diff --git a/Libraries/Devtools/setupDevtools.js b/Libraries/Devtools/setupDevtools.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..0bd003dca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Libraries/Devtools/setupDevtools.js
@@ -0,0 +1,105 @@
+/**
+ * Copyright (c) 2015-present, Facebook, Inc.
+ * All rights reserved.
+ *
+ * This source code is licensed under the BSD-style license found in the
+ * LICENSE file in the root directory of this source tree. An additional grant
+ * of patent rights can be found in the PATENTS file in the same directory.
+ *
+ * @providesModule setupDevtools
+ * @flow
+ */
+'use strict';
+
+function setupDevtools() {
+  var messageListeners = [];
+  var closeListeners = [];
+  var ws = new window.WebSocket('ws://localhost:8081/devtools');
+  // this is accessed by the eval'd backend code
+  var FOR_BACKEND = { // eslint-disable-line no-unused-vars
+    resolveRNStyle: require('flattenStyle'),
+    wall: {
+      listen(fn) {
+        messageListeners.push(fn);
+      },
+      onClose(fn) {
+        closeListeners.push(fn);
+      },
+      send(data) {
+        ws.send(JSON.stringify(data));
+      },
+    },
+  };
+  ws.onclose = () => {
+    console.warn('devtools socket closed');
+    closeListeners.forEach(fn => fn());
+  };
+  ws.onerror = error => {
+    console.warn('devtools socket errored', error);
+    closeListeners.forEach(fn => fn());
+  };
+  ws.onopen = function () {
+    tryToConnect();
+  };
+
+  function tryToConnect() {
+    ws.send('attach:agent');
+    var _interval = setInterval(() => ws.send('attach:agent'), 500);
+    ws.onmessage = evt => {
+      if (evt.data.indexOf('eval:') === 0) {
+        clearInterval(_interval);
+        initialize(evt.data.slice('eval:'.length));
+      }
+    };
+  }
+
+  function initialize(text) {
+    try {
+      // FOR_BACKEND is used by the eval'd code
+      eval(text); // eslint-disable-line no-eval
+    } catch (e) {
+      console.error('Failed to eval' + e.message);
+      return;
+    }
+    window.__REACT_DEVTOOLS_GLOBAL_HOOK__.inject({
+      CurrentOwner: require('ReactCurrentOwner'),
+      InstanceHandles: require('ReactInstanceHandles'),
+      Mount: require('ReactNativeMount'),
+      Reconciler: require('ReactReconciler'),
+      TextComponent: require('ReactNativeTextComponent'),
+    });
+    ws.onmessage = handleMessage;
+  }
+
+  function handleMessage(evt) {
+    var data;
+    try {
+      data = JSON.parse(evt.data);
+    } catch (e) {
+      return console.error('failed to parse json: ' + evt.data);
+    }
+    // the devtools closed
+    if (data.$close || data.$error) {
+      closeListeners.forEach(fn => fn());
+      window.__REACT_DEVTOOLS_GLOBAL_HOOK__.emit('shutdown');
+      tryToConnect();
+      return;
+    }
+    if (data.$open) {
+      return; // ignore
+    }
+    messageListeners.forEach(fn => {
+      try {
+        fn(data);
+      } catch (e) {
+        // jsc doesn't play so well with tracebacks that go into eval'd code,
+        // so the stack trace here will stop at the `eval()` call. Getting the
+        // message that caused the error is the best we can do for now.
+        console.log(data);
+        throw e;
+      }
+    });
+  }
+}
+
+module.exports = setupDevtools;
diff --git a/Libraries/Inspector/Inspector.js b/Libraries/Inspector/Inspector.js
index c014c29c4..7dbec7443 100644
--- a/Libraries/Inspector/Inspector.js
+++ b/Libraries/Inspector/Inspector.js
@@ -20,11 +20,9 @@ var StyleSheet = require('StyleSheet');
 var UIManager = require('NativeModules').UIManager;
 var View = require('View');
 
-var REACT_DEVTOOLS_HOOK: ?Object = typeof window !== 'undefined' ? window.__REACT_DEVTOOLS_GLOBAL_HOOK__ : null;
-
-if (REACT_DEVTOOLS_HOOK) {
+if (window.__REACT_DEVTOOLS_GLOBAL_HOOK__) {
   // required for devtools to be able to edit react native styles
-  REACT_DEVTOOLS_HOOK.resolveRNStyle = require('flattenStyle');
+  window.__REACT_DEVTOOLS_GLOBAL_HOOK__.resolveRNStyle = require('flattenStyle');
 }
 
 class Inspector extends React.Component {
@@ -43,12 +41,12 @@ class Inspector extends React.Component {
   }
 
   componentDidMount() {
-    if (REACT_DEVTOOLS_HOOK) {
+    if (window.__REACT_DEVTOOLS_GLOBAL_HOOK__) {
       this.attachToDevtools = this.attachToDevtools.bind(this);
-      REACT_DEVTOOLS_HOOK.on('react-devtools', this.attachToDevtools);
+      window.__REACT_DEVTOOLS_GLOBAL_HOOK__.on('react-devtools', this.attachToDevtools);
       // if devtools is already started
-      if (REACT_DEVTOOLS_HOOK.reactDevtoolsAgent) {
-        this.attachToDevtools(REACT_DEVTOOLS_HOOK.reactDevtoolsAgent);
+      if (window.__REACT_DEVTOOLS_GLOBAL_HOOK__.reactDevtoolsAgent) {
+        this.attachToDevtools(window.__REACT_DEVTOOLS_GLOBAL_HOOK__.reactDevtoolsAgent);
       }
     }
   }
@@ -57,8 +55,8 @@ class Inspector extends React.Component {
     if (this._subs) {
       this._subs.map(fn => fn());
     }
-    if (REACT_DEVTOOLS_HOOK) {
-      REACT_DEVTOOLS_HOOK.off('react-devtools', this.attachToDevtools);
+    if (window.__REACT_DEVTOOLS_GLOBAL_HOOK__) {
+      window.__REACT_DEVTOOLS_GLOBAL_HOOK__.off('react-devtools', this.attachToDevtools);
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/Libraries/ReactIOS/renderApplication.ios.js b/Libraries/ReactIOS/renderApplication.ios.js
index 53a786e2a..6a4bb5f68 100644
--- a/Libraries/ReactIOS/renderApplication.ios.js
+++ b/Libraries/ReactIOS/renderApplication.ios.js
@@ -69,6 +69,11 @@ function renderApplication<D, P, S>(
     rootTag,
     'Expect to have a valid rootTag, instead got ', rootTag
   );
+  // not when debugging in chrome
+  if (__DEV__ && !window.document) {
+    var setupDevtools = require('setupDevtools');
+    setupDevtools();
+  }
   React.render(
     <AppContainer rootTag={rootTag}>
       <RootComponent
diff --git a/packager/webSocketProxy.js b/packager/webSocketProxy.js
index f86362136..22151c4ea 100644
--- a/packager/webSocketProxy.js
+++ b/packager/webSocketProxy.js
@@ -17,7 +17,19 @@ function attachToServer(server, path) {
   });
   var clients = [];
 
+  function sendSpecial(message) {
+    clients.forEach(function (cn) {
+      try {
+        cn.send(JSON.stringify(message));
+      } catch(e) {
+        console.warn('WARN: ' + e.message);
+      }
+    });
+  }
+
   wss.on('connection', function(ws) {
+    var id = Math.random().toString(15).slice(10, 20);
+    sendSpecial({$open: id});
     clients.push(ws);
 
     var allClientsExcept = function(ws) {
@@ -26,10 +38,12 @@ function attachToServer(server, path) {
 
     ws.onerror = function() {
       clients = allClientsExcept(ws);
+      sendSpecial({$error: id});
     };
 
     ws.onclose = function() {
       clients = allClientsExcept(ws);
+      sendSpecial({$close: id});
     };
 
     ws.on('message', function(message) {