How To Take A Screenshot On Android Phone Or Tablet For Free?

here are number of apps available in the Google Android market that allows you to take screenshot of your Android phone or tablet. Most of these apps require that your device be rooted. If it is not, than you are out of luck. These apps can be cumbersome while taking screenshot of games etc, unless there is some sort of a hotkey.

Devices like Samsung Tab etc has pre defined key presses which triggers screenshot, on other devices there will be a soft-key or icon on the notification bar that will trigger screen press, if your tablet or phone has none, than you have to root your phone and buy a screenshot app.

There is another way to do it for free, but it is a bit convoluted and needs a PC.

Step 1 Download Android SDK

You will have to download the Android Software Development Kit, do not worry it is quite simple to install and you do not need to write any code. http://dl.google.com/android/installer_r17-windows.exe

Step 2 Download JDK

Install the program you have downloaded from step 1. Now we will need to install Java Development Kit. Go here http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/ and download the JDK6 / JDK7 or whichever is the latest. Once downloaded, install it.

Step 3 Enable Debug Settings

In your Android phone or tablet go to Settings->Application Development and enable “USB Debugging”, if it is enabled, leave it alone. Connect your Android device to your computer using a USB cable and wait for it to be detected.

Step 4 Use DDMS

Go to the directory where you installed the Android SDK from step 1, open the [tools] folder and there you will find a program called “ddms” , run it.

Step 5 Take screenshot and save

A window will open and you will see your phone or tablets icon on the right hand side. Select by clicking on it and on the menu bar on top go to [Device] –> Screen Capture and it will do the screen shot. There will be three buttons under the captured photo [Refresh], [Save], [Done]. The functions of each is self explanatory.

Congratulations, now you can take screen shot of any Android device through your computer