Remote Android

scrcpy

There was a time when accessing a remote desktop was an essential part of running Linux. It was a time when, unless you wanted to wrestle with Webmin, the best way to solve problems remotely was to simply use the desktop of the troubled system. This helped with Linux adoption because Linux is so good at it. Even before the Internet became all-conquering, graphical applications could be tunneled across a network through the X11 protocol itself, enabling you to run remote graphical applications locally. A little later, VNC solved the same problem by compressing an entire desktop into a set of JPEGs that could be reconstituted anywhere with a network connection. It often suffered from poor quality, but it got the job done.

Considering Android is Linux, it's surprising that the platform is not equally festooned with remote-viewing options. There are very few for unrooted devices that let you see exactly what you would see looking at the screen in your hand. But this is what the terribly named (for dyslexics) scrcpy does, and it does this without root and without requiring anything to be installed on your Android device. The only requirement is that ADB debugging is enabled on your Android device, and that you trust the required USB connection you make between your phone and your Linux machine. It's then a matter of running the scrcpy command, if you can type it, and waiting for the connection to start. Within a few moments you'll be presented with a 1:1 frame-by-frame perfect capture of what you see on your Android screen. It's amazing how useful this can be, from streaming the screen across a network, to replying to messages while you're in VR.

Project Website

https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy

Stream an exact replica of your Android device's screen to your Linux desktop, with glorious acceleration.

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