Digital nomads, through their mobile-rooted practices, gradually become a crucial driving force for integrated urban-rural development by reshaping the allocation patterns of urban and rural elements and dismantling the barriers of the urban-rural dual structure. In the analytical framework of the “dual nature of mobility”, the concept of “liquid connections” encapsulates the outcomes of digital nomads’ mobility practices, signifying the creation of a new type of social bond between urban and rural areas characterized by decentralization, bidirectionality, and adaptability, thereby facilitating urban-rural symbiotic integration. This elucidates the logical mechanisms through which digital nomads dissolve inherent urban-rural boundaries and reshape social relations across these spaces. The results show that digital nomads primarily promote integrated urban-rural development through three practical dimensions: identity, role, and development, engendering new business forms such as co-working spaces, rural cultural and creative enterprises, and digital villagers. Consequently, they drive the optimized allocation of resources, equal recognition of identities, collaborative and symbiotic relationships, and value co-creation and sharing. At the mechanism level, digital nomads exhibit factor-level de-territorialization and re-embedding, identity-level dissolution and reconstruction, relationship-level flexibility and reweaving, as well as value-level transfer and re-accumulation, thereby activating endogenous rural potential and bridging the urban-rural development gap. Nevertheless, digital nomads face practical challenges including professional and identity anxiety, feelings of loneliness and social barriers, and lack of stability and security. Therefore, it remains essential to continue enhancing rural digital-friendly support systems to meet the living needs of digital nomads; enrich the concept of digitally livable rural areas and reconstruct digital nomad community networks; and focus on digitally suitable rural industry projects and expand sources of livelihood for digital nomads, collectively ensuring their healthy development and promoting high-quality innovation-driven urban-rural integration.