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Show HN: DroidDock – A sleek macOS app for browsing Android device files via ADB (rajivm1991.github.io)

78 points by rajivm1991 ↗ HN
Hi HN,

I’m Rajiv, a software engineer turned Math teacher living in the mountains, where I like to slow down life while still building useful software.

I recently built DroidDock, a lightweight and modern macOS desktop app that lets you browse and manage files on your Android device via ADB. After 12 years in software development, I wanted a free, clean, and efficient tool because existing solutions were either paid, clunky, or bloated.

Features include multiple view modes, thumbnail previews for images/videos, intuitive file search, file upload/download, and keyboard shortcuts. The backend uses Rust and Tauri for performance.

You can download the latest .dmg from the landing page here: https://rajivm1991.github.io/DroidDock/ Source code is available on GitHub: https://github.com/rajivm1991/DroidDock

I’d appreciate your feedback on usability, missing features, or bugs. Thanks for checking it out!

— Rajiv

13 comments

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tgma
Don't wanna be killjoy, but specifically since "sleek" and "native" is mentioned many times, I'd say that's not what one expects from a sleek macOS application to say the least.

I'd expect something like Cyberduck quality UI, as an example. The author should aim to mimic system UI in my opinion as closely as possible (or integrate inside Finder).

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jeroenhd
I must admit I haven't really tried it, but what's wrong with hooking up an Android phone to a Mac? Can't you browse files like you can on other computers?

I don't think using ADB is the right way to go about it. Normalizing elevated shell permissions just to copy files just feels like going the wrong way about it. Unless that's the only way to get decent Android file management done on Mac, of course.

rand17
I wouldn't dare to call an app with a webview approach (be that tauri or electron), react, typescript and the whole frontend Pandora's box "sleek", but each to his own. I find using the adb bridge for such operation a bit of an overkill, but fortunately I don't own Apple made devices this year so I don't face such problems; maybe drastic times call for drastic measures: Apple's and Google's hatred towards end users is palpable these days. I took a quick look at the source and the naming convention is not "conventional" and the lack of eslint/prettier made me raise my eyebrows (raised it high enough to not want to touch this project with a ten foot pole), just like the 2452 line main App.tsx and the rampant useEffect abuse in it - but again, I'm not the target audience, maybe this is super useful for the poster and aesthetics have always been subjective.
rajivm1991
Appreciate the code review eyes and honesty . Yeah the current App.tsx is admittedly dense.. refactoring and adding linting/prettier is next on the list. The choice of React and Tauri was pragmatic to move fast with technologies I’m comfortable with, but I’m open to suggestions to improve code quality and maintainability.
rand17
The general consensus around here is that web and sleek/native will not mix, Swift probably is the way to go if we are talking about modern, appealing MacOS applications, but that may be outside your comfort zone with or without the help of AI tools.
luckydata
Not exactly what beautiful looks like on a Mac.
rajivm1991
appreciate your honest comments.. I want DroidDock to be both beautiful and functional, balancing modern design trends with macOS idioms. yes, feedback like this helps me iterate toward a better experience