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How to run SDL3 app on Android from Windows

I will show how to run the sdl3-sample example on Web with WebAssembly on Windows. You should have Gradle installed. Try to check if Gradle is in the Path. So type in CMD: gradle -v I have Gradle 8.1.1

1. Download and install Android SDK, NDK, JDK

• I advice to install the Qt framework. It is simple to install Android tools from Qt Creator settings. Download Qt Open Source installer here: https://www.qt.io/download-open-source. Scroll down and press on the 'Qt Online Installer' button:

• Press the 'Qt Online Installer for Windows':

• In Qt Installer you should select the 'Custom Installation':

• I prefer to use Qt 6.6.3 instead of Qt 6.7.0 because Qt 6.6.3 used one NDK 25 (1.31 GB). But Qt 6.7.0 uses two NDK's - v25 (1.31 GB) plus v26 (1.9 GB). At first unckeck 'Qt Design Studio' (it requires 2 GB and I think you don't need it for a while):

• Set the following checkboxes:





• Do not forget to check 'Android'. Press 'Next' and so on. It requires 3.88 GB
• Run 'Qt Creator'. Go to the settings: 'Edit' > 'Preferences...' > 'Device' > 'Android'
• Press the following buttons to downloa Android SDK and JDK:

• Press the 'SDK Manager' button:

• Select the following Android packages and tools and press 'Apply':



• Press the following button to download OpenSSL:

• Press the 'Apply' button:

• You can close the Qt Creator

2. Download and run SDL3 example

• Run CMD in a project folder where you want to download the example
• Copy and execute the following command to download the example: git clone https://github.com/Ravbug/sdl3-sample --depth=1 --recurse-submodules
• The source code of the example is here: 'sdl3-sample\src\main.cpp' It just shows a background color
• Copy the 'build.gradle' that is located in the root of the 'sdl3-sample' folder:

• Open the 'sdl3-sample\SDL\android-project\app' folder and delete 'build.gradle' here:

• Paste here the 'build.gradle' that you have copied before (from the root of the 'sdl3-sample' folder)
• Go to the 'sdl3-sample\SDL\android-project' folder and run CMD here. Execute the following command: gradlew assembleDebug It will create APK-file here: 'sdl3-sample\SDL\android-project\app\build\outputs\apk\debug':

3. Activate a developer mode on your device to debug by USB-cable

• You can execute the following command gradlew installDebug to run your application on your device connected with USB-cable. But you should to activate developer mode and USB degugging on your device at first. I can show how it looks on my old phone Redmi 4X with Android 7
• Go to 'Settings' > 'About Phone' and touch 7 times on 'MIUI version':

• Go to 'Settings' > 'Aditional setting' > 'Developer options' and activate 'USB debugging' and 'Install via USB':

• Now you can run your application on your device by executing the gradlew installDebug inside of the 'sdl3-sample\SDL\android-project' folder

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