diff --git a/apps/mobile/src/api-response.ts b/apps/mobile/src/api-response.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d6e8b017
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/mobile/src/api-response.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+/**
+ * Read an API response without assuming every route answers with JSON.
+ * Plain-text 404s, proxy HTML pages and empty bodies must not surface as
+ * "Unexpected token" parse errors in the UI.
+ */
+export async function readApiPayload<T>(response: Response, fallback?: string): Promise<T> {
+  const text = await response.text();
+  let payload: unknown;
+  try {
+    payload = JSON.parse(text);
+  } catch {
+    payload = undefined;
+  }
+  if (!response.ok) {
+    const error =
+      payload && typeof payload === "object" ? (payload as { error?: unknown }).error : undefined;
+    throw new Error(
+      typeof error === "string" ? error : (fallback ?? `Request failed (${response.status})`),
+    );
+  }
+  if (payload === undefined)
+    throw new Error(`The server returned an unreadable response (${response.status}).`);
+  return payload as T;
+}
diff --git a/apps/mobile/src/api.ts b/apps/mobile/src/api.ts
index 3bb72e4e..ab831d2a 100644
--- a/apps/mobile/src/api.ts
+++ b/apps/mobile/src/api.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import { Platform } from "react-native";
+import { readApiPayload } from "./api-response";
 
 export const API_URL = (
   process.env.EXPO_PUBLIC_API_URL ||
@@ -18,11 +19,7 @@ export class MuseApi {
       },
       body: body === undefined ? undefined : body instanceof FormData ? body : JSON.stringify(body),
     });
-    const payload = await response.json();
-    if (!response.ok)
-      throw new Error(
-        typeof payload.error === "string" ? payload.error : `Request failed (${response.status})`,
-      );
+    const payload = await readApiPayload<T>(response);
     return payload;
   }
   url(path: string) {
@@ -38,7 +35,9 @@ export async function createSession(
     headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
     body: JSON.stringify({ accessKey }),
   });
-  const payload = await response.json();
-  if (!response.ok) throw new Error(payload.error || "Could not open your workspace.");
+  const payload = await readApiPayload<{ token: string; mode: "sample" | "live" }>(
+    response,
+    "Could not open your workspace.",
+  );
   return payload;
 }
diff --git a/apps/mobile/test/api-response.test.ts b/apps/mobile/test/api-response.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..cd5ebb24
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/mobile/test/api-response.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+import assert from "node:assert/strict";
+import test from "node:test";
+import { readApiPayload } from "../src/api-response.ts";
+
+test("JSON responses pass through and server errors keep their message", async () => {
+  assert.deepEqual(
+    await readApiPayload(new Response(JSON.stringify({ mode: "sample" }), { status: 200 })),
+    { mode: "sample" },
+  );
+  await assert.rejects(
+    readApiPayload(
+      new Response(JSON.stringify({ error: "Access key is incorrect" }), { status: 401 }),
+    ),
+    /Access key is incorrect/,
+  );
+});
+
+test("plain-text and HTML failures stay readable instead of a JSON parse error", async () => {
+  for (const [status, body] of [
+    [404, "404 Not Found"],
+    [502, "<html><body>Bad Gateway</body></html>"],
+  ] as const) {
+    const error = await readApiPayload(new Response(body, { status })).catch((e: unknown) => e);
+    assert.ok(error instanceof Error);
+    assert.equal(error.message, `Request failed (${status})`);
+    assert.equal(error instanceof SyntaxError, false);
+    assert.doesNotMatch(error.message, /Unexpected|JSON/i);
+  }
+});
+
+test("a caller fallback covers error bodies without a message", async () => {
+  await assert.rejects(
+    readApiPayload(
+      new Response(JSON.stringify({}), { status: 500 }),
+      "Could not open your workspace.",
+    ),
+    /Could not open your workspace\./,
+  );
+  await assert.rejects(
+    readApiPayload(
+      new Response("<html>down</html>", { status: 503 }),
+      "Could not open your workspace.",
+    ),
+    /Could not open your workspace\./,
+  );
+});
+
+test("successful responses without a readable body fail clearly", async () => {
+  await assert.rejects(
+    readApiPayload(new Response(null, { status: 204 })),
+    /unreadable response \(204\)/,
+  );
+  await assert.rejects(readApiPayload(new Response("OK", { status: 200 })), /unreadable response/);
+});