Hosting a website on an Android phone

[shevek]

I just read a really interesting article I thought I should share with you.

The blog post details how the original poster has managed to host their blog on their Android smartphone running Android 11.
They use Termux (a terminal emulator to run a web server) and Pinggy (for public URLs to that server).
Be patient and check again if it might be down for you right now, since a phone cannot handle that many requests or might have bad connectivity.

Things to consider before doing this:

• Use a separate phone other than your private phone; maybe a factory reset old one or a separate one bought used
• Network stability can be an issue, but for personal sites, guaranteed uptime might not be that important
• Might be worth comparing a Raspberry Pi with this method and decide what better suits your needs; while a smartphone has a lot, what it doesn't have are additional ports like HDMI or ethernet; but also, in case power goes out, the phone might have an advantage (for a while)
• Security concerns about publicly exposing ports etc
• Pinggy seems to need a subscription for this, but maybe in the future, there will be workarounds or other solutions

I don't have an Android and no use-case for this, but I like when people tinker with their stuff and show something is possible, even if it might not be as useful to most people.

In terms of not being as reliably online as we are used to, it reminds me of how the Low-Tech magazine is powered. Since it is powered by solar, it occasionally runs out and is not available. They offer a page with a weather forecast for the solar panel (in Barcelona, Spain) and the battery % for the website, which is neat.

(I wasn't quite sure if it should be here or Technology & Archiving, so please move if inappropriate <3)

[devils]

This is so cool! I love it when people do this kind of wacky stuff with their phones. It kind of reminds me of the people who get Doom to run on anything, the way they are using tech in a way it's not intended...

That being said, I'm still a mobile hater :P

[lime360]

i tired to make an ftp server on android phone using random app. still wanted to do that but with otner android device

[debleb]

interesting! i never thought about hosting a server on your phone  seems a tad impractical but it’s a very neat experiment. i like the low tech magazine btw some good reads on there!

[shevek]

A little update to this: there's now also a tutorial article on how to use your Android smartphone as a Linux desktop. Some have apparently also used it with external screens and it works.

The article is here. In short, they use Termux, as the one in the OP of the thread used as well, but also add a Desktop environment. Hosting a website from your phone doesn't really needed a DE, just the shell, so I think the other article never dove into that. This one however does, and explains some stuff more closely.