The vocabulary, without the hand-waving

An Android emulator is software that simulates an Android device on a host computer — BlueStacks, LDPlayer, Genymotion or the Android Studio emulator. It runs apps without physical hardware, which makes it cheap and disposable, and leaves signals that distinguish it from a real handset.

The Android ID is a 64-bit value Android generates to identify a device to an app. Since Android 8, it is scoped per app signing key rather than being global, so different apps see different values on the same device. It resets on factory reset.

A BSSID is the MAC address of a wifi access point — the identifier that distinguishes one router from another broadcasting the same network name. Devices see the BSSIDs around them, and because access points are geographically fixed, those readings imply a physical location.

build.prop is the Android system file holding the device’s build properties — manufacturer, brand, model, product name, Android version, build ID and build fingerprint. Apps read these values to know what device they are running on, which makes the file a central part of any device identity.

A device fingerprint is the combination of hardware and software values an app can read to recognise a specific device — IMEI, MAC address, Android ID, build properties, screen metrics, timezone, locale and installed packages. Taken together they are close to unique, which is what makes them useful for identifying a device across sessions.

Device isolation is the practice of giving each account its own device identity and its own network path, so nothing links the accounts to one another. It covers hardware identifiers, system values, storage, cookies and the exit IP — anything shared across accounts becomes a correlation point.

The IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) is a 15-digit number that uniquely identifies a mobile device on cellular networks. It is tied to the hardware rather than the SIM, so it stays with the handset when the SIM changes, and it is one of the strongest signals in a device fingerprint.

A MAC address is a 48-bit hardware identifier assigned to a network interface — wifi, Bluetooth or Ethernet. Its first three bytes identify the manufacturer through an OUI registered with the IEEE, so a MAC address implies which company built the radio.

CGNAT (carrier-grade network address translation) lets an internet provider place many subscribers behind a single public IP address. It is standard practice on mobile networks, where address scarcity means thousands of customers can share one address at the same time.

A datacenter proxy routes traffic through an IP address owned by a hosting company rather than a consumer internet provider. It is the cheapest and fastest proxy category, and the easiest to identify as non-residential, since the address registration is public.

An ISP proxy is an IP address registered to a consumer internet provider but hosted in a datacenter. It combines the residential registration that makes an address look ordinary with the stability and speed of server infrastructure, and it is normally sold per IP rather than per gigabyte.

A mobile proxy routes traffic through an IP address assigned by a cellular carrier to a device on its 4G or 5G network. Because carriers place many subscribers behind a small number of addresses, mobile IPs are shared by design — which makes them unusually tolerant of heavy use.

Proxy rotation is the automatic switching of exit IP address between requests or on a timer. It spreads traffic across many addresses so no single one accumulates volume, and it is the default behaviour of most residential and datacenter pools.

A residential proxy routes traffic through an IP address belonging to a real consumer internet connection, assigned by a home ISP. Because the address is registered to a broadband subscriber rather than a hosting company, it carries no datacenter signature.

SOCKS5 is a proxy protocol that forwards raw TCP and UDP traffic between a client and a destination without interpreting it. Because it works below the application layer, it can carry any protocol — not just HTTP — which makes it the usual choice for routing an entire device.

A sticky session keeps a proxy connection on the same exit IP for a set duration — commonly ten to sixty minutes — instead of rotating on every request. It is the setting that lets a rotating residential pool behave like a fixed address for as long as a task takes.

Account warmup is the period after creating an account when it is used lightly and normally — browsing, scrolling, following — before doing anything the account was made for. It gives the account an ordinary usage history instead of appearing and immediately acting.

ADB (Android Debug Bridge) is the command-line tool for communicating with an Android device — installing packages, reading logs, running shell commands and automating input. It is the standard interface for controlling a device programmatically.

Multi-accounting is operating several accounts on the same platform in parallel, each meant to stand on its own. It is routine work for agencies managing client brands, sellers running multiple storefronts and marketers testing across markets — and it requires that the accounts share nothing observable.

RPA (robotic process automation) is software that performs interface actions the way a person would — tapping, typing, scrolling and waiting — rather than calling an API. On mobile it drives real apps through their real screens, which is the only option when no public API exists.