scrcpy
Genymobile/scrcpyReviewed by AI
What it does
scrcpy puts your Android phone or tablet screen in a window on the computer and lets you tap, type and copy-paste with the computer's mouse and keyboard. It can also forward the phone's sound, record the screen to a video file, use the phone camera as a webcam and work over Wi-Fi. Nothing is installed on the phone and no account or internet connection is needed, but you must switch on USB debugging in the phone's developer options. The downloads are small (10 to 17 MB) and you start it from a terminal when you want options.
How easy it is to install
B · installer plus one simple step · Windows
- Windows B
- macOS C
- Linux C
Windows is the easiest: you unzip scrcpy-win64-v5.0.1.zip (11 MB), which already contains everything needed, and the one extra step is turning on USB debugging on the phone as the README requires. On macOS and Linux the project points to per-system instructions that normally mean installing it through a package manager such as Homebrew and starting it from a terminal, and all the extra features (quality, recording, camera) are command-line options like `scrcpy --video-codec=h265 -m1920` on every system.
Numbers on GitHub
- Stars
- 153,678on Oct 31, 2026
- Downloads
- 30,632,307191,510 this week
- Growth
- +460stars in 5 days
Stars over time
Facts
- Runs on
- Windows, macOS, Linux
- You need to install
- Nothing extra
- Disk space
- 11 MB–32 MB · from the installer
- Accounts or keys
- None
- Cost
- Free · Free and Apache-2.0 licensed. The author only asks for optional donations (GitHub Sponsors, Liberapay, PayPal).
- License
- Apache-2.0 (Permissive)
- Can replace
- Vysor
- Last update
- Oct 8, 2026
Risk signals (3)
- Attentionrequires usb debugging on the phone
README, Prerequisites: "Make sure you enabled USB debugging on your device(s)", and on some phones also "USB debugging (Security Settings)". That setting opens the phone to any computer you connect and trust, so it is worth switching off again when you no longer need it.
AI review
- Attentioncopycat downloads elsewhere
The README opens with a warning: "This GitHub repo (https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy) is the only official source for the project. Do not download releases from random websites, even if their name contains scrcpy." So the name is being used by other sites and only the files in this repository's releases are the project's own.
AI review
- Infomany open issues
2942 open issues alongside 153603 stars. The project is active (last release v5.0.1 on 2026-10-08) and the README sends people to the FAQ first, which suggests most of the pile is support questions about specific phones.
AI review
Evidence is shown in its original language.
What Radar could not check
- Whether your phone model lets the computer control it: the README notes Xiaomi phones can refuse with an "INJECT_EVENTS permission" error until an extra setting is enabled
- Whether sound forwarding and camera use work on your phone, since the README limits them to Android 11+ and Android 12+
- The real picture quality and delay on your cable, Wi-Fi and phone, as against the claimed 30 to 120 fps and 35 to 70 ms
- Whether the macOS and Linux installs are as direct as the Windows one, since the steps live in separate documentation pages
- Whether the file you downloaded is the author's, which the project asks you to confirm with the release signatures