Flashing Builds from the Android Open Source Project

- January 28, 2020

Posted by Mitchell Wills, Android Build Software Engineer

AOSP has been around for a while, but flashing builds onto a development device has always required a number of manual steps. A year ago we launched Android's Continuous Integration Dashboard, which gives more visibility into the continuous build status of the AOSP source tree. However, these builds were not available for phones and flashing devices still required a manual command line process.

In order to support developers working in AOSP we are launching Android Flash Tool, which allows developers to flash devices with builds listed on the Continuous Integration Dashboard. This can be used by developers working on the Android OS to test changes or App developers to test compatibility with the latest AOSP build.

A device being flashed.

Android Flash Tool allows anyone to use a browser supporting WebUSB, such as Chrome 79 or Edge 79, to flash an Android device entirely from the browser (Windows requires installing a driver). After connecting a device and authorizing the page to connect to it users will be presented with a list of available builds. After choosing a build click flash and the tool does the rest. You can flash recent Pixel devices and the HiKey reference boards with builds based on aosp-master.

Try Android Flash Tool yourself at https://flash.android.com.

Find out more at https://source.android.com/setup/contribute/flash.