Connect Chrome and your Mac to your iPhone.

Your iPhone holds your Bramble account. Your level, your group and your Keyholder live there, and the Mac app and the Chrome extension take them from it. Connecting a screen takes one short code: the screen shows it, you type it into your phone, and that is all. There is no password anywhere but the phone.

Set Bramble up on your iPhone first, if you have not yet. The whole setup, in order. Then keep the phone in your hand: a code lasts ten minutes.

1. Where the code goes on your iPhone

Every screen pairs in the same place, so this part is the same for a Mac and for a browser.

1. Open Bramble on your iPhone and tap the gear at the top right. That is Settings.
2. Under Protection, tap My Screens. You can also reach it from the shield on Home.
3. Tap Pair a screen, type the code your Mac or browser is showing, and tap Continue.
4. Your phone names the screen and asks if you want to pair it. Check it is the one in front of you, then tap Pair it.

Older versions of the Chrome extension call that row Pair a browser. On the phone it reads Pair a screen. It is the same row.

2. Connect your Mac

Get Bramble from the Mac App Store first. The Mac page has the link.

1. Open Bramble on the Mac and click Connect this Mac.
2. The Mac shows a code, the steps above, and Waiting for your iPhone…
3. On your iPhone, enter the code under Pair a screen and tap Pair it.
4. The Mac finishes connecting on its own within a few seconds.

If the code runs out first, click Get a new code and enter that one straight away.

Once the Mac is connected, there are three more steps on the Mac itself: macOS asks you to allow two filters, and Safari’s Bramble extension needs turning on by hand. The Mac page walks through them.

3. Chrome on a Mac that runs Bramble

If Chrome is on a Mac that already runs Bramble, there is no code to type. The Mac passes its own pairing to Chrome.

1. In Bramble on the Mac, open the Protection page and find the Chrome card. Click Cover Chrome too.
2. Bramble writes a profile for Chrome, and System Settings opens on Profiles. Install the Bramble profile there.
3. Open Chrome. The profile tells it to install Bramble, and the extension says Connecting through your Mac, with nothing to type.

The profile also closes Incognito and Guest windows in Chrome, because Chrome turns every extension off in both. Brave works the same way, from the Brave card.

If Chrome sits on Connecting through your Mac and goes no further, click Use a pairing code instead and follow the next section.

4. Chrome anywhere else

On a Windows PC, a Chromebook or a computer Bramble cannot be installed on, the extension pairs with a code of its own. It runs in Chrome, Edge and Brave.

1. Install it from the Chrome page. Click the puzzle-piece icon at the right of the toolbar and pin Bramble, so its mark stays in view.
2. Click the Bramble mark, then Get a pairing code. The popup shows the code and Waiting for your phone…
3. On your iPhone, enter the code under Pair a screen and tap Pair it.
4. Within a few seconds the popup reads Paired with your Bramble account.

Then let it into incognito windows. Paste chrome://extensions into the address bar, find Bramble, click Details, and turn on Allow in Incognito. Until you do, nothing Bramble does applies there.

5. Check it worked

On your iPhone, My Screens lists every screen that is connected. In Chrome, the popup says Paired with your Bramble account. On the Mac, the Protection page shows each layer and says plainly when one is not covered.

If a browser will not pair, see when the Chrome extension is not working.

6. What connecting does

Your settings follow you. The Mac and the browser take your level from the iPhone, and neither can loosen it. That stays where you set it, on purpose. A change made on the phone can take up to half an hour to reach the browser.

Your Keyholder hears coverage, never content. If you have one and a connected screen’s protection comes down, they are told that screen lost coverage. They are never told a site, a search, or anything you looked at.

Unpaired is not unprotected, but it is less. Before it is paired, the extension still holds sites on its own. A borderline image has no second look to call on, so it stays frosted, and nobody is told if the extension comes off.