Wedelia for Mac

Set it up in four steps

1. Install

Open the downloaded file and drag Wedelia into Applications. Open it. A globe appears in the menu bar at the top of your screen.

2. Get Google Chrome

Wedelia works in Chrome. If it isn’t installed, download Chrome. The Mac app shows a check mark once it finds it.

3. Get a code on your phone

In the Wedelia app, go to Settings → Connections → My computer → Connect. You’ll see an 8-character code. It works once, for 10 minutes.

4. Enter the code

Type the code into Wedelia on your Mac. It shows Connected. That’s it.

Then just ask

Keep talking to Wedelia on your phone, the way you always do. When something needs the web, she uses your Mac. For example:

Showtimes

“What’s showing at the cinema near me on Saturday night?”

Prices

“Which site has these headphones cheapest?”

Availability

“Can we still get a table for two there tomorrow night?”

Watch her work

While she works, click Open Browser in the Mac app to watch. You can take over at any point.

Your Mac needs to be awake, online and running Wedelia. If it’s asleep or closed, she’ll tell you she can’t reach it, and you can ask again once it’s back. To go back to the cloud browser, remove the computer under My computer in the phone app.

What the Mac app adds

Wedelia can browse without a Mac, in a browser in the cloud. Connecting your Mac changes a few things:

Your own connection

Pages load over your home internet instead of a data center, so sites block her and ask for “are you a robot?” checks less often.

Signed in once, signed in after

Sign in to a site once in her Chrome window and it stays signed in for her later tasks. Her Chrome profile lives on your Mac, apart from your own.

Take over from your phone

You don’t need to sit at the Mac. Tap Take over on the task card in the phone app to see the page and tap or type on it yourself, for example to sign in.

A nudge when she needs you

If notifications are on, the phone app tells you when she needs your confirmation or help, when she’s done, or when she couldn’t finish.

It stays awake while she works

While a task runs, the Mac app keeps your Mac from going to sleep on its own. The globe in the menu bar fills in while she’s working.

Pause any time

Click Pause and she won’t use this Mac until you click Resume. Disconnect asks you to confirm first.

Connects out, nothing in

The app only makes outgoing connections to Wedelia. Nothing on the internet connects in to your Mac. It gives her the Chrome window and nothing else: no files, no Terminal.

What she can and can’t touch

Wedelia only uses her own separate Chrome window. She doesn’t touch your everyday browser, bookmarks, saved passwords or files. You can pause her or disconnect your Mac at any time, from the menu bar or from the phone app.

When a page asks you to sign in, verify or pay, she stops and hands it to you. She never types passwords or card numbers, never pays, and asks you to confirm before she submits a form or a booking. As with other browser tasks, screenshots of the pages she works on are used to decide the next step. The Privacy Policy has the details.