Sending touch/swipe events to BlueStacks/Android sounds easy but actually it isn't

There are some "common ways"

1st way:

The standard version on a not rooted system is:

adb shell input tap x y

Unfortunately, this method is very slow and unreliable since it calls the Java layer of the android framework:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/38806872/15096247

2nd way:

If your cell phone / BlueStacks instance is rooted, you can use:

adb shell sendevent /dev/input/event2 3 0 x

adb shell sendevent /dev/input/event2 3 1 y

adb shell sendevent /dev/input/event2 1 330 1

adb shell sendevent /dev/input/event2 0 0 0

adb shell sendevent /dev/input/event2 1 330 0

adb shell sendevent /dev/input/event2 0 0 0

This method is a lot better than "input tap" since it is more reliable and slightly faster.

But when you use "sendevent" like in the example above, you won't even get a decent swipe, because

the break between the ADB shell calls just takes too long.

Even using:

adb shell "sendevent1 ; sendevent2 ; sendevent3 ; …"

doesn’t improve the executing speed much.

3rd way:

If your cell phone / BlueStacks instance is rooted, you can also use:

adb shell dd bs=filesize_in_bytes if=./file of=/dev/input/eventX

This method is very reliable and very very very fast… unfortunately too fast for the Android touch screen.

sendevent-getevent aims to offer a solution for the execution speed problem.

Features:

• You can record getevents directly from python, once you are done you press the hotkey (default=“ctrl+x”) to exit the recording session.

• It converts the output into all possible formats: hex - int - sendevent with int - binary data and returns a Pandas DataFrame

• You can define the playback speed of the recorded session (speed 4 is about close to the "original speed")

• You can change the playback speed afterwards

• It is possible to save/load recorded sessions

• You can manually change the DataFrame

• It sends chunked data to the device/emulator using adb shell dd bs=filesize_in_bytes if=./file of=/dev/input/eventX , and sleeps after each chunk

Tested against Windows 10 / Python 3.9.13 / BlueStacks 5

It should also work with any rooted Android device, the only problem might be the "bluestacks_divider".

https://stackoverflow.com/a/73733261/15096247

But changing the code (if necessary) shouldn't be a big thing.

Since my cell phone is not rooted, and I have no intention of rooting it, I cannot test it with an physical Android device. (I would be grateful for any feedback)

Take a look at the video to see what the code below does:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNDtruH6frI

$pip install getevent-sendevent



from getevent_sendevent import GetEventSendEvent

import pandas as pd



# creating an instance 

getsend = GetEventSendEvent(

    adb_path="C:\\Users\\Gamer\\AppData\\Local\\Android\\Sdk\\platform-tools\\adb.exe",

    deviceserial="localhost:5735",

    sdcard="/storage/emulated/0/",  # it is probably better to pass the path, not the symlink

    temfolder_on_sd_card="AUTOMAT", # if the folder doesn't exist, it will be created

    bluestacks_divider=32767,

    exit_keys="ctrl+x", # stop the recording session

)



# connect to adb

getsend.connect_to_adb()



# start a recording session 

df = getsend.record_events_and_convert_to_df(playbackspeed=3)



# execute the recorded command

getsend.execute_recorded_events(

    df,

    structfolder="struct",

    additional_end_command=True,

    remove_temp_files_from_device=False,

)



# increasing the execution speed

df_fast=pd.DataFrame()

for speed_ in range(4,16):

    df_fast = getsend.change_playback_speed(df, playback_speed=speed_)

    getsend.execute_recorded_events(

        df_fast,

        structfolder="struct",

        additional_end_command=True,

        remove_temp_files_from_device=False, # Repeated execution will be faster, but you should clean the folder /storage/emulated/0/AUTOMAT every once in a while

    )





# executing the same command over and over again without creating a new DataFrame

for speed_ in range(4,16):

    getsend.execute_recorded_events(

        df_fast,

        structfolder="struct", # binary data

        additional_end_command=True,

        remove_temp_files_from_device=False,

    )





# Saving the recorded session 

getsend.save_recorded_data_on_hdd(df, path="f:\\testfoldersendevent\\saveddata.txt")



# Loading it again and redefine the playback speed

dfloaded = getsend.load_recoded_data(

    path="f:\\testfoldersendevent\\saveddata.txt", playback_speed=16

)



# Executing the loaded session

getsend.execute_recorded_events(

    dfloaded,

    structfolder="struct",

    additional_end_command=True,

    remove_temp_files_from_device=False,

)



Here is the DataFrame:



     aa_time  aa_device aa_type    aa_code  aa_value aa_device_name  aa_value_int aa_code_int aa_type_int  aa_time_difference_start  aa_time_diff_actions  aa_real_coords aa_send_event aa_send_event_real_ccords  aa_time_new  aa_struct aa_struct_real  aa_struct_size  aa_struct_real_size aa_struct_together aa_struct_real_together struct_tmp_hdd_full_path struct_tmp_hdd struct_tmp_folder struct_filename struct_real_tmp_hdd_full_path struct_real_tmp_hdd struct_real_tmp_folder struct_real_filename struct_copy_dv struct_real_copy_dv  random_sleep aa_copy_struct_to_hdd aa_copy_struct_real_to_hdd struct_folder_android struct_real_folder_android struct_file_android struct_real_file_android aa_copy_struct_to_hdd_success

0  30922....  /dev/i...  EV_ABS  ABS_MT...  0000769f  BlueSt...          30367            53           3         0.0                       0.0                   889       sendev...     sendev...                         1    b'\x01...  b'\x03...            352             352            b'\x01...          b'\x03...               C:\Use...                C:\Use...      tmpcgn...         struct...       C:\Use...                     C:\Use...           tmpqeh...              struct...            dd bs=...      dd bs=...                 0.0     __main...             __main...                  /stora...             /stora...                  /stora...           /stora...                     True                   

1  30922....  /dev/i...  EV_ABS  ABS_MT...  00005974  BlueSt...          22900            54           3         0.0                       0.0                   377       sendev...     sendev...                         1    b'\x01...  b'\x03...            352             352                 <NA>               <NA>               C:\Use...                     <NA>      tmpcgn...              None       C:\Use...                          <NA>           tmpqeh...                   None                 <NA>           <NA>                 0.0           NaN                   NaN                  /stora...             /stora...                        NaN                 NaN                      NaN                   

2  30922....  /dev/i...  EV_SYN  SYN_MT...  00000000  BlueSt...              0             2           0         0.0                       0.0                     0       sendev...     sendev...                         1    b'\x01...  b'\x03...            352             352                 <NA>               <NA>               C:\Use...                     <NA>      tmpcgn...              None       C:\Use...                          <NA>           tmpqeh...                   None                 <NA>           <NA>                 0.0           NaN                   NaN                  /stora...             /stora...                        NaN                 NaN                      NaN                   

3  30922....  /dev/i...  EV_SYN  SYN_RE...  00000000  BlueSt...              0             0           0         0.0                  0.012315                     0       sendev...     sendev...                         1    b'\x01...  b'\x03...            352             352                 <NA>               <NA>               C:\Use...                     <NA>      tmpcgn...              None       C:\Use...                          <NA>           tmpqeh...                   None                 <NA>           <NA>            0.012315           NaN                   NaN                  /stora...             /stora...                        NaN                 NaN                      NaN                   

4  30922....  /dev/i...  EV_ABS  ABS_MT...  0000769f  BlueSt...          30367            53           3    0.012315                       0.0                   889       sendev...     sendev...                         1    b'\x01...  b'\x03...            352             352                 <NA>               <NA>               C:\Use...                     <NA>      tmpcgn...              None       C:\Use...                          <NA>           tmpqeh...                   None                 <NA>           <NA>                 0.0           NaN                   NaN                  /stora...             /stora...                        NaN                 NaN                      NaN                   

5  30922....  /dev/i...  EV_ABS  ABS_MT...  00005974  BlueSt...          22900            54           3    0.012315                       0.0                   377       sendev...     sendev...                         1    b'\x01...  b'\x03...            352             352                 <NA>               <NA>               C:\Use...                     <NA>      tmpcgn...              None       C:\Use...                          <NA>           tmpqeh...                   None                 <NA>           <NA>                 0.0           NaN                   NaN                  /stora...             /stora...                        NaN                 NaN                      NaN                   

....