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Cloud Phone:What is Cloud Phone?

Last Updated:Dec 01, 2025

Alibaba Cloud Workspace Cloud Phone provides virtual phones that run on the cloud. Powered by Arm servers and the SHENLONG virtualization technology, Cloud Phone provides an Android application platform for cloud users. Cloud Phone users can remotely control the Android system and applications in real time in streaming mode from their computers, phones, or other clients. This topic provides an overview of Cloud Phone.

Use cases

Cloud Phone is suitable for mobile offices, cloud gaming, and enterprise marketing activities.

Benefits

Unlimited scalability

Cloud Phone provides a range of specifications and supports on-demand procurement. Cloud Phone services are available in many parts of the world and can be purchased for immediate use.

Cutting-edge technologies

Cloud Phone utilizes the Adaptive Streaming Protocol (ASP) of Alibaba Cloud and is powered by Arm servers and SHENLONG virtualization components.

Ease of use

Users can centrally manage cloud phone instances in the Alibaba Cloud Management Console. This includes batch operations and centralized O&M.

High security and reliability

Data is stored in the cloud with top-notch security and protection measures, and has a 99.9999999% reliability rate.

On-demand development

Cloud Phone facilitates faster development of business applications by supporting secondary development based on APIs and SDKs.

Real machine simulation

Cloud phone instances have the same features as physical phones and operate on the Android 12 OS, allowing them to work with the newest applications.

Specifications and prices

The following table describes the specifications supported by Cloud Phone. When you create a cloud phone, select one of the specifications based on your application workloads and then select a region based on the location of your customers and your business requirements.

Instance Edition

Specification

Regions in the Chinese mainland

China (Hong Kong) and regions outside China

Type

Name

vCPUs/Memory/Storage

Subscription (USD per month)

Pay-as-you-go (USD per hour)

Subscription (USD per month)

Pay-as-you-go (USD per hour)

Lightweight

acp.basic.small

2vCPU/4GiB/32GiB

9.9057

0.0457

15.3538

0.0709

General

acp.std.small

4vCPU/4GiB/32GiB

13.8679

0.0579

21.4953

0.0898

Balanced

acp.std.medium

3vCPU/6GiB/32GiB

14.9347

0.0610

23.1488

0.0945

Standard

acp.std.large

4vCPU/8GiB/32GiB

21.3353

0.0808

33.0697

0.1252

Performance

acp.perf.large

8vCPU/16GiB/32GiB

36.4224

0.1524

56.4546

0.2362

Terms

The following table describes the terms related to Cloud Phone.

No.

Term

Description

References

administrator

The person in charge of creating, assigning, and managing cloud phone instances.

Example: Kevin, an O&M engineer at a new media company.

Administrator Guide

console

The administrator-facing management tool provided by Alibaba Cloud. If you are an administrator, you can manage instance groups, instances, and applications and perform other O&M operations in the Cloud Phone console.

Administrator Guide

region

The physical location of a data center. Regions are independent of each other.

Specifications and prices

instance group

The logical group of cloud phones delivered to end users, including the underlying resources and general configurations such as resource specifications, pre-installed applications, display resolutions, office networks, and billing methods.

Create and manage instance groups

instance

The smallest usable computing unit. Cloud phone instances run the Android 12 operating system. Administrators can assign cloud phone instances to end users. Then, end users can connect to the instances from Alibaba Cloud Workspace clients.

Manage cloud phones

application

The pre-installed software on each cloud phone instance. An administrator can upload on-premises applications to the Cloud Phone console and install them on all cloud phone instances within a specific instance group.

Create and manage apps

end user

The personnel who use cloud phone instances. After administrators assign cloud phone instances to end users, end users can connect to the instances from Alibaba Cloud Workspace clients.

Example: Kevin, an anchor at a new media company.

Manage the accounts of end users

client

The channel used by end users to connect to cloud phone instances. Sample clients include Windows clients, macOS clients, Web clients, and Android clients of Alibaba Cloud Workspace.

End User Guide

developer

The R&D personnel in charge of developing cloud phone applications.

Example: Tom, an application developer of a new media company.

ADB

A versatile command-line tool that allows you to communicate with your Android devices. You can install, debug, or manage cloud phones by using Android Debug Bridge (ADB).

Note

We recommend that end users connect to cloud phone instances over virtual private clouds (VPCs) by using ADB from cloud computers. VPC-based connections provide better security and more reliable and faster transmission than Internet-based connections.

Connect to cloud phones by using ADB

Obtain a client

You can connect to cloud phone instances only from clients. You can connect to cloud phone instances from Alibaba Cloud Workspace clients for trial or demonstration purposes. You can also use the Cloud Phone SDK or API to develop clients based on your business requirements.

You can open or download an Alibaba Cloud Workspace client to connect to cloud phone instances on this page. You can also go to the Download Alibaba Cloud Workspace Client page to download your required client.

Important

If you want to download a client on the Download Alibaba Cloud Workspace Client page, take note that different clients are tailored to different cloud phone types. Elastic Desktop Service (EDS) Android and iOS clients do not support Cloud Phone. Make sure that you download the Cloud Phone Android client.

Note

If you have questions or special requirements on the operating system versions of Alibaba Cloud Workspace mobile clients, submit a ticket.

  • Web

    Google Chrome/Firefox

    Open Now
  • Windows

    64-bit Windows 7 and later

    Download Now
  • macOS

    macOS 10.15 and later

    Download Now
  • Android

    Android 10 and later

    Download Now

Operation guides

You can refer to the operation guide that corresponds to your role.

Admin Avatar

Purchase and assign cloud phones as enterprise users

Administrator guide

User Avatar

Use cloud phones as individuals

View User Guide

User Avatar

Use APIs or SDKs for secondary development

View Development References

FAQ

For more information, see FAQs about cloud phones.

How do I query the billing information of a cloud phone?

You can perform the following steps to view the billing information of a cloud phone:

  1. Log on to the Expenses and Costs console.

  2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Bills > Bill Details.

    Note

    If your console appears differently from the description in this topic, you might be using the previous version of the Expenses and Costs console. In this case, click Try New Version at the bottom of the left-side navigation pane.

  3. On the page that appears, click the Billing Details tab, specify the filter conditions, and then click Search.

    You can configure the Statistic Item and Statistic Period parameters to specify an aggregation dimension and a statistical period. The results that meet the filter conditions are displayed in the list.

Why am I still charged for my cloud phone after I release the cloud phone?

You can go to the Bill Details page of the Expenses console to check whether dependent resources still exist.

  • Log on to the NAT Gateway console to check whether the NAT network resources are released.

  • Log on to the EIP console to check whether the configured elastic IP address (EIP) exists.

  • Go to the Internet Shared Bandwidth page to check whether the corresponding Internet shared bandwidth instance is being charged.

Why am I unable to access the Internet from a cloud phone?

You must check the network type of the instance group to which your cloud phone belongs before you troubleshoot the issue.

  1. Log on to the Cloud Phone console.

  2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Manage Resource > Instance Group.

  3. On the Instance Group page, find the instance group to which your cloud phone belongs and click the value in the Network column.

  4. On the Network page, check the value of the Network Type parameter and troubleshoot the issue by using one of the following methods:

    Shared network

    Cloud phones in shared-network instance groups have internet access enabled by default.

    VPC

    For instance groups that reside in virtual private clouds (VPCs), select one of the following methods to enable the Internet access feature:

    • Use the Enable Now button

      1. Log on to the Cloud Phone console.

      2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Network & Security > Network.

      3. In the upper-left corner of the Network page, select the region where the cloud phone for which you want to enable the Internet access feature resides.

      4. Find the network that you want to manage and click Enable Internet Access in the Actions column.

      5. In the Enable Internet Access message, click Enable Now.

        Important

        After you enable the Internet access feature, the system automatically purchases pay-as-you-go NAT gateways and EIPs. For information about the pricing of NAT gateways and EIPs, see NAT Gateway billing and Billing overview.

        In the Enable Internet Access message, you can view the progress of enabling the Internet access feature.

    • Manually enable the Internet access feature

      For more information, see How cloud phones access the Internet.