How can I adb install an apk to multiple connected devices?

Question

I have 7 devices plugged into my development machine.

Normally I do adb install and can install to just a single device.

Now

Answer 1

You can use adb devices to get a list of connected devices and then run adb -s DEVICE_SERIAL_NUM install... for every device listed.

Something like (bash):

adb devices | tail -n +3 | cut -sf 1 -d " " | xargs -iX adb -s X install ...

Comments suggest this might work better for newer versions:

adb devices | tail -n +2 | cut -sf 1 | xargs -iX adb -s X install ...

For Mac OSX(not tested on Linux):

adb devices | tail -n +2 | cut -sf 1 | xargs -I {} adb -s {} install ...

Answer 2

Generalized solution from Dave Owens to run any command on all devices:

for SERIAL in $(adb devices | grep -v List | cut -f 1);
do echo adb -s $SERIAL $@;
done

Put it in some script like "adb_all" and use same way as adb for single device.

Another good thing i've found is to fork background processes for each command, and wait for their completion:

for SERIAL in $(adb devices | grep -v List | cut -f 1);
do adb -s $SERIAL $@ &
done

for job in `jobs -p`
do wait $job
done

Then you can easily create a script to install app and start the activity

./adb_all_fork install myApp.apk
./adb_all_fork shell am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n my.package.app/.MainActivity