This app puts your phone on your desktop, Windows, macOS, Linux included

By Chris Burns/June 12, 2019 10:48 am EST

The app called scrcpy was released in version 1.9 this week with features that make it the most advanced (yet simple) Android phone mirroring app in the world. This app allows the mirroring of any Android smartphone* using USB (or TCP/IP, wirelessly) and requires no rooting or specialized knowledge. This app works on GNU/Linux, Windows, and macOS, and it's free to download and use.

Users will need to enable ADB debugging on their Android device in order for this process to work. That's relatively easy to make happen – as follows: Go to settings – About Phone – and tap your BUILD number seven times. Go back one screen and find Developer Options, and note that this section may be on a different list in Settings depending on the smartphone you're using. In Developer Options, find USB debugging, and enable USB debugging.

THE NAME: What's the name of the app all about? It's meant to be an unpronounceable word AND a mash-up. The word scrcpy is short for screen copy.

The app allows you to use your phone on the desktop of your computer, transfer files, and have a single-machine experience in general. This is rather helpful for people that need to use their phone during the day at the same time as they use their desktop computer – especially if they find themselves jumping back and forth between machines all day long.

One massive collection of options are available with the latest version of the app, including the latest and greatest: The ability to turn your phone's screen off whilst in use on your desktop. To view a whole bunch of other options, head over to the Github entry and explore. It'll be easiest to use this system if you've used a command prompt before – but it is not absolutely necessary to get started.

*To be fair (*to be fair, to be fair*), this app does need your Android phone to have Android 5.0 or higher – but of all the phones still active in the world with Android at this moment, the vast majority are running 5.0 at the VERY least.