What is your favorite superpower? Maybe, the ability to mirror your Android phone on your Linux desktop and to use it as an integrated application.
Scrcpy does exactly that and permits you to completely control any Android device, just by connecting it through a simple USB cable. And no root access or hack is needed! This application provides a way to display and control Android devices connected to USB (or also over TCP/IP). It works fine on every GNU/Linux distribution, but it’s available also for Windows and macOS.
With only a few requirements, at least Android API 21 and to enable ADB debugging on the device, Scrcpy lets you use your tablet or phone directly from your desktop PC or laptop. At this time, our favorite use is to play Youtube channel or news on the device during the work at the PC, switching it to sports events during the pauses.
The app is really lightweight and it has really high performance also on older devices and PCs. With a low latency (35~70ms) and high-resolution support (1920×1080 or above, with 30~60fps), it is a pleasure to use it. The boot is fast, very fast, and you’re operative in a few seconds.
Our favorite feature is that it is possible to synchronize clipboards between the computer and the device, in both directions. You can copy and paste as you want from the device to the PC and reverse it. With USB connection, it is working ‘out of the box’, you only need to connect the device, activate the debugging mode and launch Scrcpy on your PC. But you can also use it connecting the device over TCP/IP.
On Linux, you typically need to build the app manually, but don’t worry, it’s not that hard. Pay attention that you need the Rpmfusion external repositories for pulling in ffms2 as a build dependency on Fedora systems.
Alternatively, if you have the SNAP subsystem on your distro, a Snap package is available. This is an unofficial snap, but it works fine and it has no issues at all.
On Ubuntu, you can install it from Ubuntu Software as a snap or through the terminal command:
$ sudo snap install scrcpy
On Fedora, you can install Scrcpy enabling the Snap subsystem:
$ sudo dnf install snapd
$ sudo ln -s /var/lib/snapd/snap /snap
$ sudo snap install scrcpy
Also, on Fedora, you can use the repository from Fedora COPR:
$ sudo dnf copr enable zeno/scrcpy
$ sudo dnf install scrcpy
References:
- Genymobile/scrcpy – Display and control your Android device – https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy
- Snapcraft/scrcpy – Display and control your Android device – https://snapcraft.io/scrcpy
- Snapcraft/scrcpy – How to install scrcpy on Fedora – https://snapcraft.io/install/scrcpy/fedora
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