Using OpenVysor

Overview

OpenVysor shows an Android phone on your computer and lets you control it. You can mirror the whole screen, or open a single app in its own phone-shaped window while the phone itself stays free.

It's a native desktop app that uses Android's ADB tool to reach the phone and scrcpy-server to capture the screen. There's no account, and nothing goes through the cloud.

Install

Every computer needs ADB. Pick yours:

If ADB is somewhere unusual

OpenVysor looks in your PATH, your Android SDK folder and the usual install locations. To point it at a specific copy, set OPENVYSOR_ADB to the full path of the program.

Connect with USB

USB is the simplest way to start and usually the smoothest.

1. On the phone, open Settings, then About phone, and tap Build number seven times to unlock Developer options.
2. Open Developer options and turn on USB debugging.
3. Connect a USB data cable, unlock the phone and tap Allow.
4. The phone appears on the Devices page. Choose Mirror screen or Open an app.

Connect over Wi-Fi

Needs Android 11 or later, with the phone and computer on the same network. Choose Connect over Wi-Fi on the Devices page, then use one of these:

Phone windows

Every mirror opens as its own borderless window, shaped like the phone and showing only the screen.

• Mirror screen shows the whole phone in one window.
• Open an app lists the phone's apps. Pick one and it opens on its own virtual display, so you can open several at once.
• Arrange windows on the Devices page lines them up side by side.
• Drag the dark strip at the top of a window to move it.

If a phone is unplugged, the window offers Reconnect, and tries to resume by itself when the phone comes back.

Mouse and keyboard

Window toolbar

Hover over a button in the strip at the top of a phone window to see its name. App windows show the shorter set.

Files and apps

Drag files onto a phone window. An .apk installs on the phone, and any other file goes to its Download folder. A message at the bottom of the window confirms the result.

Screenshots and recording

• Screenshots save as PNG to Pictures/OpenVysor.
• Recordings save as MP4 to Videos/OpenVysor. They contain video only, for now.
• Rotating the phone ends a recording, because an MP4 video track has one fixed size.

Settings

Quality changes apply to windows you open afterwards.

Troubleshooting

Privacy

• Video and input travel only between your phone and your computer. There's no account, and OpenVysor runs no servers.
• Clipboard sync shares text copied on either side, including passwords. Leave it off if you'd rather not.
• Phone screens can show private information. Take care when you share or record yours.

What is tested

Testing so far has used one phone (Nothing A059, Android 16).

Confirmed on the phone: live video of an app in its own window, tapping with the mouse, the window toolbar and full screen, and a clean exit.

Written, still being tested: whole-phone mirroring, dragging, scrolling, typing, rotation, automatic reconnection, clipboard sync, drag and drop, Wi-Fi pairing, phone sound and recording.

Not done yet: hardware video decoding, an installer, code signing, sound in recordings and end-to-end latency measurements.

Architecture

OpenVysor is one Rust program, drawn with egui and OpenGL. ADB and scrcpy-server are separate programs that it runs.

Build from source

Install Rust. On Linux, you also need libasound2-dev, nasm and pkg-config.

git clone https://github.com/SahinurDEV/OpenVysor.git
cd OpenVysor/native
cargo build --release

Run the tests with cargo test. Tests that need a real phone are skipped unless you ask for them:

cargo test --release --test real_device -- --ignored --nocapture

License

OpenVysor is released under the Apache License 2.0 (notice). It includes scrcpy-server (license). It's an independent project, not affiliated with or endorsed by the makers of Vysor.