Blynk appears to be a fairly put-together library for not only hooking up any Arduino or esp8266 to a phone through WiFi, but also through the net if desired. Install the app onto your iPhone or ...

You usually think of using Blynk with an Arduino, but you can also program the embedded part directly on an ESP8266. I quickly threw together a little prototype joystick.

Blynk is a platform that has iOS and Android apps that can be designed in minutes to control Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and similar microboards over the internet. Blynk is sort of a prototyping board ...