Yes (Silhouette Go), but it is not a replacement for Silhouette Studio
With the growth of sophisticated craft cutting machines available for home and hobby use, people have been curious about integrating their vinyl cutters with their mobile devices. Some companies offer design software that interfaces with their cutting machines (Cricut), but what about the new Silhouette Cameo 4? Is there an iPhone app for the Silhouette?
The answer is a cautious yes.
Silhouette has re-released a beta version of their Silhouette Go app in late 2020. It has a limited suite of functions that allows users to send projects to their Silhouette machine (via Bluetooth).
This second version of the app follows an earlier version of the Studio design software for mobile in 2016. (Silhouette quietly discontinued it in 2019.)
The new mobile Silhouette Go app lets users open saved projects from their smartphone or tablet. The design actions available include: resizing, rotating, grouping and adding registration marks.
Users cannot add or edit text using Silhouette Go, nor can you use design functions like slice, weld or crop.
Doe Silhouette Go use SVG files?
Interestingly, the Silhouette Go app lets you open SVG files saved on your phone. This is not available if you use the free version of Silhouette Studio on your computer. This means that if you can’t use SVG files because you haven’t upgrade the Silhouette Studio software, you can still send those files to cut via the Go app.
So, to sum up, yes there is an app, but no, it’s won’t replace Silhouette Studio on your computer. At best, the Go app will allow you more flexibility and portability if you travel with your Silhouette cutter. You can use basic editing functions on designs already saved in your library. But you can’t design new projects with shapes, lines or text.
This is also a backdoor way of using SVG files in the free version of Silhouette Studio.
As one reviewer put it, “even if a truly wireless cutter is in the future, we will always need to physically load the media into the machine before cutting. My CAMEO can do amazing things, but it will never be able to choose my paper for me, put it on the mat, and load itself into the machine.”
If you’re interested in iPhone-compatible craft cutters, read our head-to-head comparison of Cricut Maker vs Silhouette Cameo 4.