How hosting works

Hosting has three pieces: your spare phones, a small computer they plug into, and PocketShare’s servers.

Developer's laptop, browser or CI
      │
      ▼
PocketShare relay ── checks who is renting, for how long, and meters usage
      ▲
      │  your hub connects out to PocketShare
      │  (no router or port-forwarding setup)
      │
Your PocketShare hub (a Raspberry Pi, Linux or Windows computer)
      │  USB cables
      ▼
Your spare phones

Your hub

Your hub is a computer that stays on with your phones plugged into it by USB. It runs the PocketShare hub software, which:

connects out to PocketShare, so you don’t need to open ports on your router;
finds the phones you plug in and reports their model, Android version and health;
gives a renter access to one phone only while their rental is active, through PocketShare’s relay;
ends access when the rental ends, even if it loses contact with PocketShare;
wipes the phone after each rental, checks it against its starting state, and keeps it offline if that check fails.

The hub will install with one command on a Raspberry Pi or a Debian or Ubuntu computer, and with an installer on Windows. You enroll it with a one-time code from your PocketShare account; no long-lived password is stored in the download.

Your phones

Each phone runs a small PocketShare agent that the hub installs and updates for you. It shows whether the phone is available, rented, being cleaned or paused, and has a Stop hosting button that ends any rental on that phone immediately.

What renters can and can’t do

Developers rent a specific phone and use it with standard Android developer tools: they can install and debug their own apps, read logs, and see and control the screen. They won’t get:

your hub computer or anything else on your home network;
your phone’s SIM card, phone number, texts or calls;
root access, or anything that survives after their rental: the phone is wiped between renters.

Anyone holding a phone can see its screen, and a hosted phone isn’t a private device. That’s why it must be a spare phone with your personal accounts and data removed.

Your prices and earnings

You set an hourly price for each phone, within bounds PocketShare publishes. Renters pay per minute of use, and you receive a share of what they pay. See Earnings.