I Built Scrcpy for Android — No PC Required

Control and mirror any Android device from another Android device using ADB over WiFi or USB OTG

If you’ve ever used scrcpy by Genymobile, you know how powerful it is — mirror and control any Android device from your desktop in seconds. But what if you don’t have a PC nearby? What if you want to use your phone or tablet as the controller?

That’s exactly the problem I set out to solve with Scropy Android.

What is Scropy Android?

Scropy is a native Android client that brings the scrcpy experience to Android itself. No laptop, no terminal, no USB cable to a computer — just two Android devices and a WiFi network (or a USB OTG cable).

Built with fully custom ADB implementation running on-device, Scropy replaces the desktop client entirely.

Demo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrtwvAFH8G4

Features

ADB over WiFi — uses Android’s built-in Wireless Debugging (no root required). Scan your network, pair with a code, and connect.

ADB over USB OTG — plug one phone into another with a USB OTG adapter. Full ADB over USB with automatic interface claiming and reconnect logic.

Screen mirroring — live stream the remote device’s screen directly in the app.

Interactive shell — a full ADB shell terminal running on the connected device.

Device list — saved devices with model name, Android version, and a live screenshot thumbnail so you always know what you’re connecting to.

mDNS discovery — automatically finds nearby devices advertising ADB over WiFi. No need to type IP addresses manually.

Self-connection — connect a device to itself. Especially useful on Samsung DeX: launch Scropy from the DeX desktop, connect to 127.0.0.1, and stream your phone screen into a resizable window.

The Self-Connection Trick (Samsung DeX)

This is my favourite use case. If you have a Samsung phone with DeX support, you can plug it into a monitor and run Scropy on the DeX desktop — then connect it back to itself via 127.0.0.1. Your phone's screen appears as a floating window on your DeX desktop. It's essentially your own phone-in-a-window, no second device needed.

How It Works Technically

The app implements the ADB protocol from scratch in Kotlin — key exchange, authentication, OPEN/WRITE/OKAY message framing, shell streams, and USB bulk transfer via Android's UsbManager. No external ADB binary is bundled.

For screen mirroring, it ships the scrcpy server JAR as an asset, pushes it to the connected device over ADB, and streams the H.264 video back.

Coming Soon

• App Management — install/uninstall apps on the connected device
• File Manager — browse, upload, and download files
• Clipboard Sync — copy and paste between devices

Get It

The APK is available on the GitHub Releases page. Source code is open.

This app is built on top of the original scrcpy by Genymobile — all credit to them for the protocol and server implementation.