Android Selfie Live Preview with scrcpy (Windows)

Use an Android smartphone as a camera and a Windows PC as a larger live preview screen using only open-source tools.

This document focuses on:

• scrcpy as a live monitor (USB and Wi-Fi)
• Multiple Android devices
• Windows cmd.exe one-liners
• Using ANDROID_ID as a stable logical device identifier

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1. Overview

There are always two independent screens:

• Phone screen
  Runs the camera app and performs the actual recording.

• PC screen
  Shows a real-time mirror of the phone using scrcpy for framing and focus.

The PC never records video. Recording stays on the phone.

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2. Requirements

Hardware

• Android phone (Android 5.0+)
• Windows PC (10 or 11)
• USB cable (required at least once)
• Optional: selfie stand or gimbal (example: DJI Osmo Mobile SE)

Software

• scrcpy (includes adb)
• Any camera app (stock, Open Camera, vendor app)
• Optional: DJI Mimo if using a DJI gimbal

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3. Install scrcpy

winget install scrcpy

Verify:

scrcpy --version

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4. Phone Setup (Manual, Required)

On each phone:

1. Enable Developer options
2. Enable USB debugging
3. Connect to the PC once via USB
4. When prompted: “Allow USB debugging?” → Allow (preferably “Always allow”)

This confirmation cannot be automated from the PC.

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5. Basic scrcpy (USB)

scrcpy --orientation=flip0

flip0 provides a mirrored preview, which is usually desirable for selfie framing.

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6. Multiple Devices and ADB

List devices known to adb:

adb devices

When more than one device is present, always specify a target using -s.

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7. Enable ADB over Wi-Fi (per device)

For a USB-connected device:

adb -s <USB_SERIAL> shell ip route

Identify the Wi‑Fi IP from the src field.

Enable TCP/IP:

adb -s <USB_SERIAL> tcpip 5555

Connect over Wi‑Fi:

adb connect <PHONE_IP>:5555

Verify:

adb devices

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8. scrcpy over Wi-Fi

scrcpy -s <PHONE_IP>:5555 --orientation=flip0

Multiple scrcpy windows may be opened simultaneously, one per device.

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9. Wireless Debugging Pairing (Android 11+)

adb pair <HOST>:<PAIR_PORT>
adb connect <HOST>:<ADB_PORT>

Pairing prompts must be accepted manually on the phone.

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10. Stable Device Identification with ANDROID_ID

ADB serials change between USB and Wi-Fi.
ANDROID_ID can be used as a stable logical identifier.

Notes:

• Usually stable for a given device and user
• May reset after factory reset
• May be unavailable on some devices

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11. One-Line: List All ADB Devices with ANDROID_ID

for /f "skip=1 tokens=1,2" %A in ('adb devices') do @if "%B"=="device" (@echo %A ^& adb -s %A shell settings get secure android_id 2^>nul || echo [android_id unavailable])

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12. One-Line: Prompt for ANDROID_ID and Connect to Wireless Device

set /p AID=Enter ANDROID_ID: & for /f "skip=1 tokens=1,2" %A in ('adb devices') do @if "%B"=="device" @echo %A|find ":" >nul && for /f "delims=" %I in ('adb -s %A shell settings get secure android_id 2^>nul') do @if "%I"=="%AID%" scrcpy -s %A --orientation=flip0

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13. What Cannot Be Automated

• Accepting “Allow USB debugging?”
• Accepting Wireless debugging pairing dialogs

These must always be confirmed on the phone.

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14. Orientation Reference (scrcpy 3.3+)

flip0     mirrored, no rotation
flip90    mirrored, 90° clockwise
flip180   mirrored, 180°
flip270   mirrored, 270°

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15. Summary

• scrcpy provides a dependable live monitor for Android cameras
• USB is simplest; Wi-Fi works well after pairing
• Multiple devices are supported simultaneously
• ANDROID_ID allows transport-independent device identification
• Phone-side security prompts always require manual acceptance