# Mobile Wallet Adapter: the Android wallet handoff

> Mobile Wallet Adapter is the Solana protocol that lets an Android app ask a wallet app on the same phone to sign. How it works, and what it is not.


Mobile Wallet Adapter (MWA) is the Solana Mobile protocol that lets an Android app ask a separate wallet app on the same phone to sign. Solana Mobile's documentation describes it as an open protocol for how mobile apps communicate with wallet apps on the same device, covering authorization, message signing and transaction signing (September 2026). One integration reaches every wallet that implements it: Phantom, Solflare, Backpack, the Seed Vault Wallet on a Solana Seeker. Cherry, the wallet-to-wallet messenger and community app for crypto, is one of those Android apps: signing in means approving a signature request in whichever wallet you already keep on the phone.

## How Mobile Wallet Adapter works

The app asks, the wallet answers, and the screen comes back. Desktop apps reach a wallet through a browser extension; Android has no extensions, so MWA opens a channel between two apps on the same device. The app fires an Android intent, the wallet picks it up, and the two hold a local connection that never leaves the phone.

What the user sees is four beats: you tap connect, the wallet opens with an approval sheet naming the app and the request, you approve or reject, and you land back where you started. Three kinds of request travel that channel: authorization, message signing, and transaction signing. Authorization can persist, so the next signature in the same app skips the connect step.

## What Mobile Wallet Adapter is not

It is not a wallet. MWA is a protocol; wallet apps implement it, and the choice of wallet stays with the user. It is not a browser extension, and it does not replace one on desktop.

It is also not an iOS flow. Solana Mobile's documentation sets out where it runs, as of September 2026:

| Where | Mobile Wallet Adapter |
|---|---|
| Android app | Full support |
| Mobile web in Chrome for Android | Supported |
| iOS | Not supported |

Its guidance for iOS developers is direct: MWA is not available there, and deep links are not a viable replacement, because iOS suspends a backgrounded app and cuts the communication MWA needs. iOS apps connect to a wallet through a wallet link or a Safari wallet extension, or they hand the user a wallet of their own.

## What it looks like on Cherry

Cherry has no password and no email. Your wallet is the account, so the Android app's sign-in is a signature: Sign In With Solana, sent to the wallet you choose through MWA. The wallet shows the request, you approve, nothing goes on-chain and there is no gas. On a Seeker, that wallet is usually the [Seed Vault Wallet](https://cherry.fun/learn/glossary/seed-vault-wallet/), and the approval is the one the phone already uses for keys.

The signature is what produces the identity the rest of the app runs on: a `.sol` or [`.skr` name](https://cherry.fun/learn/glossary/skr-domain/) as your display name, DMs addressed to a wallet, and rooms that check what that wallet holds before letting you in. On iPhone, Cherry reaches Phantom, Solflare and Backpack through wallet links, since MWA stops at Android.

## Related terms

- [Seed Vault Wallet](https://cherry.fun/learn/glossary/seed-vault-wallet/): the wallet built into the Solana Seeker, and the one most MWA prompts on that phone come from.
- [Wallet-native messaging](https://cherry.fun/learn/glossary/wallet-native-messaging/): what a wallet signature replaces once you are signed in.
- [Wallet identity](https://cherry.fun/learn/features/wallet-identity/): names, avatars and badges attached to an address.
- [Chat app for Solana Seeker](https://cherry.fun/learn/guides/chat-app-for-solana-seeker/): how Cherry behaves on the phone itself.
- [Build a Solana mini app](https://cherry.fun/learn/guides/build-a-solana-mini-app/): mini apps run inside Cherry chats and borrow the wallet that signed in, so they never ask for a second connection.

## FAQ

### Does Mobile Wallet Adapter work on iPhone?

No. Solana Mobile's documentation lists iOS as not supported, because the system does not allow the app-to-app connection MWA depends on. An iOS app reaches a wallet another way: a wallet link that bounces the user to the wallet app and back, or a wallet extension in Safari.

## Sources

- [Solana Mobile: Mobile Wallet Adapter](https://docs.solanamobile.com/solana-mobile-stack/mobile-wallet-adapter)
- [Solana Mobile: wallet signing on iOS](https://docs.solanamobile.com/recipes/mobile-wallet-adapter/wallet-signing-on-ios)
- [Mobile Wallet Adapter protocol specification](https://solana-mobile.github.io/mobile-wallet-adapter/spec/spec.html)
- [Cherry on Google Play](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fun.cherry)