Hey y’all, I was reading this self hosting user survey at selfh.st and noticed that some people said they self-host on a mobile phone.

I have an Android phone here I could use and I can picture setting up the phone and then just leaving it plugged in, in a corner somewhere. That seems like a good use for all that computing power but I’m not sure how to get started.

I found this article showing how we can use a phone for a web server:

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/host-a-web-server-on-android

But is there any way to host other apps / services on a phone? Does it have to be rooted first?

Any pitfalls or other tips you can share when to doing this?

Thanks!

  • @knFEnglish
    1•1 year ago

    Based on my personal experience at least one year on a 5 years old mobile. It can last longer but I decommissioned it because I got a NUC.

    I had setup a charge limiter (between 20% and 80%) with Magisk, initially it was through an automation in homeassistant but the battery usage was very high.

    In terms of charge cycles it was one or two per day max

    • @[email protected]OPEnglish
      1•1 year ago

      Thanks. I’m wondering if maybe I could just use something simple like a lamp timer, to control when juice comes through to the phone’s charger/cable. I could enable that only for like 6 hours a day and keep it “off” otherwise.

      • @knFEnglish
        1•1 year ago

        That’s a possibility for sure. My suggestion would be first to test the capability of the device before buying anything. Once you’re satisfied with it, you can take the next steps and buy additional hardware. In my experience a USB-C -> ETH port was a great purchase as I was experiencing shaky WiFi connection possibly due to battery saving settings.