ConnectBot: SSH & Mosh client

Kenny Root

About this app

Take your remote terminal with you. ConnectBot lets you access your Linux servers, Raspberry Pi, and remote development machines from Android using SSH or Mosh.

Check a service, run commands, or work in your server’s command-line tools wherever you have a connection. Keep multiple terminal sessions open and switch between them as you work.

BUILT FOR MOBILE USE

• Use Mosh to keep working through temporary network interruptions and changes between Wi-Fi and mobile data. Mosh requires mosh-server on the remote machine.
• Copy commands and terminal output, including scrollback, between ConnectBot and other apps.
• Use dedicated terminal controls for keyboard shortcuts.
• Customize your terminal with profiles.

SSH TOOLS FOR YOUR SERVERS

• Save connections for the servers you use regularly.
• Authenticate using passwords or SSH keys.
• Create local and remote SSH port forwards to access network services through your SSH connection.
• Automate tasks after logging in.

OPEN SOURCE

ConnectBot is an open-source Android app developed with contributions from the community. Explore the source code, find help, or contribute at connectbot.org.

GETTING STARTED

You’ll need a reachable server with SSH enabled, its address, and a username plus a password or SSH key. Add a connection in ConnectBot, verify the server’s host key, and sign in to open your terminal.

Ratings and reviews

Not sure why anybody would use a different telnet/ssh tool on Android. This is the only one worth using. It's got a couple things I don't like (text entry cursor indicated position vs actual character position synchronization is bad, gets further and further apart with the right side of the screen on several phone models), and it won't accept some officially permitted punctuation characters in domain names, so you can't use it to connect to those services unless you know the IP address.

It doesn't spam you with a bunch of ads you'll never intentionally click, so that alone is worth four stars. It would be five stars, but it's a little buggy. But it's free, it's actively supported, and It Just Works. I use this almost daily. The other recentreviews are worth reading to understand what you'll get. I do wish the row of extra keys was configurable, and I wish Enter was one of them (I frequently will up-arrow and enter to re-run a command), but you're crazy if you use anything else.

I liked this app, but it's now unusable. Although I didn't change any settings (and can't find any setting for it), it now saves all key presses until a word is completed. That's inconvenient, but what makes it unusable is that it sends Ctrl sequences as plain letters too. I tried to do a fresh install, but my phone is lying about the data that it's keeping around (which I'm sure is not the app's fault, I give Google Pixel 2★ too), so I can't even do that.

What’s new

• Mosh support for roaming, drop-resilient mobile connections
• You can now select and copy text from scrollback
• Better rendering for boxes and complex scripts (Arabic shaping, emoji)
• Inline image support for iTerm2 and Kitty graphics
• Advanced post-login automation (prompt, input, delay, port forwards)
• Full IME support with dedicated shortcut controls
• In-console session switching with optional swipe gesture