Android is an extremely easy-to-use mobile operating system and is used in many phones around the world. Moreover, it has great dominance in smartphones.
However, the operating system also has many hidden functions for advanced users and programmers. Many of these functions are available under the Developer Options menu.
As you can understand from the name, these functions are mostly of interest to developers and are not of great importance for the average user. The most well-known of these is USB Debugging. You’ve likely encountered this term before. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at what USB Debugging is and show you if you need it.
What is USB Debugging?
USB Debugging allows Android SDK to communicate with your Android device for advanced operations. Android SDK is a toolkit that is installed on the computer and is used for application development.
The SDK offers developers the ability to use certain functions without rewriting. For example, Android has a function for printing, and developers don’t have to reinvent it.
Enabling USB Debugging allows the device to communicate with the PC and allows to take advantage of these functions. With USB Debugging, it opens the door to rooting the phone and other advanced operations.
What Does USB Debugging Do?
Non-developers use USB Debugging to root their phones. Although the rooting process varies according to the phone model, most of them need to run a program on the desktop of your PC. This program sends the necessary commands to the phone, usually without you doing anything.
USB Debugging is also used when sending Android Debug Bridge (ADB) commands to the device. With these commands, you can install APK files on your PC to the device, transfer data, and browse the logs on the device to trace errors. ADB commands and Fastboot can also be used to recover a bricked device that won’t boot.
How To Turn On USB Debugging?
USB Debugging is available in the Developer Options menu on new devices. Since this menu is hidden by default, you need to enable it first. For this, go to Settings > About phone. Here you will see the “build number” entry at the bottom. Tapping this a few times will show a warning that you are now a developer.
Go to Settings again and scroll down to where it says About phone. You will find Developer Options at the bottom.
After turning on USB Debugging, you can connect your device to PC with a cable. You will need to grant permission from your phone when you do this. If you accidentally allow a device that you do not want to allow, use the “Remove USB debugging permissions” option.
Is USB Debugging Safe?
Charging your device in a public area with USB Debugging turned on may cause some problems. A user with access to this port can steal your information or send a malicious application to the device. That’s why Android shows a warning when connecting your phone to your PC and asks you to accept the connection.
USB Debugging also makes it easy to recover your device if you lose it. An attacker could gain access to the device without knowing your PIN.
So if you don’t use ADB often, you shouldn’t keep USB Debugging turned on all the time. You can keep it on for a few days, but if you don’t use it often, there’s no point in keeping USB Debugging turned on.
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