Phones and sessions

A phone is a real Android device reserved for your organization. A session is the period when someone in your organization holds active control of that phone. Dedicated phones keep their apps and device state between sessions. You can start an interactive session and drive a phone yourself, or let a workflow run create the session. For a workflow run, the run ID is also its session ID.

Before you allocate

Open Phones to rent a phone or inspect the dedicated phones your organization already rents. A phone must be idle and active before a new session can claim it. Availability is a snapshot. Another session can claim an idle phone before your allocation request reaches the service, so the allocation result is always the authority.

Start a session

Dashboard
CLI
Python SDK
Go SDK
REST API

Open Sessions, click Allocate A Phone, choose Use A Dedicated Phone, and select Any available or one exact idle phone.

axilio phones list
axilio sessions start --phone-id ph_123

axilio phones list returns the dedicated phones that can be allocated now. Use axilio phones mine when you also need to see busy or offline inventory.

from axilio.platform import Client

client = Client()

with client.session("android", phone_id="ph_123") as driver:
    screen = driver.observe()
# The phone is released when the block exits.

allocation, err := api.Phones.Allocate(ctx, &platformgo.PhoneAllocateRequest{
    PhoneType: platformgo.PhoneAllocateRequestPhoneTypeAndroid,
    PhoneID:   platformgo.String("ph_123"),
})
if err != nil {
    log.Fatal(err)
}
defer func() {
    if _, err := api.Phones.Deallocate(ctx, &platformgo.PhonesDeallocateRequest{
        PhoneID: allocation.PhoneID,
    }); err != nil {
        log.Printf("release phone: %v", err)
    }
}()

REST API References:

Allocate a phone: POST /phones:allocate
Release a phone: POST /phones/{phone_id}:deallocate

Examples use Bash. To run them in PowerShell, see Run the curl examples on Windows.

curl --silent --show-error --fail-with-body \
  --request POST \
  --url https://api.axilio.ai/api/v1/phones:allocate \
  --header "X-Axilio-Api-Key: $AXILIO_API_KEY" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{
    "phone_type": "android",
    "phone_id": "ph_123",
    "pool": "dedicated"
  }'

curl --silent --show-error --fail-with-body \
  --request POST \
  --url https://api.axilio.ai/api/v1/phones/ph_123:deallocate \
  --header "X-Axilio-Api-Key: $AXILIO_API_KEY"

See Allocate a phone for a complete request and cleanup sequence.

What a session gives you

An allocation returns a phone_id, session_id, control_url, and telemetry_url. It also returns live_view_url unless you disabled hosted live view:

control_url connects to the Device Control Protocol.
telemetry_url connects to live Telemetry. The URL is still present when telemetry=false, but that session emits no frames.
live_view_url opens the hosted interactive viewer when live view is enabled.

Treat control and Telemetry URLs, plus token-authenticated live-view URLs, as credentials. They are scoped to the session and stop accepting new connections after the session ends. An organization-authenticated live-view URL instead requires Axilio sign-in and membership in the session’s organization.

Next steps

Allocate a phone

Start and release a session through each supported interface.

Discover phones

Find an idle dedicated phone or inspect your complete inventory.

Session lifecycle

Inspect sessions and understand idle and connection timeouts.

Control a phone

Use the mobile driver after allocation.

Get started with Telemetry

Follow the session’s execution record live and after completion.

Get Started