> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.getrivet.ca/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Desktop vs. mobile — which to use when

> Your phone takes calls and texts. Your laptop runs sessions. Here's the split.

Rivet runs on your iPhone, your Android phone, your Mac, your PC, and any
modern browser. The app is the same one in all those places — same inbox,
same conversations, same settings — but the physical realities of running
a therapy practice mean each surface is good at a different part of the
day.

The short version: **your phone handles the phone-line side of practice
(calls, texts, voicemails). Your laptop handles the session side (video,
EMDR, whiteboard, notes).** Use both. Sign in once on each.

## What each surface is good for

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Your phone" icon="mobile">
    * Receiving incoming calls on your Rivet line
    * Making outbound calls from your Rivet line
    * Texting clients back and forth
    * Voicemail inbox + listening to messages on the go
    * Push notifications for new voicemails and texts
    * Recording your voicemail greeting
  </Card>

  <Card title="Your laptop or desktop" icon="laptop">
    * Running video sessions
    * The full EMDR workspace (bilateral stimulation runs on the bigger
      screen)
    * The whiteboard
    * Picking and editing clinical templates mid-session
    * Writing session notes after a session ends
    * Settings that benefit from a wider view (auto-reply editing, contact
      management, exporting data)
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Why the split exists

Two reasons.

**The first is the device's strengths.** Your phone has a great mic and
follows you around the office — perfect for picking up a client call
between sessions. Your laptop has a real camera, real screen real estate,
and a keyboard — what you actually want for a 50-minute therapy session
and the typing that comes after.

**The second is the in-session experience.** Running a video session from
your phone means a small screen, a front-facing camera that's six inches
from your nose, and no good way to also show the whiteboard or pull up a
clinical template. Running it from a laptop or desktop means you can have
the client in one half of the screen, your notes in the other, and a
template ready to pull in with one click.

Mobile video isn't impossible — Rivet does work on the phone for a video
session if that's all you have — but the desktop session room is built
for clinical work in a way the mobile one isn't trying to be.

## Cross-device sync

Everything that lives in Rivet — your conversations, voicemails, settings,
templates, session history — syncs across every device you've signed in
on. Read a voicemail on your phone at lunch, see it marked read on your
laptop after.

A few things stay on the device they were created on:

* **Practitioner-private notes** (the side of session notes only you see)
  stay in the browser they were written in. They never sync to a server,
  which means they also never sync between devices. If you take private
  notes on your laptop, they're on that laptop. The shared part of the
  note — the chart-ready paragraph — syncs.
* **Biometric unlock preference** (Face ID, Touch ID, fingerprint) is
  per-device by design. Turning it on for your phone doesn't affect your
  laptop.
* **Push notification subscriptions** are per-device. Sign in on a new
  phone and you'll need to grant notification permission again.

## Recommended setup for a new Rivet practitioner

<Steps>
  <Step title="Install Rivet on your phone today">
    From the App Store (iOS) or Play Store (Android). Sign in with the
    same email you signed up with. Grant notification permission when
    prompted so you hear about new voicemails immediately.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Open Rivet in your laptop browser the same day">
    Go to `next.getrivet.ca`, sign in with the same email. You can save
    the page as a bookmark or "Install" it as a Progressive Web App
    (Chrome: the install icon in the address bar; Safari: Share → Add to
    Dock).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Use your phone for the days between sessions">
    Texting clients, returning missed calls, checking the inbox during a
    coffee break.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Switch to the laptop ten minutes before a session">
    Open the laptop. Pull up Rivet. Click into the conversation. Send
    your "Ready when you are" text. Let them join the waiting room. Run
    the session. Write the note.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Related articles

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Your first 10 minutes" icon="rocket" href="/getting-started/first-10-minutes">
    The concrete checklist that gets both surfaces set up.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Notification preferences" icon="bell" href="/account/notification-preferences">
    Which devices ring, which stay silent, and how to tune that.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>


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