Android Emulators are based off the Google Android Studio SDK Emulator and don't contain any Manufacturer proprietary code/API. The general properties to change when creating a hardware profile are screen resolution, screen size and RAM. If needed there are additional hardware properties you can configure. Write this command: emulator -avd Nexus4API29 -gpu host -dns-server 8.8.8.8. Here Nexus4API29 will be your emulator device name (You can find it out devices list from Android Studio - AVD Manager). This command will run your specified device and WIFI will have Internet connected. Hope this helps.
Android Emulator is an Android Virtual Device, i.e., AVD, designed to represent any Android device.
Windows Emulator can be used as a platform or environment to run and execute the Android application on the computer. Emulators' usage depends on our needs. It is helpful to deploy the applications developed in users IDE without actually installing them in your system.
Working of Android Emulator
Android Emulators work on the principle of platform virtualization for both hardware and software. The AVD manager helps the user to set up and do the configurations for virtual Android devices. It has information on device type, system image, or Application Binary Interface (ABI) and verifies the structures.
Android Emulator can be used to mimic the device's hardware. Now, post that. It helps in translating the ABI to match the host device. Then the user integrates it with the operating system and runs it like a program or application on their computers.
The translation of CPU configurations is complicated and can be slow, so it is better to have the same guest and host CPU configurations.
Android Emulators are becoming more popular as they provide a good workaround for people who don't have high-end Android devices with exemplary configuration. They also offer access to all mobile applications from PC. Users can play multiple games at a time with good performance.
1: Android Studio Emulator
Android Studio is Android's official IDE for the Android operating system of Google. It comes with highly flexible features and can start user's applications way faster than real devices.
Users can get the advanced performance and view of its mobile applications in a system with more freedom and a bigger picture. It supports high definition games consuming low memory on the system. With Google's brand, excellent reliability also comes with this emulator.
Features:
- Android Studio is a multi-functional emulator that comes with an excellent graphical user interface and features.
- It allows the user to set the emulator window theme as per their choice for a better user experience.
- It allows users to use multiple applications simultaneously and to take screenshots while using applications in the system.
- Based on Java language, this emulator comes with high performance and work functions.
Supported Platforms: Android, Microsoft Windows, and Apple Mac OS.
Advantages of Android Studio Emulator:
- Android Studio is an official emulator by Google, so it comes with solid reliability and good features.
- It provides several options for accessing mobile applications on the desktop like testing apps, high definition gaming experience, etc.
Disadvantages of Android Studio Emulator:
- The premium version of the Android Studio emulator comes with a high price compared to other emulators in the market.
- The visual interface needs to be improved for a better gaming experience for the user.
2: BlueStacks Emulator
BlueStacks is an American company that produces BlueStacks Android Emulator. BlueStacks was introduced in the market to push the mobile gaming boundaries.
It allows you to run Android apps and high-definition games on the user's system. It offers a unique platform that combines traditional and digital advertising channels to maximize their capacity in a manner never done previously.
BlueStacks Facts:
In 2013, BlueStacks had a user application install base of 10 million, which provided access to around 1.5 million Android applications and games. It is continually growing and now has approximately 130 million users using it. BlueStacks raised around $30 million in funds from companies like Samsung, Qualcomm Ventures, Andreessen-Horowitz, Intel, and others.
Recommended Reading=>BlueStacks
Features:
- BlueStacks is one of the fastest mobile gaming platforms with the most comprehensive range of experience-enhancing options.
- It offers support for Android N on user's systems with better graphics and saves many phone batteries.
- It does not capture a lot of RAM, and the installation process is relatively user-friendly.
- It offers customizable gaming controls, a clean and straightforward interface, allows the user to run multiple applications or games at a time.
Supported Platforms: Android, Microsoft Windows, and Apple Mac OS.
Advantages of Bluestack:
- It supports almost all games and does not require a lot of RAM for processing.
- It offers custom key mapping to play mobile games with a keyboard setup and shows an impressive performance ratio.
- It is free of cost, can run multiple games simultaneously, sleek design and interface.
Disadvantages of Bluestack:
- BlueStacks offers no control over home screen applications.
- The features it offers are reluctantly buggy in nature.
3: Remix OS Player Emulator
Remix OS Player is an Android emulator for the Windows system known to offer the most immersive Android experience on the system. It also includes an essential mapping tool phenomenon that helps the Android games with touch controlling schemes to play more efficiently with mouse and keyboard.
The user needs only a .exe file for installing this emulator and directly runs the Remix OS Player.
Features:
- Remix OS Player is a powerful emulator built for AndroidPC system integration and provides good usability of Android apps in desktop view.
- It comes with marshmallow Android and supports high definition gaming systems.
- It can allow Android developers for app optimization of AndroidPC or chrome environment as it has multi-window support.
- Users can map any number of keyboard buttons to provide access control in gaming applications.
Supported Platforms: Android and Microsoft Windows.
Advantages of Remix OS Player Emulator:
- Remix OS Player emulator is highly recommended for productivity apps.
- It runs all the Android games in the latest versions of Android OS available in the market.
- Multi-functional as it supports simultaneously like using chat apps, internet browsers, office software, etc.
Disadvantages of Remix OS Player Emulator:
- Remix OS Player emulator does not support all the games available in the market.
- It does not provide customizable themes for the user.
4: Nox Player Emulator
Nox Player is one of the famous Android emulators on PC. It is free and entirely safe for use. It has compliance with GDPR and cares about the personal information of the user, and protects it. It is fully optimized and is very stable for both gaming and applications. It also makes the use smoother.
Using Nox, users will have the same gaming experience as a system. It supports a gamepad, keyboard, multiple instances running simultaneously, script recording, etc.
Facts about Nox Player:
Gamers and users around the world have highly recognized nox Player since it is launched in the market. Currently, Nox Player has been found in more than 200 countries and areas around the globe. It has more than 150 million users now and is in one of the top positions of the Asian market share.
It is believed that after the successful running of Nox Player, Company is planning to release its upgraded version with more premium features for the users.
Features:
- Nox Player emulator has open keyboard mapping running with a single click, all gaming controls on gamepad, mouse, and keyboard.
- It allows running multiple functions to run at a time to enjoy more games at one time.
- It comes with a macro recorder to record the complex operations and execute the script in one click.
- As it supports Android 7, which gives the ultimate user experience and superior performance.
Advantages of Nox Player Emulator:
- It is open-source and comes with upgraded Android version support for the best gaming experience.
- It is effortless to root and allows multiple Windows on a single device.
Disadvantages of Nox Player Emulator:
- Nox Player sometimes lags when too many windows are open simultaneously on a device.
- The user interface needs to be enhanced for a better user experience.
5: MEmu Emulator
MEmu is one of the famous Android emulators. It is among the fastest open-source Android emulator for playing mobile games on a desktop. It is known to provide excellent performance and an extreme user experience.
MEmu allows one to level multiple accounts for the same game, or the user can play many games on one account simultaneously. It has more than 20 million users in over 200 countries and approximately 20 languages with continuous progress.
Features:
- MEmu allows users to play free Android games and comes with many optimized graphics.
- It has a simple installation process supporting a keyboard, mouse, and gamepad to perfectly play mobile games.
- It provides an option to develop a custom Android emulator or application distribution to meet the business requirements.
- It allows file sharing between the Android and Windows platforms. It also has a fast APK installation by drag and drops feature.
Advantage of MEmu Emulator:
It has the option of passing through sensor data like an accelerometer to Android, so high-definition games like Pubg or car racing can be played intuitively.
Disadvantages of MEmu Emulator:
- The UI can be improved for a better user experience, like adding specific custom themes or so.
- It does not support all the games, so games lag when running on the MEmu emulator.
6: Genymotion Emulator
Genymotion is a powerful and very easy-to-use Android emulator. It is specifically designed for supporting the application developers to test the products in a secure virtual environment.
It provides a lot of custom features for users to meet their requirements. It is capable of emulating 3000 plus virtual Android device configurations like screen size or Android versions. It has robust sensors, like GPS, multi-touch, etc.
Features:
- Genymotion is a multi-support Android emulator that speeds up testing, sharing live demos, and monitoring performance across all devices.
- It has high definition pixel compatibility, which shows your mobile app with great clarity on systems.
- It allows the user to forward gyroscope and multi-touch events from any Android device connected to their desktop.
- It uses the desktop webcam as the video source to record screencasts of the user's virtual device.
Advantages of KO Player Emulator:
- It supports multiple operating systems.
- It can emulate devices with prolonged internal storage.
Disadvantages of KO Player Emulator:
- The combined features of the Genymotion emulator sometimes make lag in Android application execution.
- It is not open source and comes with a high price per user.
7: ARChon Emulator
ARChon Android emulator is a famous emulator known for its flexibility. It is the first Android emulator that is capable of working in the Google Chrome browser. It is different from another Android emulator, which is used to play games. It also works on chrome books.
Emulator Android Studio M1
It handles Android gaming very well on a desktop. It is robust and efficient in executing mobile applications. Users need a chrome extension to run this emulator on their system.
Features:
- ARChon is highly secured and comes with Google's reliability.
- As it supports a chrome browser, so it makes it different from other emulators.
- ARChon runtime lets the user run an unlimited number of Android APK created with chromes APK.
- It supports multiple Android applications in a single browser simultaneously.
Advantage of ARChon Emulator:
- ARChon emulator does not require any tool installation and works perfectly on chrome browsers with an internet connection.
Disadvantages of ARChon Emulator:
- The Android APK default files do not work directly as they first need to be converted into chrome-compatible APK files.
- Installation is not easy, and users have to follow specific guidelines to install it in chrome extension.
8: Ko Player
Ko Player is one of the best Android emulators, allowing the user to experience a quality Android playing experience on the desktop. This robust and powerful emulator mainly focuses on providing a smooth and lag-free gaming experience for users.
If you don't have an Android device, it still allows enjoying features of Android on desktop. Any app present in the Google play store can be run on this emulator.
Features:
- Ko Player supports all the peripheral devices like keyboard, gamepad, mouse, microphone, camera to enjoy mobile-based games on desktop.
- It comes along with a built-in video recording feature that enables you to record any video and can watch back later at any time.
- It allows all the Android apps to run on a big desktop screen to enjoy a better gaming experience.
- Users can capture and share the gameplay with anyone they want.
- It has one key feature of the toolbar: quick access to features like screen capturing, volume adjustment, resolution, etc.
Advantages of Ko Player Emulator:
- It is simple and easy to use.
- Easy and quick download.
- Avoids compatibility challenges.
Disadvantage of Ko Player Emulator:
- Ko Player does not provide custom options for the user to enhance usability as per their requirements.
9: Bliss Emulator
Bliss Emulator is an open-source and non-profit organization that works to maintain open-source projects. It works mainly on the open-source OS, based on Android, which will have many customizations, security features, and user options.
It also allows users to integrate Android applications on the desktop with a smooth experience. The most compatible Bliss variant as of now is Bliss ROM.
Features:
- Bliss Android Emulator mainly focuses on the design, which includes many options for customizations and themes.
- It comes along with excellent execution performance and works hassle-free.
- It has some power-saving options to reduce battery consumption, thus increasing battery life.
- High-security features are added to the tool, and updates are provided regularly.
Advantages of Bliss Emulator:
- Bliss Emulator now comes with Vulkan support present in the advanced menu, which partially supports the sleep state means, CPU will be active during this period, but the activity drops down to null.
Disadvantages of Bliss Emulator:
- The taskbar is not functioning correctly. As such, the navbar issue still exists.
- Sleep state is not working correctly for the default options, and many are UI can get restarted at the same time.
10: Amiduos Emulator
AMIDuOS is an American Android Emulator developed in the United States. It offers seamless integration between an Android device and a system.
It comes with the full-screen regime. If the user runs any game or application in extraordinary power, the user will not identify any difference between using an Android mobile or system. It is so great in use. It allows the user to shar any files between the mobile and the computer device smoothly.
Features:
- AMIDuOS has a rapid setup of any application from Gmail, play store, or Google plus.
- It comes with high performance and a lack of any limitations.
- It is compatible with all the new versions of Windows.
- It takes some space on a user's hard disk but does not slow down the system.
- It only requires 2 GB of space on the system to run freely.
Advantage of AMIDuOS Emulator:
How To Start Emulator Android Studio
- AMIDuOS allows the user to run multiple applications at one instance without lag and supports most of the games in the play store.
Disadvantages of AMIDuOS Emulator:
- AMIDuOS Emulator is based on an outdated version of Android.
- The application list to install the software is not available.
- It is only compatible with the Intel x86 processor.
This page is deprecated. Redirecting to https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator.html
The Android Studio 2.0 (or higher) preview includes the new Android Emulator 2.0 with improved performance and a new user interface to control device features. This page describes some of the changes compared to the emulator available with the stable version of Android Studio 1.5 and how to setup your development environment to use the Android Emulator.
For best performance with Android Emulator 2.0, your system should meet the following specifications:
Windows: Intel® processor with support for Intel® VT-x, Intel® EM64T (Intel® 64), and Execute Disable (XD) Bit functionality. AMD and Intel Atom processors do not support VT-x virtual machine acceleration.
Linux: Intel® processor with support for Intel® VT-x, Intel® EM64T (Intel® 64), and Execute Disable (XD) Bit functionality or AMD processors with support for AMD Virtualization™ (AMD-V™)
64-bit Operating Systems.
New Features
The most valuable updates to the Android Emulator are the speed improvements. When running with Android Studio 2.0 or higher on an x86 machine, response time is faster than the previous Android Emulator and you can transfer files from your machine faster than a physical Android device.
The latest Android Emulator supports new multi-finger touch inputs, including pinch zoom and two finger rotate gestures. Holding down Alt or Option reveals two finger points. Moving the mouse moves one finger and the second finger is mirrored across an anchor point. Clicking the left mouse button enables pinch-zoom gestures and clicking the right mouse button enables two-finger rotate gestures (such as to tilt the perspective when viewing a map).
The panel on the right side of the emulator lets you perform common tasks, such as rotate the screen, capture screenshots, and zoom in on the display.
To install apps, you can drag and drop an APK right on the emulator. You can also drag and drop other file types and they'll be saved to the /sdcard/Download/ directory.
At the bottom of the toolbar on the right is an ellipsis button that opens the Extended Controls window. In here you'll find various controls that invoke device events and mock device sensors.
Keyboard shortcuts are available for most actions and are listed in the Help panel, listed on the left.
Get Android Emulator 2.0
The new Android Emulator is available with Android Studio 2.0 or higher, which is available in both the Stable, Beta and Canary channels.
Once you make sure you have the appropriate emulator system image and other tools:
Open the SDK Manager from Android Studio.
Click the SDK Platforms tab, and select the check box for a recent version such as the Android 6.0 (Marshmallow). By default, this includes the x86 system image that you need for the emulator. You can see and modify the files to download by clicking Show Package Details at the bottom-right.
Click the SDK Tools tab, then select the check boxes for the following:
Android SDK Tools (25.0.0 or higher to get the new emulator)
Android SDK Platform-Tools (23.1.0 or higher to get the fast ADB)
Intel x86 Emulator Accelerator (HAXM installer) (rev 6.0.1 or higher to get CPU acceleration)
Click OK to check for updates.
Create new Android Virtual Device (AVD)
To take advantage of the new Android Emulator and adb speeds, you need to create new AVDs. In this example below, we are creating a Nexus 5x AVD.
Run Emulator Android Studio
Open the AVD Manager from Android Studio.
Click Create Virtual Device.
Select the defaults for Nexus 5x.
Select a system image, such as Marshmallow - API 23 - x86.
Select Show Advanced Settings.
Select the Multi-Core CPU check box. The number of cores available depends on the number of cores available on your development machine.
Run your new Android Virtual Device by click on the green Play button.
You should see the Android Emulator now start up.
Troubleshooting
Check Intel x86 Emulator Accelerator Installation
Why No App In Emulator Android Studio
If you selected the defaults during the Android Studio installation you should be ready to go. If you created a custom Android Studio installation or run into issues, read the troubleshooting guide below. If your Intel x86 Emulator Accelerator is out of date, Android Studio will automatically inform you and suggest a quick fix to update, as shown in the following screenshot in the AVD Manager.
Installing CPU Accelerator (HAXM)
If you skipped the initial setup of Android Studio, you should make sure the CPU acceleration is installed.
You can manually install Intel x86 Emulator Accelerator by opening intelhaxm-android.exe (on Windows) or intelHAXM_6.0.1.dmg (on Mac) from /sdk/extras/intel/Hardware_Accelerated_Execution_Mangager, as shown below:
Installing HAXM in Windows
Installing HAXM in OS X
For Linux, the Android emulator usesKernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM). If you are using Ubuntu, you can run check your KVM system compatibility by running the following on the command line:
$egrep –c '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo
on the command line to check for for a return value of greater than 1
To check if you have KVM installed by running the following on the command line:
$kvm-ok
If KVM is missing or to ensure you have the latest KVM installed, run the following on the command line:
$sudo apt-get install qemu-kvm libvirt-bin ubuntu-vm-builder bridge-utils ia32-libs-multiarch
The linux commands look like the following on Ubuntu:
Known Issues
Emulating inbound phone call freezes emulator.
Screenshot feature crashes emulator in certain conditions.
If an AVD has been opened in a previous version of the emulator, it may not boot in the new emulator, therefore create a new AVD.
OSX - screen doesn't go black when you sleep the device.
Linux - segfault on exit in some conditions.
'-gpu mesa' option not supported.
'-net*' option not supported.
'-no-window' option not supported.
Remote desktop not supported.
Emulated hardware 'recents' key doesn't work in older system images.
Multiple DNS servers not supported.
Emulator Android Studio No Internet
How To Set Up Emulator Android Studio
If you find other issues in the Android Emulator, pleasefile a bug report.
We have more features in the pipeline, but if you may also submit feature requests.