English (unofficial) translations of posts at kexue.fm
Source

[Memo] Solutions for Remote Controlling a Phone from a Computer

Translated by DeepSeek V4 Pro. Translations can be inaccurate, please refer to the original post for important stuff.

Recently, due to research in data mining, I needed to find a way to remotely control a phone (mainly Android) from a computer. I searched for some tools online and recorded the results here purely as a memo. Readers with similar needs can refer to this.

I previously performed remote control on Alibaba Cloud servers and Raspberry Pi. I remembered that the remote control tool under Linux is called VNC. So I searched Google and Baidu for vnc server android, vnc server apk, etc. I found quite a few such tools, the most famous being droid vnc server. However, I tested several similar software, and while they are indeed VNC software, the display was abnormal (scrambled display) on my Android 4.x devices. I had to abandon them. Looking at the dates, I found these apps basically stopped updating in 2013 and generally only support up to Android 2.3, which explains why.

Having no luck with vnc server, I settled for the next best thing and searched for "remote control phone" and similar terms. The first answer I got was TeamViewer and its Android version, QuickSupport. Together, they can indeed remotely control a phone. However, this solution has a fatal weakness for me: when connecting to the phone, you need to manually press "Confirm" on the phone side. I want remote automatic control. If there were someone there to press it, why would I need automatic control? What kind of logic is manual confirmation... so I abandoned it. In fact, it has other drawbacks, like the installation package being too large and having too many features. Actually, a pure VNC would have been enough for me.

Later, I accidentally found Webkey. I tried it with a "let’s see" attitude (since I had failed several times before) and found it was exactly what I needed. It can display the screen normally and is managed via HTTP, not pure VNC. The installation package size is moderate. In fact, it does more: it requires a simple registration to use, supports password-based remote management (eliminating that annoying manual confirmation), and provides intranet penetration (true remote management, which is probably why it requires registration). However, this is also a small drawback: because it requires registration, if Webkey goes down one day, this tool will become unusable.

There is no such thing as a perfect lunch. I will use Webkey for now.

Please include the original address when reposting: https://kexue.fm/archives/3691

For more details on reposting, please refer to: Scientific Space FAQ