What is USB On-The-Go (USB OTG)?

Introduction to USB On-The-Go 

The USB On-The-Go (OTG) function allows a phone or tablet to use some USB devices like keyboards and flash drives directly. When a phone is connected to a computer wth USB OTG the computer appears to the phone as an external storage device. When you connect a phone or tablet to a computer with a normal USB cable the computer sees the phone as external storage like a flash drive or external hard drive.

Here is the usb.org official specification for  USB On-The-Go.

What is needed to use USB On-The-Go?

supported. There are also apps like OTG Checker for Android to check for compatabilty.  Additionally, USB OTG requries a USB OTG cable and will not work with a regular USB cable. USB OTG cables are available with USB-C, USB-A, Micro USB, and some have both USB-C and USB-A. You can think of the cable as being a USB hub where you would plug in external devices but attached to your phone.

Using USB On-The-Go

Plugging a USB OTG cable into a phone or tablet provides one or more USB ports that are slave to the phone. A keyboard plugged into a USB OTG port should immediately be live and available to the phone. Likewise with a flash drive or other external device. With the cvable plugged from the phone to a PC or laptop, the computer will show as external storage on the phone, the reverse of what happens with a normal USB cable.

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