Sauce Labs Launches Programmable Mobile Device Cloud with Real Device Access API
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – February 25, 2026 – Sauce Labs today announced the general availability of its Real Device Access API, fundamentally changing how the company delivers mobile testing infrastructure. The modern API provides developers with deep device-level controls, eliminating the need for traditional automation frameworks and enabling direct software testing on real mobile devices.
Breaking Free from Traditional Frameworks
Traditional mobile testing often relies on automation frameworks like Appium or Espresso. While effective for standard UI testing, these frameworks can limit use cases for modern, AI-native applications. The Real Device Access API bypasses these constraints by exposing the device itself as programmable infrastructure, granting engineers direct control through simple HTTP requests. According to Sauce Labs, this is a first in the mobile testing cloud industry.
Addressing the Needs of AI-Native Applications
Mobile applications are evolving with the integration of artificial intelligence at the device and operating system levels. These applications consume hardware resources in new ways and feature autonomous agents interacting with screens. Shubha Govil, CPO of Sauce Labs, stated, “Think about what AWS did for cloud compute and what Twilio did for communications – that’s what we’re doing for real mobile devices.” The Access API is designed to meet the demands of this new generation of mobile applications, offering infrastructure tailored for modern development and testing practices.
Deep Device-Level Control and Observability
Developers often lack deep observability into device-level data, making it difficult to diagnose performance issues. The Real Device Access API addresses this by allowing developers to directly pull device logs and vitals, manage apps and files, and issue low-level device commands. This provides insights into device behavior beyond the user interface, such as identifying whether a device is overheating or experiencing memory issues.
Streaming and Session Management
Engineers can stream high-fidelity video, utilize Model Context Protocol-ready architecture, view logs, and maintain sessions up to 24 hours, all accessible through HTTP requests. The API offers two primary WebSocket endpoints:
- AlternativeIO Socket: Streams live screen recordings in MJPEG format for monitoring or recording.
- Companion Socket: Streams device logs, Appium logs, and other real-time events in JSON format. By default, this socket provides device log messages, but can similarly include Appium logs or network traffic data (HAR entries) when those features are enabled.
Use Cases Beyond Functional Testing
The Real Device Access API isn’t limited to functional testing. It provides faster visibility into performance and stability problems that only appear on real hardware. This is particularly valuable for:
- Gaming Studios: Identifying the cause of frame rate drops or hitches to improve the user experience.
- Endurance Testing: Running applications for extended periods to confirm stability and prevent crashes.
- AI-Heavy Applications: Diagnosing memory consumption and device interaction issues.
Expanding the Ecosystem
Sauce Labs is also seeing demand from partners building enterprise-grade synthetic monitoring and observability products that leverage the Real Device Access API as a foundational layer.
Pricing and Availability
The Real Device Access API is available as an add-on priced per device, in addition to existing Real Device Cloud access packages. It is not charged per API call.