Want to mess around with your Android phone? Chances are you will have to install ADB or fastboot first. For example, when you try to flash a factory image on your Android device, unlock bootloader or sideloadOTA image files, it requires you to have Android Device Bridge (ADB) installed. Before now, anyone who needed to get ADB had to download the entire Android Studio development tools suite. Apparently, Google is now making it easier for you to directly download ADB without having to grab that giant package of tools that might be nothing but junk to you.

While there were always third-party sites hosting individual tools for easy download, the files weren't officially maintained or kept up to date. There are also security concerns associated when you download these files from non-Google platforms, so Google trying to introduce a much more convenient and secure way to download ADB and other utilities, is nothing but good news.

Download ADB, Fastboot and other tools from Google

Spotted first by the folks at AP, here are the links to direct download the platform-tools, weighing at a mere 3.5MB! This package includes ADB, Fastboot, and other utilities.

Download for Mac(Darwin)Download SDK Tools for WindowsDownload link for Linux

The links shared above are hosted by Google, so you will always be directed to the very latest versions of Android Studio tools.Grab the file above for your OS, unzip it on your computer and ta da!