The chapter ‘Digital Diplomats’ examines how smartphones have become indispensable to the everyday workings of Brussels’ political and diplomatic life. Drawing on ethnographic vignettes – from a diplomat’s panic at forgetting her phone to a trilogue meeting where multiple devices shape negotiations – the chapter argues that smartphones are not merely tools, but integral to the EU’s everyday governance. These devices function as shapeshifters: they are information portals, negotiation aids, social outlets and even diplomatic prostheses, extending the reach and capabilities of their users.

Inspired by the scholarship of Donna Haraway and Bruno Latour, the chapter frames smartphones as central to the ‘diplomatic assemblage’ – a dynamic interplay of people, practices and technologies. The phone’s omnipresence transforms how work is done, from protocol staff using step-counters to assure delegates, to diplomats managing multiple conversations simultaneously. Yet, this dependency also introduces new vulnerabilities, as seen in rising cybersecurity threats and the institutional push to regulate device use.

Ultimately, the chapter reveals how digital technologies are redefining diplomatic bodies and practices, making the EU’s political life increasingly hybrid. To understand contemporary governance, we must recognise the smartphone not just as a tool, but as a constitutive element of the Brussels Bubble’s social and political fabric.