Filed under: Developer, Google, How-Tos, Mobile, Android
Taking screenshots on an Android-based phone
by Christina Warren Oct 22nd 2008
Even before playing with the new Android phone, the T-Mobile G1, I knew that I would need to be able to take screenshots of the phone itself. Using a digital camera to capture screens externally just wasn't going to cut it. Because the Android platform is open (and now, open source), I really didn't expect this to be a problem. If anything, I thought there would be a way to take screenshots directly from the device like you can with the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Alas, I discovered this is not the case. After scouring Google trying to find answers, I asked Engadget's Editor-in-Chief Josh Topolsky what they used for the screenshots in their review, and he was nice enough to fill me in on the details.
Warning: right now, taking screenshots from an Android device requires installing the SDK. That doesn't make it as simple as pressing a button, but it's not the end of the world. If you've got a few minutes, and a quick connection with which to download the SDK, we'll show you how to take delicious Android screenshots of your own.
Step 1: Enable USB Debugging
On your Android phone (in this case, the G1), go to Settings, then Applications, and then Development. Check the checkbox for "USB debugging."
Step 2: Download the Android SDK
Download the SDK for your platform here. Google also has some great installation documentation if you get lost. You will need to make sure you have a current copy of the JDK. To use the SDK, you also need to download an IDE like Eclipse. After installing Eclipse, you can install the Eclipse plugin to connect Android and the IDE together, or just do a lot of stuff via the command line.
Go ahead and plugin your Android handset into a USB port on your computer, if it is not plugged in already.
Step 3: Run DDMS
After configuring Eclipse or whatever IDE you use to work with Android, you need to open up the DDMS application from within the "tools" folder in the Android SDK's main folder.
After DDMS launches, select your handset from the menu on the left (it should be the only device listed). You might see an error message, but the debug tool should be loaded. Then, click CTRL-S on your keyboard. This will bring up the "Device Screen Capture" interface. From here, a static image is captured from what is appearing on your handset. You can save the image (nicely defaulted as PNG) and then refresh to your heart's content to grab updated or different screenshots from your phone.
That's it!
There is a caveat: Because your device has to be plugged into USB to be accessed by the SDK, the SD card cannot be used for taking photographs, playing music or downloading music from the Amazon.com MP3 store. You can take pictures of some of those screens, but to actually download anything, take movies, or take a photo, you cannot have your device plugged into the computer and accessed by the SDK.
Again, this is hardly as simple the iPhone's screenshot interface, but it is still very doable.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Travis said 9:23PM on 10-22-2008
How do I take screen shots of my Touch?
Reply
Christina Warren said 9:35PM on 10-22-2008
If you are running the 2.0 or higher software, hold down the menu button (the square button) and then tap the sleep button at the top of the device. You'll hear a snap.
Quikboy said 9:28PM on 10-22-2008
How do I take screenshots of WinMo and Symbian OS's?
Reply
Christina Warren said 9:36PM on 10-22-2008
It can depend on the device you are using. Some have built-in tools, others need to be downloaded off the net. What version of Windows Mobile and Symbian are you using and for what devices?
Quikboy said 9:43PM on 10-22-2008
WinMo 6.1 on the Touch Diamond (Sprint).
Symbian OS 9.2 on Nokia N95 (friend's phone)
If you can help Christina, that'd be great! Thanks.
Richard said 8:07AM on 10-23-2008
For Windows Mobile, use the free MyMoblier (http://www.mymobiler.com/) application which displays the phone screen on your computer and allows you to use it through the mouse and keyboard.
If you want to take a screen shot, then you just select Edit > Save screen to file.
You can even record a video of what you're doing, but I haven't tried it myself.
Christina Warren said 8:48AM on 10-23-2008
For the HTC Diamond, try this (http://www.freewarepocketpc.net/ppc-download-spb-screenshot.html) -- it is a free release that used to be part of a paid image program. It looks pretty awesome and you can capture without having to hook up to the computer.
I know there are other Win Mo 6 options, but some of them require being hooked up to a computer and/or emulator. This looks relatively painless.
For the N95, I found this site (http://www.simplehelp.net/2008/10/13/how-to-take-screenshots-with-the-nokia-n95/) that links to a Screenshot for Symbian prorgram (http://www.antonypranata.com/screenshot/screenshot-symbian-os).
Hope this helps!
Quikboy said 9:57PM on 10-23-2008
Thanks Richard and Christina! I'll be sure to give them a try.
Qoo said 12:48AM on 10-23-2008
Hey, you got a typo. Its "DDMS" (Dalvik Debug Monitor Service) and not "DDBS".
See here for more details: http://code.google.com/android/reference/ddms.html
Reply
Christina Warren said 8:38AM on 10-23-2008
ACK! Right you are! How I managed to muck that up, I am unsure -- but thank you for the correction -- it has been fixed!
Nick Bicanic said 12:49AM on 10-26-2008
after you first plugin the G1 (having set the checkbox for USB debugging as suggested) it asks for an Android Phone USB driver - in addition to the usual mounting of the SD card as an external drive...
any ideas where one gets this driver - without it ddms can't seem to see the phone...
nick
Reply
Nick Bicanic said 12:50AM on 10-26-2008
never mind - found it - http://dl.google.com/android/android_usb_windows.zip
Reply
Christina Warren said 12:56AM on 10-26-2008
Excellent - glad you found it!
Nick Bicanic said 1:02AM on 10-26-2008
except it start installing the driver - then fails at the end with "Fatal Error during Installation"
weird...haven't seen that kind of error on a USB device in a while...anyone got any pointers
Reply
Christina Warren said 1:47AM on 10-26-2008
Hmm, I didn't have any problems with it on my Vista VM (I don't have a XP VM running right now or I would test it) -- is it anything more than just a .dll? I would think if you could find the DLL, put that in system/system32/drivers, you would be good to go. Let me see if I can find something out.
Christina Warren said 1:52AM on 10-26-2008
Try this:
http://www.anddev.org/download.php?id=449
It has the INF, SYS and DLL files. Just put them in the Windows/system32/drivers folder
Nick Bicanic said 4:18AM on 10-26-2008
no dice - tried it - and it still asks for drivers when I connect the USB cable (of course I tried manually pointing to the system32/drivers folder and that didn't work either)
it starts working (i.e. it finds the correct file and starts the copy process like windows hardware installs always do - but then fails at the end)
Lucie said 4:22AM on 11-04-2008
Hi Christina,
I followed your instructions and it is not working: when I launch DDMS (by clicking on the icon ddms.bat in the Tools folder, I do not see my device in the left pane.
Do you think you could help me out here? I have 2 hints:
- when I plug my g1 to the pc, the notification USB connected "select to copy files to/from your computer" appears, then a pop up window "select "Mount if you want to copy files between your computer and your phone's SD card". Shall I choose Mount or Don't Mount (either way it is not working)
- when I installed the sdk, I unzipped the folder into my Program Files folder, but did not install anything. I already have the JDK and Eclipse installed but how do I make sure it runs properly ?
Thank you for your help.
Lucie
Reply
Christina Warren said 11:13AM on 11-04-2008
Hey Lucie,
I did mine from a Mac, but I just installed the phone and the SDK/Eclipse in Windows XP. This is what I did.
I downloaded this driver for XP (http://dl.google.com/android/android_usb_windows.zip)
I didn't enable USB disk mode (but I have done that successfully in OS X, so I'm sure it works), I just made sure USB-debugging was installed. Double-clicked on the DDMS.bat file, got an error (no biggie) and waited for the device to load. It showed up as HT84XXXXX. From there, clicking on it and pressing CTRL-S got me a screenshot.
I installed the Android Eclipse plugin, but didn't run Eclipse before starting DDMS (if you do, I think it might error out). Try installing the Android driver and then see if you can access the phone. If that doesn't work, try disablign USB-storage mode before connecting to the computer -- and make sure USB Debugging is enabled in Settings / Applications / Development.
Good luck!
Roger said 9:03PM on 11-13-2008
Christina you looks very pretty!!!!!! ; )
Reply