Cloud Phone is a virtual phone that runs in the cloud. It uses ARM servers and virtualization technology to provide a cloud-based Android application platform. You can use clients, such as computers and mobile phones, to remotely control the Android operating system and its applications in real time through streaming. This topic outlines Cloud Phone.
Scenarios
Cloud Phone can be used in a wide range of scenarios, such as mobile office, gaming, and enterprise marketing.
-
Enterprise marketing activities
Cloud Phone supports enterprise marketers, customer service teams, and other customer-facing roles by driving traffic, delivering customer service, managing community operations, converting leads, and completing various tasks.
-
Cloud gaming
Cloud Phone provides a download-free service for game developers, video platforms, and other users to trial and play mobile games in the cloud.
-
Cloud livestreaming
Cloud Phone enables live broadcast organizations, individual live broadcasters, and other customer groups to engage in new broadcasting techniques, including multicasting and VTuber.
-
Simulation test
Cloud Phone reduces phone procurement costs and simplifies management and O&M for app launches and feature iterations.
-
Mobile office
Cloud Phone is specifically designed to protect sensitive data in office settings, ensuring that technical and customer information remains secure.
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 pricing
Cloud Phone provides the following specifications. You can select the specifications that suit your application payloads. You can also select a region based on your user location and business needs.
Instance Edition
Specifications | Chinese mainland regions | China (Hong Kong) and other regions | ||||
Chinese name | English name | CPU/Memory/Storage | Subscription (USD/month) | Pay-as-you-go (USD/hour) | Subscription (USD/month) | Pay-as-you-go (USD/hour) |
Lightweight | acp.basic.small | 2 vCPU/4 GiB/32 GiB | 9.9057 | 0.0457 | 15.3538 | 0.0709 |
General-purpose | acp.std.small | 4 vCPU/4 GiB/32 GiB | 13.8679 | 0.0579 | 21.4953 | 0.0898 |
Balanced | acp.std.medium | 3 vCPU/6 GiB/32 GiB | 14.9347 | 0.0610 | 23.1488 | 0.0945 |
Standard | acp.std.large | 4 vCPU/8 GiB/32 GiB | 21.3353 | 0.0808 | 33.0697 | 0.1252 |
Performance-optimized | acp.perf.large | 8 vCPU/16 GiB/32 GiB | 36.4224 | 0.1524 | 56.4546 | 0.2362 |
Terms
The following table describes the basic concepts of Cloud Phone and their relationships.
No. | Term | Description | References |
① | Administrator | A management user who is responsible for creating, assigning, and managing Cloud Phone instances. For example, Wang is an O&M engineer at a new media company. | |
② | Console | The Alibaba Cloud Management Console for administrators. Administrators can perform daily O&M operations, such as instance group management, instance management, and application management. | |
③ | Region | A physical data center. Each region is completely independent. | |
④ | Instance group | A logical group used to deliver Cloud Phones to end users. It includes underlying cloud resources and general configurations, such as resource specifications, image versions, pre-installed applications, resolution, office network, and billing methods. | |
⑤ | Instance | The smallest manageable unit of computing power. A Cloud Phone instance uses the Android 12 operating system. You can assign one or more instances to a specified user. Then, the user can connect to the instances through a WUYING client. | |
⑥ | Application | An app that is pre-installed on a Cloud Phone instance. Administrators can upload applications in the console and then select applications to install in instance group management. Multiple applications can be selected. After the settings take effect, the selected applications are automatically installed on all Cloud Phone instances in the instance group. | |
⑦ | End user | A user who uses a Cloud Phone. After an administrator assigns a Cloud Phone instance to a user in the console, the user can connect to and use the Cloud Phone through a WUYING client. For example, Zhang is a streamer at a new media company. | |
⑧ | Client | The channel through which users access Cloud Phones, including the Windows client, macOS client, web client, and Android client. | |
⑨ | Developer | A research and development person who develops Cloud Phone business applications. For example, Liu is an application developer at a new media company. | |
⑩ | ADB | Android Debug Bridge (ADB) is a versatile command line interface that lets you communicate with a device. You can use ADB to install, debug, and control Cloud Phone instances. Note Connect to Cloud Phone instances over ADB from a WUYING Workspace. Accessing instances over a private network reduces security risks and provides much higher stability and speed than accessing them over the Internet. |
Get the client
You can connect to and use Cloud Phone instances through a client. For trial or demo purposes, you can use the client provided by WUYING. For production use, you can also develop a custom client application using the software development kit (SDK) and APIs that Cloud Phone provides.
You can open or download the WUYING client for Cloud Phone here, or go to the Cloud Phone client download page to download it.
If you download the client from the Cloud Phone client download page, select the correct client for your product. The Android client and iOS client for WUYING Workspace do not support Cloud Phone. Make sure to download the Android client for Cloud Phone.
If you have questions or requirements about the WUYING mobile client versions for different operating systems, contact us by submitting a ticket.
User guide
Find the user guide that corresponds to your role.
Purchase and assign cloud phones as enterprise users
Administrator guide
Use cloud phones as individuals
View User Guide
Use APIs or SDKs for secondary development
View Development References
FAQ
For more frequently asked questions about Cloud Phone, see FAQ about Cloud Phone.
How do I check the billing details of a cloud phone?
Log on to the Expenses and Costs console.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose Bills > Bill Details.
Click the Billing Details tab, set your filter conditions, and click Search.
Use the Statistic Item and Statistic Period parameters to specify the aggregation dimension and statistical period.
Why am I still being charged after releasing my cloud phone?
Dependent resources such as NAT gateways, elastic IP addresses (EIPs), and Internet Shared Bandwidth instances are not automatically released with the cloud phone. Verify that the following resources have been released:
| Resource | Console |
|---|---|
| NAT Gateway | NAT Gateway console |
| EIP | EIP console |
| Internet Shared Bandwidth | Internet Shared Bandwidth console |
Why can't my cloud phone access the Internet?
The troubleshooting steps depend on the network type of the instance group.
Log on to the Cloud Phone console.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose Manage Resource > Instance Group.
On the Instance Group page, find the instance group and click the value in the Network column.
On the Network page, check the Network Type value.
Shared network
Cloud phones in shared-network instance groups have Internet access enabled by default.
Virtual private cloud (VPC)
For VPC-based instance groups, enable Internet access by using one of the following methods:
Method 1: Use the Enable Now button
Log on to the Cloud Phone console.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose Network & Security > Network.
Select the region where the cloud phone resides.
Find the target network and click Enable Internet Access in the Actions column.
In the Enable Internet Access dialog box, click Enable Now.
Enabling Internet access automatically purchases pay-as-you-go NAT gateways and EIPs. For pricing details, see Billing of Internet NAT gateways and Billing overview.
The dialog box displays the progress of the operation.
Method 2: Manual configuration
For more information, see How cloud phones access the Internet.