https://stasher.news/uploads/650
Skylight by MAGIC Grants is one of the very few wallets that run off Monero LWS, which kills the dreaded sync wait I hate so much. Brings us closer to a mobile XMR experience w/ the UX modern chains provide.
Making a mobile device do the chain scan never made much architectural sense to begin w/. Offloading it to a server you control is a much more sound and coherent approach, especially on mobile. As someone who uses XMR a lot, especially on P2P trades, I can't stress enough how much better it is to not wait for wallet sync. Other wallets feel like using the internet w/ a dialup modem.
It received an update today, and among other improvements you can now send by setting a fiat amount, a big quality of life feature. V2 also supports connecting to a regular Monero node, so if you want the no sync wait experience, pick LWS mode in connection settings. It's open source w/ reproducible builds, has built in Tor, and runs on Android and iOS w/ desktop in alpha.
https://magicgrants.org/2026/10/04/Skylight-Wallet-V2
Setting up Monero LWS gets a lil technical. I wrote up how to do it a while back, hope it helps anyone who wants to try the no sync wait awesomeness:
https://soulreaver.substack.com/p/skylight-monero-wallet-magic-grants
I set up my own XMR TX notifier, but Skylight comes w/ its own incoming TX notifications. Not a common offering for a mobile Monero wallet, and even rarer to see one that works reliably:
https://stasher.news/uploads/653
IDK how technical everyone here is, but I suspect @untraceable might like this kind of setup.
I know some will say other wallets offer "background sync". They do, but that never worked reliably for me. The goal isn't making your phone do the chain scan more frequently, that's a stopgap, inferior solution. The technically elegant solution is getting the phone out of scanning altogether.
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https://spicewallet.org/
Thanks for this. Will check it out, I use cake wallet myself, but there are some accessibility issues lately, so having a backup wallet on mobile would be nice.
I've been meaning to check this out for a while now. Thanks for reminding me!
I already have a nodo with lws, so it wouldn't take my much more effort to set this up.
Personally, I just accept that a wallet has to keep up with the chain, and that, on a phone, you just have to open your wallet frequently enough to actually have it kept up most of the way with the chain, and therefore, something that uses Monero often, like Stasher News, is really fantastic, because you're opening your wallet a lot more frequently than you otherwise would to send and receive small tips. The more things you use with Monero means you will have to open your wallet more frequently, which means that you will be closer to being up to date the next time you do open your wallet.
Edit: Also, at least if I'm understanding correctly, carrot after FCMP hardfork will also help with this somewhat, because you're still able to give a viewkey to the server, but that viewkey won't be able to see your exact transactions, but it will narrow down the scope of the transactions that the server has to send you. So, it's kind of a compromise between a full synchronization and giving your private viewkey over to an LWS server. At least, that's what I understand, but I could be wrong
There is a trade off here for convenience as always.
Sync wait is a real problem. If you're trying to pay someone and the app is hundreds of blocks behind, background sync is not a fix. The OS kills it. On Cake it's Android-only, and it only checks on an interval.
Where I'd split it is what you're actually offloading.
A node you run does not need your view key. Point Cake at it and the phone still does the trial decrypt. The node sees a sync request and, if you're not on LAN or Tor, an IP. It does not see your outputs, amounts, or balance. That scan is the privacy.
LWS removes the wait by HOLDING the private view key and scanning for you. Self-hosted, the spend key stays yours, so the funds are safe. The server can still see EVERY incoming payment. That's closer to MyMonero you run yourself than it is to "a node, but faster."
If the node is already yours, Cake on it is the better default. Subaddresses work without a server flag. More than one wallet. A day offline on the LAN is a short catch-up, not dialup. Dialup is usually a public node, a restore height set way too low, or the app having been dead for weeks.
Skylight in node mode is the same idea. The LWS switch is the privacy trade, not a requirement for a decent wallet.
LWS is the right call when the phone has been offline a long time and you need it instant, or you want the server to tell you the moment something lands. Fair, if the box is yours. I just wouldn't call getting the phone out of the scan the more elegant design. Elegant is the view key staying on the phone, and the node only doing node work.