How to use an android device for development wirelessly?

3 min readOct 26, 2021

Ever got a chance to develop android apps? Do you know the hassle of brainstorming & coding your app in full speed & suddenly, your device got disconnected & rest is … :’(

Don’t worry. I also went through the same experience and decided to find a bypass route to get rid of wired connection for my device.

So here in this blog, I am going to explain how you can connect your android device with your laptop / pc wirelessly for seamless android app development experience.

NOTE: Since you are here, I am assuming you already know about basic android development & you have your android development setup ready.

Let’s get started.

First of all, enable developers option on your mobile device.

Configure on-device developer options | Android Developers

Learn how to configure system behaviours that help you profile and debug your app performance.

android.peek.link

Now to communicate to your mobile device from your laptop / pc, we will be using Android Debug Bridge (adb). Refer the link to see how you can install adb on your laptop / pc.

Android Debug Bridge (adb) | Android Developers

Find out about the Android Debug Bridge, a versatile command-line tool that lets you communicate with a device.

android.peek.link

Run this command to verify that adb is installed & working properly.

adb --version

Now, connect your android device to your laptop / pc through wired connection (USB or any other) and set transfer mode to Files Transfer.

Once this is done, open terminal or command prompt or windows power shell on your laptop / pc, type this command.

adb devices

If all goes well, you should see list of connected devices.

Now, let’s make your android device wirelessly available for development. Type this command to start the adb server on port 5555.

adb tcpip 5555

Now, find out the IP address of the common network on which your mobile device & laptop / pc are connected.

Note: Make sure your mobile and laptop / pc are connected to the same WiFi Network.

How to find IP address of Android smartphone/iPhone/iPad? | TP-Link

How to find IP address of Android smartphone/iPhone/iPad?

| TP-Link How to find IP address of Android smartphone/iPhone/iPad?tp-link.peek.link

Now, type this command to connect to your device wirelessly.

adb connect <your-common-network-ip-address>:5555

Once done, type adb devices . You will see list of devices connected. If all went good, you will notice one device named as per your ip address in the list.
Now, to verify that all is working fine, disconnect your device’s USB (or wired) connection from your laptop / pc and run adb devices again & check if your device is listed.

That’s It !!!
Now, you can run your android application in your android device from android studio (or vs code) wirelessly.
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