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

Question

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 ...

The other answers were very useful however didn't quite do what I needed. I thought I'd post my solution (a shell script) in case it provides more clarity for other readers. It installs multiple apks and any mp4s

echo "Installatron"

for SERIAL in $(adb devices | tail -n +2 | cut -sf 1);
do 
  for APKLIST in $(ls *.apk);
  do
  echo "Installatroning $APKLIST on $SERIAL"
  adb -s $SERIAL install $APKLIST
  done

  for MP4LIST in $(ls *.mp4);
  do
  echo "Installatroning $MP4LIST to $SERIAL"
  adb -s $SERIAL push $MP4LIST sdcard/
  done
done

echo "Installatron has left the building"

Thank you for all the other answers that got me to this point.

Here's a functional one line command tailored from kichik's response (thanks!):

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

But if you happen to be using Maven it's even simpler:

mvn android:deploy

Another short option... I stumbled on this page to learn that the -s $SERIAL has to come before the actual adb command! Thanks stackoverflow!

for SERIAL in $(adb devices | grep -v List | cut -f 1);
do `adb -s $SERIAL install -r /path/to/product.apk`;
done

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

I liked workingMatt's script but thought it could be improved a bit, here's my modified version:

#!/bin/bash

install_to_device(){
local prettyName=$(adb -s $1 shell getprop ro.product.model)
echo "Starting Installatroning on $prettyName"
for APKLIST in $(find . -name "*.apk" -not -name "*unaligned*");
  do
  echo "Installatroning $APKLIST on $prettyName"
  adb -s $1 install -r $APKLIST
  adb -s $1 shell am start -n com.foo.barr/.FirstActivity;
  adb -s $1 shell input keyevent KEYCODE_WAKEUP
  done
  echo "Finished Installatroning on $prettyName"
}

echo "Installatron"
gradlew assembleProdDebug

for SERIAL in $(adb devices | tail -n +2 | cut -sf 1);
do 
  install_to_device $SERIAL&
done

My version does the same thing except:

• it finds the apks from the root of the project
• it installs to every device simultaneously
• it excludes the "unaligned" versions of the apks (these were just being installed over by the aligned versions anyway
• it shows the readable names for the phones instead if their device ids

There's a few ways it could still be improved but I'm quite happy with it.