ADB or Android Debug Bridge is a term that you’ve come across quite often. Every time you connect your device to your computer via cable, or if you browse around the ‘Developer Options,’ you will come across the term Android Debug Bridge or ADB for short, but what does it mean? And what is its purpose? It is a versatile tool that helps your Android device function as it is, so let us tell you more about ADB.

What does it mean? What its level of significance is? For starters, Google details the following explanation, telling what’s the importance of ADB in the simplest manner possible.

“Android Debug Bridge (ADB) is a versatile tool lets you manage the state of an emulator instance or Android-powered device.”

If you still didn’t get the gist of it, allow us to break it down even further. ABD is two different applications; one is running on your computer, which could be running Windows 10, Linux or even MacOS, while the other application is running on your phone.

When your phone connects to the machine that is running any desktop operating system, and if USB debugging is enabled, you can issue commands and communicate with the phone using the command line utility. Google has made it part of its Android software development kit for Windows, Mac, and Linux, so incompatibility is going to be the least of your problems.

The Android OS itself is based on Linux and therefore, it uses the Linux kernel and tools as a base. What this means is that there are quite a few Linux commands that can be sent through the ADB server (this server is the application that is running on your computer) to the ADB client (this is the one that is running on your phone).

Using the server-client relationship, this tag team can become a beneficial tool as you will be able to debug things when nothing or very little is going right for you. Also, you can execute unexplored commands when you’re on your hacking spree, so as far as exploration goes, there are several options present at your fingertips.

The majority of the time, you will require the ADB feature when you’re attempting to debug something actively or if you are tenaciously trying to hack your smartphone. Regardless, if you do get a chance, try to use the ADB feature as much as possible and have fun with your device. You never know what you’re missing out on.

How can you install ADB on your Windows operating system?

Given below are some easy steps on how you can get started with the ADB feature on your Windows operating system. Since Windows 10 is the most popular platform out of the entire competition, we have decided to provide instructions for this OS.

  1. First, download the Android SDK package.
  2. The installer will prompt you to download and install the JDK (Java Development Kit), but only if you do not have it installed on your computer.
  3. Next, install the .exe file and detail the location where you want to install it.
  4. After the installation process is over, use Windows Explorer and navigate to the folder where you installed the SDK.
  5. Double-click the SDK Manager.exe/SDK Setup.exe file at the root of the Android SDK directory.
  6. This will open up the SDK Installation window, where you can choose from a list of packages to install.
  7. If you only want to use adb.exe and fastboot.exe, choose to install only the ‘Android SDK Tools’ from the list.
  8. After selecting this option, adb.exe will successfully be installed on your computer so you can start your debugging and hacking spree right away.

I hope you have found this article on Android Debug Bridge or ADB helpful. In case we’ve missed anything or you wish to share some inputs, let us know in comments below.