Flashing Builds from the Android Open Source Project

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 .