Part 7 · Platform, hosting and artificial intelligence

Mobile apps and browser extension

The Symbifox Android apps, the scanning page, recording a meeting and the browser extension: what they provide, how to install and pair them, and how to revoke their access.

Symbifox 18.0 (September 2026 catalogue) · Modules: Scan from your phone, Audio capture · Revised 2026-10-02

You can use Symbifox from a phone in two ways: in the phone's browser, which shows the full interface, and through Android apps published by Blue Fox. A browser extension completes the picture on the workstation. This chapter describes what each one provides, how to install it, how to give it access to your instance and how to take that access away. It is written for the person who receives a phone and has to use it.

The apps and the extension#

The apps require a version of Android that is still supported, Android 8 or later. There is no version for iPhone or iPad: on those devices, use Symbifox in the browser.

Install the apps#

The apps are not on Google Play yet. They are distributed through an F-Droid repository maintained by Blue Fox: once the repository is added, updates show up as they would in any app store.

1. Install F-Droid on the phone, from the project's website.
2. In F-Droid, open Settings › Repositories, then add a repository.
3. Paste the address of the Symbifox repository, provided by Blue Fox, in full, fingerprint included.
4. Go back to the list of apps and refresh it.
5. Install Symbifox Mobile, Symbifox Tokens, Symbifox Chronomètre or Symbifox Compte, depending on what you need.

The current version of each app is shown on its page in the repository. A Google Play release is in preparation. When it happens, it replaces this repository, and apps already installed update through the store.

Pair an app with your instance#

The apps pair the same way. When Symbifox Compte is installed, Symbifox Chronomètre first offers the device's account: the instance address is already known, and typing it is only needed for another instance.

1. Open the app.
2. Enter your instance's address, starting with “https”. It is the only thing the app asks for.
3. The sign-in page opens in the phone's browser. Sign in as usual, with your password, your identity provider or your second factor.
4. Grant the access requested. Depending on your instance's version, a consent page shows first: it names your account, the device and the access requested, with one button to allow and one to deny. Only allow it if you have just started the pairing from the phone yourself.

The app comes back to the foreground, paired. The page may reopen a second time. This is not a defect: it is the second access, email after text messages, being granted while your session is already open. Depending on the instance's version, it goes through on its own or asks for your consent again. One sign-in, two accesses.

Symbifox Mobile day to day#

Symbifox Mobile carries the working day, not the whole instance:

• Calendar by day, week or list, in your calendar's colours, with the agenda and the meeting report of each meeting. You can snooze a reminder, mark a meeting as seen, confirm your attendance and create a meeting.
• Tasks with their tags, stage, priority, description and completion, including creating tasks on the spot, and your activities in the same list (see "Tasks and activities").
• Unified inbox for emails and text messages, in two tabs: reply, forward, compose, attach a file. Archiving a message in the app really moves it on the mail server.
• Routing a message to a record: task, ticket, lead, invoice or expense, without leaving the phone.
• Assistant and softphone, when the instance offers them. While the assistant works, the screen shows the current step and the elapsed time, as on the desktop.
• Notes, Scan and the Recorder, described below.

The bottom bar holds at most five icons: four sections of your choice and, in the middle, the drawer that opens all the others. The drawer slides up from the bottom of the screen and groups the sections in four: Communicate, Organize, Capture and Other (Archived texts, Settings). To change your favourites, long-press a tile in the drawer: it joins the bar, or leaves it. Under Settings › Bottom bar, the same list is reordered with the arrows, and Back to the default favourites resets it. The bar keeps four at most, and the app says so when it is full. A section your instance does not offer appears nowhere.

When a section outside the bar has something new (unread texts, overdue tasks), the count shows on the drawer icon, so nothing gets lost because a section was taken off the bar. While you type, the bar steps aside and leaves the whole screen to the keyboard.

Notifications require no Google account: they go through a UnifiedPush distributor installed on the phone, ntfy for example. When several are installed, the app asks which one to use, and the choice can be changed in its settings, under Notifications › Distributor. On the lock screen, a notification does not show its content. The app is in English or French: Français, English or System (the phone's language; any other language falls back to English) is picked in the drawer header or under Settings › Appearance, and applies at once. On Android 13 and later, the choice also shows in the phone's settings for this app. The theme is dark by default, in the colours of the connected instance; change it under Settings › Appearance, or with the button in the calendar header, which cycles through dark, light and system.

Symbifox Tokens, on the phone and in the browser#

Generating a one-time code requires the plain-text seed at the moment the code is generated, and that moment never happens on the server. Your instance holds only encrypted data and cannot generate a code. The app asks it only for the vault and the list of tokens, both encrypted; the codes are then calculated without any network.

On the phone, the vault key is sealed in the device hardware and asks for your fingerprint each time you open it. The vault closes as soon as the app goes to the background.

1. Open Symbifox Tokens and enter your instance's address.
2. Sign in through the browser, as for the other apps.
3. Open the vault, with a passkey or a passphrase.
4. Check the remember-on-this-device option if you want the vault to reopen with your fingerprint rather than the passphrase.

To add a token, the camera reads the service's QR code: the seed is parsed, encrypted and erased in the app, so what goes to your instance is already encrypted. The scanning screen blocks screenshots: at that moment, an image is as good as the seed.

The browser extension provides the same codes in the workstation's toolbar. It is not in the stores yet: you install it by hand, from the package provided by Blue Fox. On Brave, Chrome and Edge, unzip the package, open the extensions page, and turn on Developer mode. Then load the unpacked extension, pin its icon, and add your instance in its settings. On Firefox, installing from a file is refused with a corrupted extension message. Mozilla's signature is required, and nothing gets around it on a standard Firefox. To try it right away, load a temporary add-on from the debugging page, knowing it disappears on restart along with its local storage. To make it last, you need a signed package, and obtaining one is up to Blue Fox. Firefox Extended Support Release is not supported.

Everything the extension keeps stays on your workstation, in the browser's local storage: the address of your instances and, only if you check remember on this device, your vault key, in a form the browser does not allow to be exported. Your passphrase is never stored, and uninstalling erases everything. Its privacy policy is at symbifox.com/tokens/confidentialite.html.

Symbifox Chronomètre#

Symbifox Chronomètre (stopwatch) takes the timesheet timer out of the browser. It does what the Timer page does, plus what a page cannot do on a phone.

• Running timers, with pause, resume and stop. Several can run at once.
• Stop and log: the duration is proposed from your organization's rounding rule, can be adjusted step by step, and takes a preset or free description.
• Timers stopped from the browser without being logged, ready to log.
• Find a task by name or number, and pin it.
• Share a task link: from the phone's browser, Share then Symbifox Chronomètre. The app shows the task's name and project, and starts its timer when you confirm. This is the way in for a brand-new task that has no timesheet yet.
• A notification while a timer is running, and only then, with Pause and Stop when a single one is running.
• A home-screen gadget and shortcuts on the icon (long press) for your pinned tasks.

The notification and the gadget refresh after each of your actions and at least every fifteen minutes. A timer stopped from your workstation can therefore stay on the phone for up to fifteen minutes, or until you open the app. The instance side of the timer is covered in To-do, Notepad and Timer.

Tasks and activities#

The Tasks section sorts your deadlines by day: Overdue, Today, one heading per day of the coming week, then Later. Your Odoo activities (reminders, calls, follow-ups, maintenance) show under the same headings, after the day's tasks, with the name of the record they belong to. Overdue and today's activities count in the section's badge, like tasks.

Tap an activity to open it:

1. Done closes it. A word typed above it is added to the record's thread, as on the desktop.
2. Postpone moves it to Today, Tomorrow, In 3 days, In 1 week, or the day chosen with Pick….
3. Open the task, when it belongs to a task, or Open in Odoo takes you to its record.

A task's sheet offers, besides the title, deadline, priority, status, stage and tags:

• Description, readable and editable with Edit. A description formatted on the desktop (list, bold, link) can be read on the phone and is edited in Odoo, so it keeps its formatting.
• The task's Activities, and Plan an activity: a type, a day, an optional summary. The activity is assigned to you.
• Comment: an internal note in the task's thread, typed or dictated, sent with Post. No email goes out.
• Start the timer, when Symbifox Chronomètre is linked to the same instance.

Without a network, Done, Postpone, Plan and Post are kept on the phone and go out when the network is back, exactly once.

Taking notes on your phone#

A note taken on the phone has to be written in a second, or it ends up in another app, far from your records. So the note pad opens in two ways on the phone, and both write to the same notes as the desktop.

• The Notes page. A page of your instance, at /notes, that installs on the home screen like an app, on Android and on iPhone: open it, then select Add to Home screen. It opens straight on the text field. Long-pressing its icon offers New.
• Symbifox Mobile. The Notes section, in the bar or in the drawer, does the same, with a New note home-screen tile and a shortcut of the same name on the app icon.

Either way:

1. Type your note. The title is optional: without one, the first line becomes the title.
2. Select Save. The field clears and is ready for the next one.

Without a network, the note is kept on the phone, marked To send on the page (Waiting to be sent in the app), and it goes out on its own when the network is back, exactly once, even if the app was closed in the meantime.

From another app, Android's Share menu offers Symbifox: a shared link or text becomes a note, already filled in, that you only have to save. In Symbifox Mobile, shared photos, PDFs and other files come along too: they show under Files and are attached when you save the note. A file that is too large is flagged and left out. Inside a note, an attached file opens with a tap and comes off with its cross.

Each note in the list has a menu (the three dots) with the everyday actions: Pin, Remind me today, Remind me tomorrow, Make it a task (you pick the project), Attach to a record (search by name, by number, or paste an address), Send to Gen and Archive, which can be undone for a few seconds.

Several notes at once. In Symbifox Mobile, a long press on a note selects it; tap the others to add them. The top bar then offers Select all, Pin, Color and Archive, and under the three dots Remind me today, Remind me tomorrow and Attach to a record. The cross or the back gesture leaves the selection. To make a long press do a direct action instead, open Layout › Long press… and pick Open the menu or one of the menu's actions. This setting stays on this phone.

Colour and layout. A note's Color button offers your swatches, the pastels, a Custom color (a #RRGGBB code) or No color; it works even on a note formatted on the desktop. The Layout button offers Cards, Minimal or Detailed list, plus Compact, Color as a stripe and Group by color. The choice follows your account, the same as on the desktop; tick On this device only to keep it on this phone. Offline, a colour change is sent when the network is back. See also To-do, Notepad and Timer, section "Choose a note's colour".

Scanning, with nothing to install#

Some things need no app. Numériser (scan) is a page of your own instance that sits on the home screen like an app, on Android and on iPhone alike. It has its own Numériser tile in the application grid, which opens it from any device; on the phone, open it and then select Add to Home screen. It opens full screen after that, with no address bar, and it uses your Odoo session, so there is nothing more to pair and no extra access to revoke.

The page shows three tiles, and each one appears only to the people allowed to make that gesture.

• Carte d'affaires (business card). The photo is read, the fields are proposed on screen, you correct them, and the contact is created or completed. If the person already exists, the page says so before writing anything. Requires the contact enrichment group and the right to create a contact.
• Facture (invoice). The photo creates a vendor bill in draft, with the photo in its message thread. Nothing is posted to the books: the draft waits for you in Odoo. Where automatic invoice reading is installed and can read a photo, the amounts and the lines fill themselves in; where it cannot, the page says so instead of promising a reading that will never come. Requires the invoicing right.
• Document. The photo goes to the notepad with a reminder that becomes an activity, or straight into the message thread of a record you search for from the phone: a task, a contact, an invoice, a support ticket. Requires an internal account and the right to edit the record you aim at.

In Symbifox Mobile, the Scan section does the same three gestures without going through the browser: the app takes the photo or lets you pick a file (photo or PDF), then sends it. The tiles and the rights are the same as on the page.

Three details that spare you a surprise. The phone shrinks the photo before sending it, so a deposit still goes through on a weak network. An iPhone capture in HEIC format is converted along the way by the browser; if your browser cannot open it, take the photo again with the page's camera rather than picking it from the gallery. And a file that is neither a photo nor a PDF is refused, whatever its name says.

Recording a meeting, or dictating a memo#

A recording asleep on a phone helps nobody, and the trip that gets it out is almost always manual: find the file, rename it, drop it in the right place. Symbifox Mobile does all three for you, and an installable page takes the memos.

From the app, for a meeting#

Open Calendar, tap the meeting, then Record this meeting at the bottom of its card. A long press on the app icon also offers a Record shortcut, even with the app closed.

The recording screen lists the meetings from your calendar, and under each one the filename that will be used. That name matters more than it looks: it is the only piece of information that travels with the audio, and it is what decides which client the recording belongs to. The server composes it from the event's start time, not from the phone's clock, which is not always in the right timezone when you travel.

Put the phone away: recording continues with the screen off, with pause and stop available from the notification. On stop, the audio goes to your instance's watched folder and the pipeline picks it up within the minute. The cap is four hours, and the size stays modest: an hour of speech weighs about fifteen megabytes.

A meeting that is not in the calendar can be recorded too, by typing its title. Name the client in it: that title is what will file it.

The top of the screen switches between Meeting and Memo: a memo dictated from the app becomes a note, just like one from the page described below.

From a page, for a memo#

Voice memo is a page on your instance, at /capture, that you add to your home screen like an app, on Android and on iPhone alike. It records memos only, five minutes at most, and it says so.

The reason is what a web page can do: it has no background service. On iPhone it is suspended the moment you leave it; on Android nothing guarantees the tab survives a locked screen. An hour-long meeting recording would be lost along the way, without an error. Meetings therefore go through the app, which holds the microphone with the screen off.

A memo becomes a note in your notepad, with its text where dictation is configured on the instance, and the audio attached in every case. Never meeting minutes: a forty-second memo has no attendees, no decisions and no recipient.

Symbifox Compte#

Symbifox Compte (account) holds the device's Symbifox account. Once added, it appears in the phone's Settings › Accounts, with one account per instance and per person. The other apps ask it for their access instead of each opening its own sign-in, and the server issues one device record per calling app: no access is shared, and each is revoked on its own. The app shows the list of access granted and the button that removes them.

There are three things it does not do, by design. It reads none of your data: it grants access, it does not use it. It does not serve the token vault, which keeps its own pairing, because a vault must not depend on a messaging app. And it is not mandatory for anyone.

Your devices, and cutting off access#

The Mes appareils page in the portal, at /my/appareils, gathers all your pairings. It shows one device per line, the module it opens and its last activity. A button removes a device's access, and another removes everything at once.

The calendar and tasks have no line of their own: they accept the messaging access or the email access, and so appear under one of those two labels.

Known limitations#

• The repository forces no update. A published fix reaches a phone only when the person installs it, which is why an urgent fix is announced and not just published.
• Unlocking with a passkey requires a password manager able to return a secret. A manager that can only prove your identity opens nothing, for lack of material: the app says so and names the methods that work.
• On a device without Google services, passkey unlocking is hidden, but everything else works, offline codes included.
• The apps do nothing without the matching applications on the instance. An instance without one-time codes has nothing to show Symbifox Tokens, and Symbifox Chronomètre needs the timer's mobile module in addition to the timer.

Troubleshooting#

See also#

• Signing in and finding your way: signing in on a workstation, preferences and the second factor.
• OTP tokens: the one-time code vault, on the instance side.
• Email and SMS, calls and SIP phone: the two tabs of the unified inbox, on the instance side.
• Calendar: the calendar the app displays.
• To-do, Notepad and Timer: the timer that Symbifox Chronomètre drives.