- If Android shows "Controlled by restricted setting" for Escanor in Accessibility, first open Escanor's App info, tap the three-dot menu at the top right and choose Allow restricted settings (if you do not see it, tap Escanor once in Accessibility settings, close the message, and look again).
- Open Accessibility settings, tap Escanor and switch it on.
It acts only when you ask, by voice or in the app. The text it reads from your screen stays on the phone. Switch it off any time with Switch phone control off in Settings > Voice and phone control, or in Android's Accessibility settings.
Payment and banking apps
Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm, BHIM and most bank apps refuse to run, or warn that "an app can see your screen", while any app's Accessibility service is on. So Escanor switches phone control off by itself the moment you open one of them, and leaves a notification: Phone control is off so Google Pay works (with the name of the app you opened). When you are done paying, tap the notification and switch Escanor back on in Accessibility settings (Android does not let an app switch it back on for you). If the payment app had already shown its warning, close it and open it again.
The normal APK has no Accessibility service at all, so payment apps are never affected by it.
Notifications
Approvals and alerts arrive as notifications. If you are not getting them, check that notifications are allowed for Escanor and that the Alerts channel is not silenced (Settings > Notifications shows its state).
Need help? Contact support with a redacted error and the affected version.