# Training a Vision Language Model as Smartphone Assistant

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.08755 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.08755/

## Key facts

- Cited by 8 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Embodied and 3D vision-language models, one of 16 directions in Multimodal LLMs / vision-language models.
- Builds on 22 of its 29 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 12 Apr 2024.

## Placed in

- Multimodal LLMs / vision-language models / [Embodied and 3D vision-language models](https://mlsanity.com/mllm/embodied-and-3d-vision-language-models/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 22 of 22)

- [An Image is Worth 16x16 Words: Transformers for Image Recognition at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.11929/) (2020)
- [GPT-4 Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08774/) (2023)
- [Llama 2: Open Foundation and Fine-Tuned Chat Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.09288/) (2023)
- [BLIP-2: Bootstrapping Language-Image Pre-training with Frozen Image Encoders and Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.12597/) (2023)
- [Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Tools](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.04761/) (2023)
- [Qwen Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.16609/) (2023)
- [RT-2: Vision-Language-Action Models Transfer Web Knowledge to Robotic Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.15818/) (2023)
- [Do As I Can, Not As I Say: Grounding Language in Robotic Affordances](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.01691/) (2022)
- [Voyager: An Open-Ended Embodied Agent with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.16291/) (2023)
- [PaLM-E: An Embodied Multimodal Language Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.03378/) (2023)
- [ToolLLM: Facilitating Large Language Models to Master 16000+ Real-world APIs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.16789/) (2023)
- [Gorilla: Large Language Model Connected with Massive APIs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.15334/) (2023)
- [CogVLM: Visual Expert for Pretrained Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.03079/) (2023)
- [CogAgent: A Visual Language Model for GUI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.08914/) (2023)
- [SeeClick: Harnessing GUI Grounding for Advanced Visual GUI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.10935/) (2024)
- [Android in the Wild: A Large-Scale Dataset for Android Device Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.10088/) (2023)
- [TALM: Tool Augmented Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.12255/) (2022)
- [You Only Look at Screens: Multimodal Chain-of-Action Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.11436/) (2023)
- [GPT-4V in Wonderland: Large Multimodal Models for Zero-Shot Smartphone GUI Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.07562/) (2023)
- [STEVE-1: A Generative Model for Text-to-Behavior in Minecraft](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.00937/) (2023)
- [VisionTasker: Mobile Task Automation Using Vision Based UI Understanding and LLM Task Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.11190/) (2023)
- [MobileAgent: enhancing mobile control via human-machine interaction and SOP integration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.04124/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 8 of 8)

- [A Comprehensive Survey of Agents for Computer Use: Foundations, Challenges, and Future Directions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.16150/) (2025)
- [MobileSteward: Integrating Multiple App-Oriented Agents with Self-Evolution to Automate Cross-App Instructions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.16796/) (2025)
- [Mobile-Bench-v2: A More Realistic and Comprehensive Benchmark for VLM-based Mobile Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.11891/) (2025)
- [MobileIPL: Enhancing Mobile Agents Thinking Process via Iterative Preference Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.12299/) (2025)
- [Concept-as-Tree: A Controllable Synthetic Data Framework Makes Stronger Personalized VLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.12999/) (2025)
- [FedMABench: Benchmarking Mobile Agents on Decentralized Heterogeneous User Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.05143/) (2025)
- [GhostUI: Unveiling Hidden Interactions in Mobile UI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.19258/) (2026)
- [SenWorld: A Digital-Twin Simulation for Generating Context-Rich Evaluation Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.19949/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Addressing the challenge of a digital assistant capable of executing a wide array of user tasks, our research focuses on the realm of instruction-based mobile device control. We leverage recent advancements in large language models (LLMs) and present a visual language model (VLM) that can fulfill diverse tasks on mobile devices. Our model functions by interacting solely with the user interface (UI). It uses the visual input from the device screen and mimics human-like interactions, encompassing gestures such as tapping and swiping. This generality in the input and output space allows our agent to interact with any application on the device. Unlike previous methods, our model operates not only on a single screen image but on vision-language sentences created from sequences of past screenshots along with corresponding actions. Evaluating our method on the challenging Android in the Wild benchmark demonstrates its promising efficacy and potential.