Control and Mirror an Android Phone From Your Browser

You can control an Android phone from your browser by plugging it in over USB and opening ADBKit in Chrome or Edge. The phone's screen appears live on your computer, and you operate it with your mouse: click to tap, drag to swipe. There is nothing to install and no account to create.

What you need

• A desktop computer with a Chromium-based browser (Chrome or Edge). Firefox and Safari do not support WebUSB, so they cannot connect.
• An Android phone with USB debugging switched on. If you have not done this yet, follow how to enable USB debugging.
• A USB cable that carries data, not just power.
• Nothing else holding the phone: close Android Studio, scrcpy and any other ADBKit tabs first.

Step 1: Connect the phone

1. Open the ADBKit workspace in your browser.
2. Click Connect device.
3. Select your phone in the browser's USB window.
4. Unlock the phone and tap Allow on the USB debugging prompt.

The device connects and the workspace fills with its details. A device you have allowed before can reconnect automatically on later visits, and if you have several remembered devices you can switch between them from the device menu. If the connection fails with a "busy" message, only one program can hold the USB connection at a time. Close the other program or run adb kill-server, then try again. More help is in fixing ADB device busy or unauthorized errors.

Step 2: Start the live view

Open the live screen view. ADBKit uses the open-source scrcpy server component to stream the display: it copies that server to a temporary location on the device, starts it, and shows the video in the page. No app is installed on the phone as part of this, unless you choose to install an APK yourself.

Once the stream runs, you can:

• Click the screen to tap.
• Drag to swipe or scroll.
• Use the on-screen buttons for Back, Home, App switcher, volume up and down, and rotate.

Step 3: Pick a stream quality

A higher resolution looks sharper but needs more bandwidth and processing. ADBKit offers these options:

If the picture stutters, step down one level. A better cable or a direct port instead of a hub also helps.

Step 4: Capture what you see

The same view handles captures.

• Screenshots. Take one, then use the editor to crop, rotate, annotate, apply filters or resize it before saving as PNG.
• Screen recording. Record from the live view, then trim the clip and export it.
• Captures are kept in a list for the session, so you can come back to them. Details are in screenshot and screen recording on Android.

What is copied to your phone, and what leaves it

The one thing placed on the device is the scrcpy server, copied to a temporary location so it can stream the screen. Beyond that:

• The screen, files, logs and APKs go only between the browser and the device.
• ADBKit has no server that receives them.
• Your phone keeps its own authorization list, which you can clear with Revoke USB debugging authorizations in Developer options.

The connection itself is the same ADB protocol used by desktop tools, carried over WebUSB. For the technical background, read what WebADB is.

Note: USB debugging gives a connected computer broad control over your phone. Approve only computers you trust, and switch the setting off when you are done on a shared machine.

How this compares with desktop tools

Desktop tools such as scrcpy are excellent, and ADBKit builds on that project's server. The practical difference is where the client runs. With a desktop tool you download a program and keep it updated, and on some systems you also set up platform tools and drivers. With ADBKit the client is a web page, so setup is limited to enabling USB debugging and opening a link. The trade-off is that you need a Chromium-based browser and HTTPS, and you are limited to what the browser can do, which is why Wi-Fi connections need a small helper on your computer (see ADB over Wi-Fi).

Limits and troubleshooting

• Browser support. Chrome, Edge and other Chromium-based desktop browsers only.
• One connection at a time. Another program or tab holding the phone will block the connection.
• Locked or secure screens. If the phone is locked, unlock it first; some apps block screen capture of sensitive content.
• Stutter or lag. Lower the stream quality, change the cable or port, and close heavy programs.
• Prompt does not appear. Reconnect, make sure the screen is on and unlocked, and check that the USB mode is not "Charging only".

Beyond mirroring, the same workspace gives you a file explorer, logcat viewer, APK installer and shell, so you can move from watching the screen to debugging without switching tools.