How to Enable Developer Options and USB Debugging in Android

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Android Studio enables developers to test their apps on their own Android phones. So instead of testing your app on a AVD, Android Virtual Device, you can run the app on your own android phone. This method works much faster than the Android Virtual Devices. In this Tech-Recipe, you will learn how to Enable Developer Options and USB Debugging in your Android mobile phone.

Usually, when developing on Android studio, you install SDK platforms. There’s a tutorial for that don’t forget to check it out.

How to Download SDK Tools for Android Studio

So, when you download SDK tools, you can download SDK platforms i.e Android versions e.g. Marshmellow, Lollipop, Nauget, etc. Later you can set up a Virtual Device and test run your app on that Virtual Device, which is the topic of another tech-recipe.

For now, we are focusing on how you can run the app on your android phone. All android phones come with a developer mode option. You can turn on the developer option is just a few steps.

USB Debugging, on the other hand, enables the developer to read internal logs. Enabling USB Debugging allows your phone to communicate with a PC so you can take advantage of the SDK tools. What turning-on the USB debugging mode does is, it gives the user an advanced level of access to the phone.

This level of access that USB Debugging Mode grants is important when you need system-level clearance, such as when coding a new app. Depending on the OS version and installed utilities, the mode must be turned on to let developers read internal logs.

DEVELOPER MODE AND DEBUGGING MODE, SEPERATE TERMS?

Some times, these terms are used to indicate the same concept, enabling these enable users to use mobile phone devices to test the app that’s under development. But in some, phones just turning on developer mode is not enough, in order to read the debug report. i.e errors and exceptions thrown you have to turn on the debugging mode.