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Is there something specific in that process that required WebUSB vs just normal USB? Sounds like phone makers could have done this since forever if they wanted to, what makes WebUSB particularly useful for this?

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Native android apps can talk to regular USB devices, if granted the necessary permissions. But it's exposed through a Java api (and Kotlin I suppose, these days), which is fine, but it means you need to write your client logic twice. If you target the web, you can do it once.

(Yes, you could try to bulid some common interface, libusb-style, but I think you'll have a bad time with minor behavioural differences, especially around permissions. libusb itself does ostensibly support Android but there are several caveats: https://github.com/libusb/libusb/wiki/Android#does-libusb-su... )

So you can't just use fastboot in termux, with https://github.com/nohajc/termux-adb, then?

It uses libusb, so yes, modulo aforementioned documented caveats (as well as the undocumented ones)

WebUSB is particularly useful for this, because it allows you to just open a website. You don't need to install an app.

It also convenient for developer, as distributing apps nowadays is a lot of hoops to jump over. Website is just a website.

Also website is cross-platform by definition, as long as API is supported across platforms and WebUSB API is supported on all platforms except iOS.

Cross-platform compatibility comes to mind. WebUSB is available on macOS, Windows, and Android; a native Android app would pose a bootstrapping problem for a probably not insubstantial fraction of all potential users.

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