Your Android phone may not have enough free memory for the model you want to use. Your Mac can do the processing while you keep the conversation on the phone. OGAD (Off Grid AI Desktop) serves the local model, and OGAM (Off Grid AI Mobile) connects over your own network. Internet is not required after setup.
Get OGAD for Mac | Get OGAM for Android phone
This is useful when you want to ask questions from the sofa, kitchen, or another room while the computer handles the model. The request leaves the phone and goes to your computer; it does not need a cloud AI endpoint.
Install current OGAD and OGAM releases. Download and select a local text model on the Mac, and confirm that it answers inside OGAD first. Keep the computer awake with OGAD running, and connect both devices to the same trusted local network.
The core desktop gateway and mobile remote-model connection are free features. Pro device sync is a separate workflow; you do not need to pair the devices for chat-history sync just to use this model connection.
Allow OGAD local network access on the Mac if macOS requests it.
A working Wi-Fi router is still useful even when its internet connection is unavailable. The phone must be able to reach the computer. A guest network that isolates devices can prevent this.
Open Settings > Remote Servers in OGAM, choose Off Grid AI Desktop under Scan for, and select Scan network. The app looks for the desktop gateway on the local network. When the computer appears, test the connection and select it for use.
The mobile Remote Servers implementation connects the selected server and text model. Use current mobile and desktop releases if those controls differ in an older installation.
Use Add manually in Remote Servers. Give the server a name, then enter the computer's local network address. For a gateway using the default port, the address has this form:
http://192.168.1.50:7878
Replace the example IP with your Mac's address from the Wi-Fi connection details in macOS System Settings. The example is not an address assigned to your computer.
Select Test connection, choose the discovered Text model, then save and use the server. The default OGAD model gateway does not require an API key for this local inference connection.
Do not use 127.0.0.1 or localhost as the computer's address on the phone. Those names refer to the phone itself. If the gateway uses another available port, use that actual port rather than assuming 7878.
In OGAM, start a short conversation with the remote text model selected. Ask a simple question, such as:
Give me four ideas for a weekend project using cardboard.
The expected result is a reply in the phone's conversation while OGAD provides the model processing. The model file does not need to be copied to the phone for this remote request.
For an offline check, keep the local network connection working but remove internet access. Repeat the question. Do not turn Wi-Fi off on the phone: that would remove the path to the computer as well.
This workflow does not by itself synchronize all conversation history into the desktop chat interface. Model access and chat sync are different tasks.
| Symptom | Check | Next step |
|---|---|---|
| The server is not answering | Computer power and OGAD | Wake the computer and keep OGAD running. |
| Scanning finds nothing | Shared network and firewall | Use a trusted network without client isolation; try the local IP manually. |
| Connected but no usable text model | Model configuration | Download/select a local text model in OGAD and choose it in the phone's server settings. |
| A saved address stopped working | Computer IP address | Recheck the current address or scan again. |
| The request works at home but not elsewhere | Network reachability | This local-network setup requires a route to the computer. Away-from-home access needs separate networking. |
Do not assume that it is. This procedure uses the local model gateway's HTTP address. Its inference endpoint is reachable from the network and does not use the Pro pairing authorization described in chat-sync guides. Use a trusted private network and do not expose port 7878 through the public router.
With local models selected on OGAD, processing stays on the computer. Choosing a remote provider inside OGAD would change that. See the gateway network binding for the local service boundary.
Install OGAD on your Mac and OGAM on your Android phone. Get one local answer on the computer, then connect from the phone and ask the same simple question.