WarpX Phone: getting started

WarpX Phone drives real Android phones from your Windows computer over Android's own debugging connection. No root is needed. It uses the same WarpX account as WarpX Browser, with a plan of its own; the Free plan drives one phone.

1. Install and sign in

Install WarpX Phone from the download page, open it and sign in with your WarpX account — the same steps as in Getting started. No account yet? Create one at account.warpx.app/signup. The installer carries its own copy of adb, so you do not need Android's platform-tools.

2. Turn on USB debugging on each phone

  1. On the phone, open Settings → About phone and tap Build number seven times. Android says you are now a developer.
  2. Open Settings → System → Developer options (on some phones it is directly under Settings) and turn on USB debugging.
USB debugging in Developer options. Turn on Wireless debugging too if the phone will connect over Wi-Fi (Android 11 and later).

3. Plug the phone in

Connect it with a USB cable. The phone asks Allow USB debugging? — tick Always allow from this computer and choose Allow. It then appears on the Devices page, with its Android version, battery and state. A phone that shows as unauthorised is still waiting for that question to be answered on its screen.

The question Android asks the first time a computer connects. Allow it once per computer.

4. Switch on the agent

The Agent column installs WarpX Phone's small helper app on the phone. Choose Switch on. The agent is what reads the screen's elements (Inspect, and every block that finds an element), types any script, and carries the phone's traffic through its proxy. When the app ships a newer one, the button reads Update to v….

If another tool on the phone holds Android's UI automation — atx-agent from Laixi, a uiautomator test, Appium — Android pauses the agent and the row says so; the button there stops that tool on the phone. Nothing is uninstalled, and the tool starts again the next time it is used.

5. Connect over Wi-Fi instead

Open Connect Wi-Fi on the Devices page. There are three ways in:

  • Pair (Wireless debugging), for Android 11 and later: on the phone open Developer options → Wireless debugging → Pair device with pairing code, then enter the Phone IP, the Port and the six-digit Pairing code it shows. Phones advertising themselves on your network are listed with Use to pair, which fills the address in.
  • Scan network finds phones already switched to Wi-Fi with adb tcpip 5555 on your network's addresses.
  • Type a Phone IP and Port yourself and choose Connect.

6. Name the shelf

Rename a phone from its row's menu (Rename phone, e.g. Shelf A · Phone 01) and click its Slot to say where it sits. Both are remembered across reboots and loose cables, and workflows, the API and the Control Center can name a phone by either.

How many phones your plan drives

Your plan drives its number of phones — the first ones the farm saw. Others are listed but not driven until you choose a larger plan or remove one. See WarpX Phone's plans.

The watchdog

The Watchdog settings on the Devices page keep a shelf running unattended: Connect dropped Wi-Fi phones again, Switch the agent on again when it stops answering, and Reboot a phone that stops answering after Hung after (checks). A phone hotter than Rest at (°C) or below Rest at battery (%) is rested — no runs start on it — until it is back at Resume at.

Next: the Control Center and Sync, then automating phones.