In 2021 for Android 12, the adb backup command was limited so that backing up user data from apps is opt-in using a per-app manifesto configuration. In 2020, Wi-Fi adb was integrated into Android Studio for macOS. For Android 11 in 2020, Google added adb incremental installations. For easier usage of Android Things, a wrapper was made in 2017 around manual adb commands. In 2016 for Android Studio 2.0 a 5x performance improvement was made for installing apps and pushing files through adb. In 2015, Microsoft released an Android emulator that can connect to the adb client.

Since 2017, Google made it possible to download adb separately from the Android SDK. The Android Software Development Kit (SDK) was first released in 2007. The graphical Android Device Monitor in Android Studio can be used for retrieving information from an Android device. Some graphical interfaces have been made available. It also includes support for the Java Debug Wire Protocol. For example, Android applications can be saved by the command backup to a file.

Features of adb include copying files from the host computer, installing apps, viewing logcat output, getting a Unix shell, and rebooting into Qualcomm EDL mode.

Android studio debugger