With the free AirDroid app for your Android phone or tablet, you can use your computer’s browser or standalone Windows 10, 8.1, or Windows 7 app to remotely control your mobile device.
AirDroid allows you to send messages from your computer through your phone, manage files and contacts on top of Android, view photos, videos and listen to music stored on your phone from your computer, and more. In addition, the developer provides additional applications with some useful features, which will also be discussed in the article. If you are interested in other similar utilities, I recommend that you check out
The AirDroid app suite and what they are for
You can find all Android apps from the AirDroid developer in the Play Store. Applications include:
- AirDroid remote access and files – it is required to be installed on the phone that we plan to control from a laptop, computer, or other phone.
- AirMirror – allows you to connect from one phone to another phone (which has AirDroid installed), as well as provide support to users with the following application.
- AirDroid Remote Support is an application that a user can install for himself in order to get quick support and help with solving problems on Android from another user,
- AirDroid Business – the business version of AirDroid, will not be considered within the framework of this article.
If you are only interested in being able to access your phone from a computer or laptop, just install the AirDroid application on your phone, no additional applications are required. But later in the review, AirMirror and AirDroid Remote Support will also be briefly reviewed.
On a computer, you can use one of the following connection options:
- AirDroid Web – web version of AirDroid, works in a browser, in Russian.
- The AirDroid program for Windows 10, 8.1 or Windows 7 is available for download on the official website of the developer
Using AirDroid to remotely access an Android phone or tablet
Before proceeding, a few nuances: you can work with AirDroid with and without registration, over the Internet and over a local network (in this case, both the phone and the computer must be connected to the same Wi-Fi network).
Connection with registration is not difficult: it is enough to use the same account in the application on the phone and in the program on the computer. But, if, with registration, you will connect to the phone via the Internet, and not on the home network, there is a free traffic limit: 200 MB per month: this is enough to work with messages and notifications, but for something more serious it may turn out to be not enough. I recommend using the registration option – it works more stable, there are no traffic restrictions when connected to the same network.
Without registration, only connection within the local network is available, but without traffic restrictions. Wherein:
- In order to use AirDroid on your phone without registering, after launching at the top right, click “Skip”.
- If you plan to use AirDroid Web without registering, to connect in the AirDroid app on your phone, open the “Transmission” – “My Devices” tab, and then click on the QR code scan button to the right of the “AirDroid Web” item. On your computer, go to https://web.airdroid.com/ and scan the code displayed there with your phone. The second connection method: on the phone, click on the AirDroid Web item, and on the computer, enter the IP address indicated on the phone screen (displayed as numbers) in the browser in the browser.
- If you want to enable the Russian language in AirDroid Web, pay attention to the letter “A” in the top menu bar, click on it and select the desired language.
- If you use the AirDroid program on your computer and want to connect to your phone without registering, then in the program on your computer, click the “Quick Transfer” button instead of signing in. And on the phone, go to the “Transmission” – “Nearby” tab. After that, the search for mobile devices with AirDroid on the local network will be automatically launched.
After connecting, depending on the connection method, you will see one of two interface options for accessing phone data and other actions. In AirDroid Web – similar to the desktop, as in the screenshot below.
In the AirDroid for desktop application, the following interface is used to switch between different actions using the buttons on the left. The integration of notifications with Windows 10, dragging files from a computer to locations on the phone, and other features work.
Some default actions may not work until you grant the appropriate permissions in the AirDroid app on your phone (which will constantly prompt you at first).
Most of the available actions in both options are self-explanatory and work as soon as you grant the necessary permissions on your phone.
However, for the functions of managing your phone from a computer (tapping the screen, recording the phone screen from a computer, typing on the phone using the computer keyboard, remote access to the phone’s camera, including via the Internet), you need either Root access on the phone, or Perform actions on the Manage screen in AirDroid for Windows. Would need:
- Enable USB debugging on your phone , connect your phone to your computer with a cable, and allow USB debugging from this computer (you will be prompted on the Android screen).
- In the AirDroid program on your computer (the web version will not work), go to the “Management” tab, click on the “Non-Root” item and follow the instructions on this screen.
I will not describe in detail all the available actions: I think they will be relatively easy to deal with. As a rule, most users find it useful to do things like send messages and work with files on an Android phone from a computer (files, photos, videos, music, and others can be uploaded to the phone or downloaded from the phone).
Additionally, I recommend taking a look at the “Tools” section in the AirDroid app on your Android phone, where there are useful features such as Android screen recording .
Other developer apps
At the beginning of the article, several more applications from the AirDroid developer were mentioned, briefly about them:
- With the AirMirror app, you can connect from one of your Android devices to other devices on the same platform (which has the AirDroid app installed). For full operation, it is required that the remote device either has Root access, or performs the steps to enable access to functions without Root, as described at the end of the previous section.
- Also, the AirMirror application allows you to easily connect to the phones of other users who will install the AirDroid Remote Support application and tell you the connection code. You will be able to see the screen of the remote device, be able to communicate using text and voice chat. You won’t be able to control the remote device, but if you tap or gesture anywhere on the displayed Android remote screen, the remote user will also have the tapped locations and your gestures displayed on the screen so they can repeat them.
Summing up, I consider the option of working with an Android phone from a computer using AirDroid one of the most convenient, and if you work within the same home network, you will not encounter any traffic restrictions or others. The tool itself has been around for a very long time (if not the first, then one of the first such applications) and has an excellent reputation.
