How to Share Your Computer’s Mouse (and Keyboard) With Your Android.
You are working on your computer and suddenly you receive an SMS on your phone. Now imagine how great it would be if you could reply to this text using your mouse and computer keyboard. No, I’m not talking about PushBullet or broadcasting Android screen to computer. But actually using a computer mouse and keyboard on Android.
Setting
This is what it looks like – the computer and Android phone are connected via a USB cable, and both devices are running a little software. Now, if you move the cursor off the edge of the desktop screen, it will automatically appear on the Android screen (if Android is in sleep mode, it will wake up). And now you can control your Android with your mouse. … Not only that, you can even share your keyboard and clipboard. Cool?
Take a look at the following animated gif.
- Free and hassle-free on Windows, Mac and Linux.
- No root required.
- Low battery consumption
Features
So let’s see how to share a computer mouse with Android.
Follow the steps:
# 1 Download Deskdock from Google Play.
The app is free (ad-supported) on Google. But if you want to share keyboard, clipboard and remove ads, get the pro version for $ 4.
# 2 Then download the DeskDock server application to your computer. It is a small 1MB ZIP file available for Windows, Mac and Linux.
At the time of this writing, the files are hosted on Dropbox and the website is running on the Blogspot domain. It might sound unprofessional, but the app works.
# 3 Once you’re done downloading the server application, unzip and run it on your computer. You will be prompted to install Java on your computer (if you have not already installed it). So, install the latest JRE package.
Now this is a little confusing.
There are basically two versions of Java – JRE and JDK. The JRE is for running Java applications, and the JDK is for building Java applications. Since we just want to run the program, you need to have the latest JRE installed. But it didn’t work for me. When asked by the application developer, he replied: “For some operating systems, such as Mac, you need to use the JDK.”
So, if the JRE doesn’t work for you, make sure you have the JDK installed on your computer.
# 4 After you have successfully installed Java on your computer, install the DeskDock application. On a Mac, you will need to allow the app to use accessibility preferences.
# 5 Now go to your Android smartphone or tablet, go to Settings Developer options and enable USB debugging.
# 5 Then connect Android to computer via USB cable.
# 6 Make sure DeskDock Server is running on the computer. Then go to your Android phone, open the DeskDock app and click Connect. If everything works fine, the server app will detect your Android and connect to it.
# 7 Now if you move your cursor to the bottom left edge of the screen and it appears on the Android screen.
Possible mistakes
If Android is not detected but not connected, restart your computer.
If the device is not connected, make sure you have the correct drivers installed on your Windows. This is not needed on a Mac.
Packaging
Setting it up is not very easy, but once you do it, the system starts working like a charm. It also requires you to have Java running on your machine, which they think is not a best security practice. But if you are a power user (most likely to take advantage of this setting), chances are JAVA is already installed on your computer.