adb shell

The adb shell command is used to open a remote shell on an Android device or emulator connected to your computer via ADB (Android Debug Bridge). This command allows you to interact with the device’s shell, where you can run various commands directly on the device.

Here’s how you use it:

Open a command prompt or terminal on your computer.

Navigate to the directory where the ADB executable is located. This is often in the “platform-tools” directory within the Android SDK installation.

$ cd path/to/android-sdk/platform-tools

Connect your Android device to your computer via USB, and make sure USB debugging is enabled on the device.

Run the following command to start the ADB shell:

$ adb shell

After executing this command, you’ll enter the interactive shell of the connected device. You can then run various shell commands directly on the device.

For example, you can check the Android version:

$ getprop ro.build.version.release

Or check the list of installed packages:

$ pm list packages

To exit the ADB shell and return to your computer’s command prompt or terminal, you can type:

$ exit

Using adb shell is particularly useful for debugging, inspecting device settings, and running commands directly on the Android device.