Mobile Canvas

Build, run, and test mobile apps without leaving VS Code.

Mobile Canvas puts a live iOS Simulator or Android emulator in the Activity Bar. Control it yourself with mouse and keyboard input, or let GitHub Copilot boot, inspect, and drive the same device while you watch.

Your device lab, inside the editor

• See your app live. Stream smooth H.264 video where supported, with automatic screenshot polling everywhere else.
• Interact naturally. Tap, drag, swipe, scroll, type, rotate, press device buttons, capture screenshots, and record video.
• Manage the full lifecycle. Discover, create, boot, restart, reveal, erase, and delete local simulators and emulators from one view.
• Stay in your workspace. Mobile Canvas runs locally even when your code is open through Remote SSH, Dev Containers, or Codespaces.

Give Copilot hands and eyes

Mobile Canvas automatically registers its device tools with Copilot Chat. Ask an agent to reproduce a bug, navigate a flow, capture evidence, or check the accessibility hierarchy without wiring up an MCP server yourself.

Boot an iPhone simulator, install my app, and walk through sign in.
Find the Settings button on the Android emulator and tap it.
Take a screenshot of the current screen and describe any layout issues.

Agent actions select the same device shown in the Activity Bar. An animated cursor and accent glow make automation visible, so you can follow every action and take over at any time.

Bring the selected device into chat

Attach live device context to a prompt with built-in chat references:

Local by design

Device control, video, and screenshots stay on your machine. All host traffic uses authenticated loopback connections, and the webview never receives the host control token or authenticated cookie.

Native runtimes are included for macOS, Windows, and Linux. There is no separate Mobile Canvas or .NET tool to install.

Requirements

VS Code 1.101 or newer is required. Browser-hosted vscode.dev is not supported because it cannot launch local native runtimes.

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