How To Use Veency to Remote Control your iPhone

by Simon Ng on October 19, 2008

Jay Freeman, the creator of Cydia and Cycorder, has once again surprised me with another high quality application – Veency. Actually, Veency have been released for quite a while but does not own much coverage on the iPhone community, compared with other hot iPhone applications. I thought it’s really deserved a in-depth coverage on that. It’s really a great application that adds one more reason for you to consider jailbreak iPhone if you haven’t done so.

Earlier, I have covered how you can use VNC Client on iPhone to remote control your computer. Veency works the other way round. You can think of Veency as a VNC server and you can use VNC client to remote control your iPhone with a VNC client (such as Chicken VNC on Mac). Take a look at the above screenshot, you can see I’m actually connecting to my iPhone from my iMac.

You can use mouse to click on any iPhone application and launch it remotely. And, the most awesome feature of Veency is it allows you to use keyboard to type character directly. Pretty cool, right? You can type SMS, email and note without using the default virtual keyboard. So far, I do not find any problem launching iPhone application remotely. The response is quite fast. However, there is a significant lag for streaming video application (e.g. Cycorder).

Veency has mimicked nearly every type of finger gestures and even home button/power button using mouse click:

Use left mouse click to mimic tap to access application
Use right mouse button to access home screen
Use middle mouse button to lock your iPhone
Drag mouse point from left to right or right to left to flick through photos or contact list

I have captured a short video on how you can use Veency and remote control iPhone from my iMac. The video will demonstrate:

Connect to iPhone remotely and use mouse to “Slide to unlock”
Launch Calculator remotely and type note using keyboard
Use mouse to rearrange Safari icon
Use middle mouse button to put iPhone into sleep mode

How to use Veency on iPhone

Note: Veency is only available for jailbreak iPhone. To take advantage of it, you have to jailbreak your iPhone first. For guide, you may refer to the complete jailbreak guide (Mac / Windows).

1. First, fire up Cydia and install Veency.

2. After installation, you would not find any Veency application icon on home screen. But Veency should be already there.

3. Connecting to Veency requires you to use a VNC client. For Windows user, you can download VNC client from RealVNC. For Mac users, I recommend you use Chicken VNC, which is also free.

4. Here, I’ll use Chicken VNC as example. For other VNC clients, the connection procedures should be more or less the same. Okay, launch Chicken VNC.

5. Next, check your iPhone’s IP address. You can find it in “Settings” -> Wifi . Click “>” on your selected Wifi Network to display the IP address (e.g. 10.0.1.197)

6. Back to Chicken VNC, click “Connection” -> “New Connection” from menu bar. Type in the IP address and leave all other as default. Click “Connect” button to connect to your iPhone.

7. Go back to your iPhone. You’ll see a request from the VNC client and you have to accept it.

8. Once accepted the remote connection, you’ll see the iPhone on your computer.

What do you use Veency for?

So, why do you need to remote control iPhone? At first, I also asked the same question and I believe most of the readers got the same question. A couple of applications I can think of after a month’s usage of Veency:

Use your own keyboard to type text message. Due to my work-related issue, I always need to provide support via SMS from home. The virtual keyboard on iPhone is not very good enough. Now I used to connect to my iPhone remotely and type text message. That’s really great and speed up all my support task.
I used to charge my iPhone at my bedroom. Now, I can check anything on iPhone while I’m using my laptop at living room while my iPhone is still being charged.
Another application is to provide tech support for iPhone remotely. I love iPhone and used to help some of my buddies to resolve iPhone issues. Now with Veency, I can remotely access the problematic iPhone (of course, Wifi is still available) and get to know the problem details. (But this may not work for all cases due to firewall restriction for VNC connection)

Limitations

Presently, Veency does not come with any configuration screen for you to enable/disable Veency service. And, you cannot set any VNC password (by default, no password is required) on Veency. As mentioned by Jay Freeman, you can expect these two features will be available in future release. So, for now, if you want to disable Veency, you only have two choices – either you disable the Wifi or you completely uninstall it.

I think Veency is great. How about you? Share with me and other readers on your thought on Veency and how you use it by leaving comment below.

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Tagged as: iPhone, jailbreak-iphone, remote-control, veency

{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }

1 dinesh October 20, 2008 at 12:53 am

This is a fantastic application, but I am not sure whether VNC will support calling remotely, if it does than it would be a bliss

2 John B. Kendrick October 20, 2008 at 8:14 am

Great article for jailbreakers.

If you’re interested, you can read about my experiences with many of the web and native apps I’ve used since my original iPhone and more recent iPhone 3G purchases on my blog at http://johnkendrick.wordpress.com Just click on the index for a complete listing. John

3 due January 14, 2009 at 3:45 am

Love it. There are some applications that are only for the iphone and have no desktop counter part. THis is great for using your keyboard for inputing lots of information.

Also at work I want to control my phone from my work machine to change songs, send a sms, or read a news reader where my work internet is monitored not so on my iphone. so it works good for that.

also for helping others with their iphone really works good (if they have jailbreak)

must have is to add password to make it more secure.

4 Me January 15, 2009 at 1:25 am

how do I use this with VNC on windows. Excuse the ignorant question but I cannot get any recognition of the iphone on my laptop at all running xp

5 Me January 15, 2009 at 3:23 am

update: Now got the ip add sorted and works a dream. have also managed to get it working the other way with the iphone controlling the pc as well.

Many thanks

6 slah426 February 10, 2009 at 7:20 am

can someone tell me that theme in the picture? i really like it.

thanks

7 Simon Ng February 10, 2009 at 7:53 am

@slah426, it’s a Winterboard theme called Deep. You can download the theme using Cydia or Installer.

8 Titsch February 20, 2009 at 12:55 am

has anybody tried to use this veency and a VNC program to control the iPhone with an iPod touch (or vice verca).

The Idea is to install Veency on the iPhone and Mocha VNC lite on the iPod Touch. Main purpose: I could then remotely control my iphone, which is in a docking station playing music, with an iPod touch. The iPhone / iPod would be such a good Media Center.

Problem might be how to emulate the Home Button (to get out of an application and back to the springboard).

Any ideas?

Thanks

9 Henry March 9, 2009 at 5:28 am

How would i use veency over the internet?(like if i was at work but i left my iphone at home and someone texted me)

10 Simon Ng March 10, 2009 at 12:07 am: @Henry, as long as your iPhone got an IP address that are accessible from your workplace, you can remote control your iPhone with Veency. But you’ll have to make sure your iPhone is always turned on and have already accepted the remote connection. So, it may not work for your case.

Reply

11 Matthew April 23, 2009 at 10:12 am

Hey! This is what I’m looking for. Thanks for the detailed guide.

Matt

12 Ryan June 19, 2009 at 6:02 pm

Does this method work on a usb connection do i can remote my iphone without wifi con?

13 Peter June 22, 2009 at 4:30 pm

If I use Chicken of VNC with Veency on a IPhone 3G with new OS 3 after the connection iPhone crashes. Any solution?

14 Simon Ng August 8, 2009 at 2:30 am: @Peter, I also use Chicken VNC on Mac. It’s ok. Try to upgrade to the latest version and it may fix the issue.

Reply

15 buy_vigrxplus July 14, 2009 at 8:50 pm