explaingit

genymobile/scrcpy

Analysis updated 2026-06-20

139,497CAudience · generalComplexity · 2/5LicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

scrcpy mirrors your Android phone's screen and audio to your computer and lets you control it with your keyboard and mouse, wirelessly or via USB, with no root or app install required.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What It Does
      Mirror Android screen
      Forward device audio
      Keyboard mouse control
    Connection Modes
      USB cable
      TCP-IP wireless
      OTG mode
    Key Features
      Screen recording
      Copy paste sync
      Virtual display
      Camera as webcam
    Requirements
      Android 5 or newer
      No root needed
    Platforms
      Linux Windows macOS
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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Mirror an Android device to a big screen for a live demo or presentation without touching the phone.

USE CASE 2

Record your Android screen to an MP4 file directly from your computer using a single command.

USE CASE 3

Test and interact with a mobile app from your desktop keyboard and mouse during development.

USE CASE 4

Use your Android phone's camera as a webcam on your Linux computer through V4L2.

What is it built with?

C

How does it compare?

genymobile/scrcpynetdata/netdataventoy/ventoy
Stars139,49778,71676,428
LanguageCCC
Setup difficultyeasyeasyeasy
Complexity2/53/52/5
Audiencegeneralops devopsops devops

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min
Use freely for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as you keep the copyright and license notice (Apache 2.0).

In plain English

scrcpy, pronounced "screen copy," is an application that mirrors an Android device's screen and audio to your computer and lets you control the device using your computer's keyboard and mouse. The basic problem it solves is that you sometimes want to use, demo, test, or record an Android device on a bigger screen with desktop input, and existing solutions either need root access, install software on the phone, or have noticeable lag. scrcpy avoids all of that: it does not require root, it does not leave anything installed on the Android device, and it works over USB or TCP/IP for wireless use. It runs on Linux, Windows, and macOS. The README highlights design goals of lightness (it just shows the device screen), performance at 30 to 120 frames per second depending on the device, quality of 1920x1080 or above, low latency around 35 to 70 ms, fast startup at about a second to first frame, and being free and open source. Listed features include audio forwarding, recording, virtual displays, mirroring with the device screen turned off, copy-paste in both directions, configurable quality, camera mirroring, exposing the device camera as a webcam on Linux through V4L2, simulating a physical keyboard or mouse over HID, gamepad support, and an OTG mode that lets you use the computer to control the device without mirroring or USB debugging. Usage is via a command-line tool with many options, with example invocations in the README that pick the H.265 video codec, set max size and frame rate, record to MP4, expose a virtual display, or use the device camera as a webcam. You would use scrcpy to mirror an Android device for presentations, gaming with gamepads, screen recording, app testing, or simply working from a bigger keyboard. The Android device must be at least Android 5.0, and audio forwarding requires Android 11 or newer. The project is written in C and licensed under Apache License 2.0.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Give me the scrcpy command to mirror my Android device wirelessly over TCP-IP at 1080p with 60 fps and H.265 encoding.
Prompt 2
Show me how to use scrcpy to record my Android screen to an MP4 file while also displaying it on my PC at the same time.
Prompt 3
Write a shell script that connects to an Android device over ADB WiFi and starts scrcpy with max-size 1920 and a 30fps cap.
Prompt 4
How do I use scrcpy in OTG mode to control my Android phone from my computer without enabling USB debugging on the phone?

Frequently asked questions

What is scrcpy?

scrcpy mirrors your Android phone's screen and audio to your computer and lets you control it with your keyboard and mouse, wirelessly or via USB, with no root or app install required.

What language is scrcpy written in?

Mainly C. The stack also includes C.

What license does scrcpy use?

Use freely for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as you keep the copyright and license notice (Apache 2.0).

How hard is scrcpy to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is scrcpy for?

Mainly general.

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