Android Development
Updated 15 days ago | GitHub

Presenting an Android Device

Overview

This guide details how to present an Android app to an audience by connecting your phone to your computer and mirroring the device screen. This guide was originally written around Mobizen Mirroring, which was discontinued on February 1, 2022 — for new setups, use the free and open-source scrcpy tool instead. First, we need to setup USB debugging so the computer can talk to the device.

Enable USB Debugging

First to present your phone, we need to enable USB debugging so your phone can interact with your computer in a developer mode.

The following steps are needed:

  1. (Windows Only) Install this ADB Driver
  2. Plug-in your Android Device to Computer via USB
  3. Open the “Settings” App on the Device
  4. Scroll down to bottom to find “About phone” item
  5. Scroll down to bottom to find “Build number” section
  6. Tap on “Build Number” 7 times in quick succession
  7. You should see the message “You are now a developer!”
  8. Go back to main “Settings” page
  9. Scroll down bottom to find “Developer options” item
  10. Turn on “USB Debugging” switch and hit “OK”
  11. Unplug and re-plug the device
  12. Dialog appears “Allow USB Debugging?”
  13. Check “Always allow from this computer” and hit “OK”

Watch this video tutorial for a visual guide to getting USB debugging enabled.

Mobizen (discontinued)

Note: Mobizen Mirroring — the PC screen-mirroring product described in this section — was discontinued by RSUPPORT: the archived discontinuation notice states “Mobizen Mirroring will be discontinued on February 1, 2022 (Tuesday)”, and the desktop download link below no longer works. This section is kept only as historical reference — use scrcpy or one of the alternatives at the bottom of this page instead.

Mobizen was the easiest and most reliable way to present your Android screen onto your computer.

There are three steps to using Mobizen:

  1. Download and Configure Mobizen on Android Device
  2. Download and install Mobizen PC to your desktop
  3. Connect to your Android Device from Computer

1. Download and Configure Mobizen onto Android Device

First, we need to download and configure Mobizen on our device. Go to the “Play Store” and install one of these Android apps:

Open the app up on your phone:

  1. Tap “Start” to begin
  2. Choose an Email Account
  3. Create a Password to Register
  4. Tap “Next” Right Arrow or Swipe a few times
  5. Tap “Start Mobizen”

You should see the following on your device:

Now, let’s setup mobizen on our computer.

2. Download and install Mobizen PC to your desktop

Visit the Mobizen Site to download the plug-in onto your computer:

  • Download the App
  • Opening the downloaded package and run the setup wizard
  • Complete installation by following each step

You should see the following on your computer:

Now, let’s connect your device to your computer using mobizen.

3. Connect to your Android Device from Computer

Mobizen can connect to your device using either USB or WiFi connections. Connecting with USB allows for a much smoother framerate and is strongly recommended. Follow these steps:

  1. Connect the Android device to the Computer using USB
  2. Ensure USB Debugging mode is active by checking the notifications screen.
  3. Go to Settings => Developer options and enable “Stay awake”
  4. Go to Settings => Display => Screen Timeout and change to “5 minutes”
  5. Sign in to Mobizen with the email and password configured in earlier steps.
  6. Wait until the present dialog appears on the device
  7. Tap “Start Now” on the device to display screen on the computer
  8. Select “FullScreen” on the menu sidebar
 

You should be good to go for presenting your screen!

Alternatives

There are several alternatives to Mobizen for presenting an Android app including: