Access an Android instance

As an Android application developer, you need access to the Android instance when developing and debugging applications. Depending on the kind of access you would like to the Android instance, you can use anbox-connect to connect over the network from a remote machine or use anbox-shell to connect from within the Anbox instance.

This guide uses the Anbox Cloud Appliance to demonstrate both ways of connecting to an Android instance. So if you don’t have an existing Anbox Cloud deployment already, first install the appliance.

Private access: Connect to the Android instance using anbox-shell

On the machine where the appliance is installed, create an instance with streaming enabled:

amc launch --name=demo --enable-streaming

This creates an instance using the default image available and also creates a session for the instance.

Wait until the instance is running. To check, run:

amc ls

The output will list the instance ID, copy that and run:

amc shell demo

Now, you should be inside the shell of the Anbox instance.

To gain access to the Android instance, run:

anbox-shell

Running anbox-shell provides you root access to the Android instance.

Public access: Connect to the Android instance using ADB

Using anbox-connect lets you securely connect to an Android instance via the Android Debug Bridge (ADB).

Video demonstration:

Install anbox-connect on your host machine:

snap install anbox-connect

Install ADB on your host machine. You can install Android Studio which also installs the Android SDK (which includes ADB as part of the platform tools). You can choose to use another IDE of your choice and install ADB independently.

On the machine where appliance is installed, create an instance with streaming enabled:

amc launch --name=demo --enable-streaming

This creates an instance using the default image available and also creates a session for the instance.

Wait until the instance is running. To check, run:

amc ls

After verifying that the instance is running and has a session ID, share the session:

Note

If you are using the charmed deployment, use anbox-stream-gateway instead of anbox-cloud-appliance.gateway in the commands.

sudo anbox-cloud-appliance.gateway session share <session_id> --description="remote access to demo instance"

Tip

Providing a description helps you identify a shared session when you are sharing a session multiple times with different people.

The output returns the command you need to run next from your host machine: anbox-connect <connection_url>

Copy this output. The <connection_url> is a presigned URL that establishes a single ADB connection — if multiple users attempt to use the same presigned URL, any existing ADB connection will be interrupted and only the last request succeeds.

If you are using the dashboard, locate your running instance and click Connect ADB > Authorise to get the command with the presigned URL.

Now, create the connection from the terminal of your host machine (where ADB is installed). Run:

anbox-connect <connection_url>

Accept the message to trust the connection. Once the ADB channel is established, the output returns guidance for the next step:

Access to the remote Anbox Cloud instance over ADB is now possible. Please run:
    $ adb connect <ip_address>

Open a new tab in the terminal and run adb connect <ip_address> to connect to the Android instance. It is important to open another tab so that the established ADB connection is not aborted.

You are now connected to the Android instance and can interact with it using Android Studio. If you want a visual interface of your Android application while debugging, use the dashboard or your custom stream client to stream your instance.