Android avd system image

Create & Manage Android Virtual Device

This is a guide on how to Create & Manage Android Virtual Device (AVD) in Android Studio. We learned how to install Android Studio in the windows. Before starting with the Android App development using Android Studio, we need to create an Android Virtual Device (AVD). The AVD is then used by the Android emulator to mimic the real device so that we can test our application. To Create AVD we first need to Install AVD Manager. We also need to Install Android Emulator. We will learn all these in this guide.

Before going further, we need to know what is AVD Manager, AVD ( Android Virtual Device) and Android Emulator.

Table of Contents

What is AVD Manager?

The AVD Manager is a GUI interface provided by Android Studio to create and manage Android Virtual Devices. We can create as many as AVD’s and configure them by specifying the hardware and software parameters.

You can access the AVD Manager from the Android Studio from the menu Tools -> AVD Manager ( or Tools -> Android -> AVD Manager in the older version of the studio).

How to Install AVD Manager?

AVD Manager is installed, when you install Android Studio. We have an article on how to Install Android Studio, which you can refer to.

What is Android Emulator

The Android emulator is a program that takes the configuration from the Android Virtual Device (AVD). It then simulates the device on your computer. The emulator allows us to develop and test Android applications without using a real device. The Android Emulator needs AVD to run. You need to specify which AVD to use to the Android Emulator and emulator mimics the device.

Why use Android Emulator

You can use the real device to run and test your Android application, which is actually a better and faster way to test your app

But, you need a device of every size, type (like the tablet, phone, wear, tv), etc and with the various configuration like RAM, API Version, Network supported, etc. This is something which is not possible if you are using the real device. Also, the devices with the new features keep coming out at regular intervals.

With Android Emulator you can create a virtual device of any configuration, size, type. You can test your app on various types of devices simultaneously before releasing it to the Production.

How does the Emulator work

The Android emulator uses the Operating system Virtualization technologies to mimic the real device on your PC.

Operating system virtualization is the technique, where software is used to run many operating systems in the hardware at the same time. Some of the virtualization technologies used in windows are

Intel’s HAXM (Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager) is used by the Android Emulator.

A Windows CPU can support only one virtualization technology at a time. The Hyper-V is installed, when you install the Windows OS. if it is enabled, you need to disable it.

How to Install Android Emulator

The Android Emulator is installed, when you install Android Studio.

You can go to Android SDK Manager -> SDK Tools and check if the Android Emulator is installed or not. You can also check if the updates are available. select the checkbox and click on the OK button to install or update the Android Emulator.

System Requirement to run Android Emulator

Android Emulator is notorious to consume a lot of memory & CPU. I would recommend a minimum of 16GB RAM and the latest CPU.

The latest version of the Android Emulator does not support 32bit OS. The support for the older 32-bit version will stop in June 2020. Hence prepare to move to 64bit OS at earliest.

The following is the recommended system configuration for Android Emulator.

1. Microsoft Windows 7 and above either 32bit/64bit.
2. 3 GB RAM minimum, 8 GB RAM recommended
3. 2 GB of available disk space minimum,
4. 4 GB Hard disk space Recommended (500 MB for IDE + 1.5 GB for Android SDK and emulator system image)
5. 1280 x 800 minimum screen resolution

What is an Android Virtual Device

An Android Virtual Device (AVD) is an emulator configuration that represents a specific Android device. An AVD contains a hardware profile, system image, storage area, skin, and other properties specific to the device.

You have to create AVD for every device that you want to test.

Creating AVD

1. Start Android Studio and open the AVD Manager
2. Tools -> AVD Manager ( or Tools -> Android -> AVD Manager )
3. Click the AVD Manager icon in the toolbar.

Create New Virtual Device

If you are starting the AVD Manager for the first time, you will see the following screen. Else you will see the list of AVDs created.

Click on Create Virtual Device to continue

Select Hardware

This will take you to select Hardware Page. This page lists the devices which can be used to generate the Android Virtual Device

In the left-hand panel displays a list of the Category of the device. It includes TV, Phone, Wear & Tablet. Select the category.

The middle pane displays the list of devices available. Select one based on the requirement of your app. After this click on the Next button.

Note that phones with larger resolution Choose the pixels resolution according to your requirements as it will take huge RAM in large pixels resolution device. If your computer has low RAM then prefer to choose less resolution device.

Click Next to continue

Select System Image

The Recommend tab lists the recommended system images for the Hardware you have selected in the last page. There x86 images and other images tabs also display the list of images.

The download link next to each system image name indicates that the image is not yet downloaded into the system. Click on download to download the image.

Choose the system image based on the API level targeted by your App. The app won’t run if you choose lower API than the one target by the App

Select the image and click on Next to continue.

Verify Configuration

The Final Window is Verify Configuration.

Here you can name your AVD, change startup orientation and few other hardware properties. Click on Show Advanced Settings to show more settings.

Click on Finish to create the AVD.

Managing the AVD

Opening the AVD Manager takes you to the List of AVDS

Running/Stopping the AVD

Under the action column, click on the icon to run the AVD. The Android Emulator uses the AVD to mimic the device. You can then use the control panel to manage the device. The Extend control button at the bottom gives you more options.

Click on the icon to edit the AVD. Right-click anywhere on the device and click on delete to delete. Right-Click menu also gives options to duplicate, delete, wipe data, cold start & stop the AVD.

References

Summary

In this tutorial, we learned how to create and manage Android Virtual Devices. In the next tutorial, we will how to create a Simple NativeScript Application

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Create and manage virtual devices

An Android Virtual Device (AVD) is a configuration that defines the characteristics of an Android phone, tablet, Wear OS, Android TV, or Automotive OS device that you want to simulate in the Android Emulator. The AVD Manager is an interface you can launch from Android Studio that helps you create and manage AVDs.

To open the AVD Manager, do one of the following:

• Select Tools > AVD Manager.
• Click AVD Manager in the toolbar.

About AVDs

An AVD contains a hardware profile, system image, storage area, skin, and other properties.

We recommend that you create an AVD for each system image that your app could potentially support based on the setting in your manifest.

Hardware profile

The hardware profile defines the characteristics of a device as shipped from the factory. The AVD Manager comes preloaded with certain hardware profiles, such as Pixel devices, and you can define or customize the hardware profiles as needed.

Notice that only some hardware profiles are indicated to include Play Store. This indicates that these profiles are fully CTS compliant and may use system images that include the Play Store app.

System images

A system image labeled with Google APIs includes access to Google Play services. A system image labeled with the Google Play logo in the Play Store column includes the Google Play Store app and access to Google Play services, including a Google Play tab in the Extended controls dialog that provides a convenient button for updating Google Play services on the device.

To ensure app security and a consistent experience with physical devices, system images with the Google Play Store included are signed with a release key, which means that you cannot get elevated privileges (root) with these images. If you require elevated privileges (root) to aid with your app troubleshooting, you can use the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) system images that do not include Google apps or services.

Storage area

The AVD has a dedicated storage area on your development machine. It stores the device user data, such as installed apps and settings, as well as an emulated SD card. If needed, you can use the AVD Manager to wipe user data, so the device has the same data as if it were new.

An emulator skin specifies the appearance of a device. The AVD Manager provides some predefined skins. You can also define your own, or use skins provided by third parties.

AVD and app features

Be sure your AVD definition includes the device features your app depends on. See Hardware Profile Properties and AVD Properties for lists of features you can define in your AVDs.

Create an AVD

Tip: If you want to launch your app into an emulator, instead run your app from Android Studio and then in the Select Deployment Target dialog that appears, click Create New Virtual Device.

To create a new AVD:

1. Open the AVD Manager by clicking Tools > AVD Manager.
2. Click Create Virtual Device, at the bottom of the AVD Manager dialog.

The Select Hardware page appears.

Notice that only some hardware profiles are indicated to include Play Store. This indicates that these profiles are fully CTS compliant and may use system images that include the Play Store app.

Select a hardware profile, and then click Next.

If you don’t see the hardware profile you want, you can create or import a hardware profile.

The System Image page appears.

Select the system image for a particular API level, and then click Next.

The Recommended tab lists recommended system images. The other tabs include a more complete list. The right pane describes the selected system image. x86 images run the fastest in the emulator.

If you see Download next to the system image, you need to click it to download the system image. You must be connected to the internet to download it.

The API level of the target device is important, because your app won’t be able to run on a system image with an API level that’s less than that required by your app, as specified in the minSdkVersion attribute of the app manifest file. For more information about the relationship between system API level and minSdkVersion , see Versioning Your Apps.

If your app declares a element in the manifest file, the app requires a system image in which that external library is present. If you want to run your app on an emulator, create an AVD that includes the required library. To do so, you might need to use an add-on component for the AVD platform; for example, the Google APIs add-on contains the Google Maps library.

The Verify Configuration page appears.

Change AVD properties as needed, and then click Finish.

Click Show Advanced Settings to show more settings, such as the skin.

The new AVD appears in the Your Virtual Devices page or the Select Deployment Target dialog.

To create an AVD starting with a copy:

From the Your Virtual Devices page of the AVD Manager, right-click an AVD and select Duplicate.

Or click Menu and select Duplicate.

Click Change or Previous if you need to make changes on the System Image and Select Hardware pages.

Make your changes, and then click Finish.

The AVD appears in the Your Virtual Devices page.

Create a hardware profile

The AVD Manager provides predefined hardware profiles for common devices so you can easily add them to your AVD definitions. If you need to define a different device, you can create a new hardware profile. You can define a new hardware profile from the beginning, or copy a hardware profile as a start. The preloaded hardware profiles aren’t editable.

To create a new hardware profile from the beginning:

1. In the Select Hardware page, click New Hardware Profile.
2. In the Configure Hardware Profile page, change the hardware profile properties as needed.
3. Click Finish.

Your new hardware profile appears in the Select Hardware page. You can optionally create an AVD that uses the hardware profile by clicking Next. Or, click Cancel to return to the Your Virtual Devices page or Select Deployment Target dialog.

To create a hardware profile starting with a copy:

In the Select Hardware page, select a hardware profile and click Clone Device.

Or right-click a hardware profile and select Clone.

In the Configure Hardware Profile page, change the hardware profile properties as needed.

Click Finish.

Your new hardware profile appears in the Select Hardware page. You can optionally create an AVD that uses the hardware profile by clicking Next. Or, click Cancel to return to the Your Virtual Devices page or Select Deployment Target dialog.

Edit existing AVDs

From the Your Virtual Devices page, you can perform the following operations on an existing AVD:

• To edit an AVD, click Edit this AVD and make your changes.
• To delete an AVD, right-click an AVD and select Delete. Or click Menu and select Delete.
• To show the associated AVD .ini and .img files on disk, right-click an AVD and select Show on Disk. Or click Menu and select Show on Disk.
• To view AVD configuration details that you can include in any bug reports to the Android Studio team, right-click an AVD and select View Details. Or click Menu and select View Details.

Edit existing hardware profiles

From the Select Hardware page, you can perform the following operations on an existing hardware profile:

• To edit a hardware profile, select it and click Edit Device. Or right-click a hardware profile and select Edit. Next, make your changes.
• To delete a hardware profile, right-click it and select Delete.

You can’t edit or delete the predefined hardware profiles.

Run and stop an emulator, and clear data

From the Your Virtual Devices page, you can perform the following operations on an emulator:

• To run an emulator that uses an AVD, double-click the AVD. Or click Launch.
• To stop a running emulator, right-click an AVD and select Stop. Or click Menu and select Stop.
• To clear the data for an emulator, and return it to the same state as when it was first defined, right-click an AVD and select Wipe Data. Or click Menu and select Wipe Data.

Import and export hardware profiles

From the Select Hardware page, you can import and export hardware profiles:

To import a hardware profile, click Import Hardware Profiles and select the XML file containing the definition on your computer.

To export a hardware profile, right-click it and select Export. Specify the location where you want to store the XML file containing the definition.

Hardware profile properties

You can specify the following properties of hardware profiles in the Configure Hardware Profile page. AVD configuration properties override hardware profile properties, and emulator properties that you set while the emulator is running override them both.

The predefined hardware profiles included with the AVD Manager aren’t editable. However, you can copy them and edit the copies.

Select one of the following:

• None — No hardware controls. Navigation is through the software.
• D-pad — Directional Pad support.
• Trackball
• Wheel

These options are for actual hardware controls on the device itself. However, the events sent to the device by an external controller are the same.

Select one or both options:

• Portrait — Oriented taller than wide.
• Landscape — Oriented wider than tall.

If you select both, you can switch between orientations in the emulator. You must select at least one option to continue.

To enable the camera, select one or both options:

• Back-Facing Camera — The lens faces away from the user.
• Front-Facing Camera — The lens faces toward the user.

Later, you can use a webcam or a photo provided by the emulator to simulate taking a photo with the camera.

Hardware Profile Property	Description
Device Name	Name of the hardware profile. The name can contain uppercase or lowercase letters, numbers from 0 to 9, periods (.), underscores (_), parentheses ( () ), and spaces. The name of the file storing the hardware profile is derived from the hardware profile name.
Device Type	Select one of the following: Phone/Tablet Wear OS Android TV Chrome OS Device Android Automotive
Screen Size	The physical size of the screen, in inches, measured at the diagonal. If the size is larger than your computer screen, it’s reduced in size at launch.
Screen Resolution	Type a width and height in pixels to specify the total number of pixels on the simulated screen.
Round	Select this option if the device has a round screen, such as some Wear OS devices.
Memory: RAM	Type a RAM size for the device and select the units, one of B (byte), KB (kilobyte), MB (megabyte), GB (gigabyte), or TB (terabyte).
Input: Has Hardware Buttons (Back/Home/Menu)	Select this option if your device has hardware navigation buttons. Deselect it if these buttons are implemented in software only. If you select this option, the buttons won’t appear on the screen. You can use the emulator side panel to «press» the buttons, in either case.
Input: Has Hardware Keyboard	Select this option if your device has a hardware keyboard. Deselect it if it doesn’t. If you select this option, a keyboard won’t appear on the screen. You can use your computer keyboard to send keystrokes to the emulator, in either case.
Navigation Style
Sensors: Accelerometer	Select if the device has hardware that helps the device determine its orientation.
Sensors: Gyroscope	Select if the device has hardware that detects rotation or twist. In combination with an accelerometer, it can provide smoother orientation detection and support a six-axis orientation system.
Sensors: GPS	Select if the device has hardware that supports the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite-based navigation system.
Sensors: Proximity Sensor	Select if the device has hardware that detects if the device is close to your face during a phone call to disable input from the screen.
Default Skin	Select a skin that controls what the device looks like when displayed in the emulator. Remember that specifying a screen size that’s too big for the resolution can mean that the screen is cut off, so you can’t see the whole screen. See Create an emulator skin for more information.

AVD properties

You can specify the following properties for AVD configurations in the Verify Configuration page. The AVD configuration specifies the interaction between the development computer and the emulator, as well as properties you want to override in the hardware profile.

AVD configuration properties override hardware profile properties. Emulator properties that you set while the emulator is running override them both.

Select one option for the initial emulator orientation:

• Portrait — Oriented taller than wide.
• Landscape — Oriented wider than tall.

An option is enabled only if it’s selected in the hardware profile. When running the AVD in the emulator, you can change the orientation if both portrait and landscape are supported in the hardware profile.

To enable a camera, select one or both options:

• Front — The lens faces away from the user.
• Back — The lens faces toward the user.

The Emulated setting produces a software-generated image, while the Webcam setting uses your development computer webcam to take a picture.

This option is available only if it’s selected in the hardware profile; it’s not available for Wear OS and Android TV.

Select a network protocol to determine the speed of data transfer:

• GSM — Global System for Mobile Communications
• HSCSD — High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data
• GPRS — Generic Packet Radio Service
• EDGE — Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution
• UMTS — Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
• HSDPA — High-Speed Downlink Packet Access
• LTE — Long-Term Evolution
• Full (default) — Transfer data as quickly as your computer allows.

Select how graphics are rendered in the emulator:

• Hardware — Use your computer graphics card for faster rendering.
• Software — Emulate the graphics in software, which is useful if you’re having a problem with rendering in your graphics card.
• Automatic — Let the emulator decide the best option based on your graphics card.

AVD Property	Description
AVD Name	Name of the AVD. The name can contain uppercase or lowercase letters, numbers from 0 to 9, periods (.), underscores (_), parentheses ( () ), dashes (-), and spaces. The name of the file storing the AVD configuration is derived from the AVD name.
AVD ID (Advanced)	The AVD filename is derived from the ID, and you can use the ID to refer to the AVD from the command line.
Hardware Profile	Click Change to select a different hardware profile in the Select Hardware page.
System Image	Click Change to select a different system image in the System Image page. An active internet connection is required to download a new image.
Startup Orientation
Network: Latency (Advanced)	Select a network protocol to set how much time (delay) it takes for the protocol to transfer a data packet from one point to another point.
Emulated Performance: Graphics
Emulated Performance: Boot option (Advanced)	Cold boot — Start the device each time by powering up from the device-off state. Quick boot — Start the device by loading the device state from a saved snapshot. For details, see Run the emulator with Quick Boot.
Emulated Performance: Multi-Core CPU (Advanced)	Select the number of processor cores on your computer that you’d like to use for the emulator. Using more processor cores speeds up the emulator.
Memory and Storage: RAM	The amount of RAM on the device. This value is set by the hardware manufacturer, but you can override it, if needed, such as for faster emulator operation. Increasing the size uses more resources on your computer. Type a RAM size and select the units, one of B (byte), KB (kilobyte), MB (megabyte), GB (gigabyte), or TB (terabyte).
Memory and Storage: VM Heap	The VM heap size. This value is set by the hardware manufacturer, but you can override it, if needed. Type a heap size and select the units, one of B (byte), KB (kilobyte), MB (megabyte), GB (gigabyte), or TB (terabyte). For more information on Android VMs, see Memory Management for Different Virtual Machines.
Memory and Storage: Internal Storage	The amount of nonremovable memory space available on the device. This value is set by the hardware manufacturer, but you can override it, if needed. Type a size and select the units, one of B (byte), KB (kilobyte), MB (megabyte), GB (gigabyte), or TB (terabyte).
Memory and Storage: SD Card	The amount of removable memory space available to store data on the device. To use a virtual SD card managed by Android Studio, select Studio-managed, type a size, and select the units, one of B (byte), KB (kilobyte), MB (megabyte), GB (gigabyte), or TB (terabyte). A minimum of 100 MB is recommended to use the camera. To manage the space in a file, select External file and click . to specify the file and location. For more information, see mksdcard and AVD data directory.
Device Frame: Enable Device Frame	Select to enable a frame around the emulator window that mimics the look of a real device.
Custom Skin Definition (Advanced)	Select a skin that controls what the device looks like when displayed in the emulator. Remember that specifying a screen size that’s too big for the skin can mean that the screen is cut off, so you can’t see the whole screen. See Create an emulator skin for more information.
Keyboard: Enable Keyboard Input (Advanced)	Select this option if you want to use your hardware keyboard to interact with the emulator. It’s disabled for Wear OS and Android TV.

Create an emulator skin

An Android emulator skin is a collection of files that define the visual and control elements of an emulator display. If the skin definitions available in the AVD settings don’t meet your requirements, you can create your own custom skin definition, and then apply it to your AVD.

Each emulator skin contains:

• A hardware.ini file
• Layout files for supported orientations (landscape, portrait) and physical configuration
• Image files for display elements, such as background, keys and buttons

To create and use a custom skin:

1. Create a new directory where you will save your skin configuration files.
2. Define the visual appearance of the skin in a text file named layout . This file defines many characteristics of the skin, such as the size and image assets for specific buttons. For example:

Add the bitmap files of the device images in the same directory.

Specify additional hardware-specific device configurations in a hardware.ini file for the device settings, such as hw.keyboard and hw.lcd.density .

Archive the files in the skin folder and select the archive file as a custom skin.

For more detailed information about creating emulator skins, see the Android Emulator Skin File Specification in the tools source code.

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