Samsung DEX compatibility

[Elkanah]

I know that you can mirror the phone screen instead of ‏using DEX but in mirror mode everything just looks bigger and on DEX apps looks like they meant to be that way.
It's not that importent feature but steel will be nice to write functions with mouse and keyboard and not with the on screen one.

Just an idea and again not that importent

Thank you very much

[tsolignani]

+1

[Desmanto]

What is the exact request actually? How do you mirror the phone screen? If using cast, then you have no control over it.

Use scrcpy instead : https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy
If you think everything looks bigger, you can create a flow and when scrcpy started, send broadcast to the phone and catch it with trigger general broadcast. Then use action set system setting to change your display dpi setting to smaller one.

[Elkanah]

Samsung DEX have two options:
1. Mirror the phones screen
2. Using the Samsung DEX desktop
The 1st option just show you the phones screen but bigger, it's weird sometimes and usually doesn't work very smoothly
The 2nd option is like having a desktop like app that runs on your phone hardware
This way you actually using the app but in a much better environment

I'm not saying that it should be like Microsoft's apps that looks completely deferent on phone and on DEX, I'm just saying it will be nice to use the DEX environment because it's much more user friendly than just mirroring in the matter of speed, keyboard and mouse compatibility, screen size and stuff like that

Let's say it's like having Automagic IDE on your desktop

[Desmanto]

You can achieve both scenario using scrcpy. Scrcpy can mirror your phone screen as it, without any input. You simply don't use the input or disable it from the parameter.

While for the DEX option, use the same scrcpy normally. Then change the display size to small and auto rotate the phone to landscape, you can see if this fit what you need. I already using this since the scrcpy came out. I use it for some serious typing occassion when I need to type long script and debug/test directly the script.

[Elkanah]

Hi,

Anyone who reads this post
Before you start reading it it's extremely important to understand that this is my opinion and you should check scrcpy by yourself!!!

To put thing aside I recommend using scrcpy for mirroring, it's smooth and works great

Now for my opinion about scrcpy or DEX

If I'm using scrcpy I'll prefer just using my phone in case I want to edit something in Automagic

Why?
1. It's like using your phone on a big screen, so the screen keeps turning off after the screen timeout setting time and then you need to unlock the phone (in case the phone locks on screen timeout)
2. For me it's no problem but for the average user, that just wants to plug and play, he will need to understand how to enable the debug options and how to install adb on the PC
3. You need a PC if you want to use it
4. Each time you want to use it you need to allow USB debugging (You can select always allow from this computer if you want)

Now on DEX
1. The phone is just the mother board, so if you using it with the windows app or plug in a USB-C to HDMI adapter you can use your phone as is and use DEX as a desktop environment separately
2. The instructions of installing the app or using the adapter are much more simpler to set up
3. If you use just an adapter you don't need a PC to run it
4. It's just runs

So again use scrcpy if you don't have Samsung phone or you don't want to use DEX, It's a very good solution and it's working great
I'm a little bit more picky when it come to writing code so I prefer DEX

Check scrcpy out before adopting my conclusions

Thank you

[Desmanto]

Do you mean your request is to have Automagic create a full working desktop mode for android? That will take too much time and most likely won't be there. Automagic can't change what the built-in OS provide. But since Android 10, there is experimental desktop mode. Someone has create the launcher for it : https://www.xda-developers.com/flow-des ... ktop-mode/
Some say it is very close to DEX, so maybe that's what you need. I also tempted to flash androdi 10 ROM after I saw this. But I am still waiting for AM 1.38 first.

To comment your view on scrcpy :
1. I use adb broadcast to trigger General Broadcast. So everytime I mirror it, it will be set to never sleep. After disconnected, it will revert the display timeout.
2. Most other mirroring option usually require some setup, so does scrcpy. DEX is maybe one of the user friendly one. If the user already need to mirror the PC, I would argue the user is usually savvy enough to do the setup.
3. Yeah, it can't be standalone
4. Most use would use the mirroring only to the same PC. So always allow should be not a problem. I won't mirror my phone to some other unknown PC. The setup itself also make it troublesome to do so.

DEX
1. DEX is limited to samsung and mostly flagship only. Require additional adapter. Scrcpy require just the same data cable that comes with the phone, and works with any phone brand. In root user, wifi only is enough.
2. Agree
3. Agree, portability is great
4. Yes

If only that Samsung open the DEX to others. But again, the phone would still need to support the HDMI out, which is again limited to certain phones only.

[Elkanah]

Hi

First thank you very much
I really appreciate it

I agree with all the things you mention except that if you run DEX with the windows app you need just a data cable and no need for the C-to-HDMI adapter
About Google desktop mode I should check it out some time

Still, it will be nice to look at the DEX platform, even if it's just for Samsung flagships, just to be able to open Automagic
I'm just saying that it will be nice, so if not I'll understand

Thanks again

By the way
https://developer.samsung.com/samsung-d ... optimizing

[Desmanto]

Oh, it supports fallback to the scrcpy-like mode. Android has been copying some features from samsung. This will be a very interesting thing when android 10 is more mainstream later this year. The optimization done on the DEX should be able to be used by the android 10 desktop mode too. But don't hold your breath, this will take time before more and more dev pouring their time and resource to this.