adb – Install APK on Specific Device

In this short tutorial you will learn how to use adb command to install an APK on a specific Android device if more than one is connected to your computer.

adb – List Android Devices Attached

To list all Android devices connected to your computer use the following command:

adb devices

or

adb devices -l

I have one Android emulator running and one Android device connected to my computer now. If I have adb devices command I get the following output:

List of devices attached
06157df6aaf6c740	device
emulator-5554	device

adb – Install APK on Specific Device

Now when you know how to list all attached devices, we can install our APK on one of these devices using same adb command.

adb -s <DEVICE ID> install <PATH TO APK>

where <DEVICE ID> should be replaced with the value of attached device id. The device id from the output of adb devices command.

  1. List devices with adb devices command:
List of devices attached
06157df6aaf6c740	device
emulator-5554	device

2. Use adb -s <device id> install <path to apk> to install on selected device:

adb -s 06157df6aaf6c740 install my-android-app.apk

And this is it!


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