Install android emulator mac

How to Install, Setup and Use Android Emulator for Mac, Linux and Windows without installing Android Studio

Jan 12, 2019 · 5 min read

— And save yourself a lot of space!

So let me ask you first —

How many of you have installed Android Studio only to use the emulator for your native app? Oh, and don’t forget the way your system struggles when you try to run it!

And no, I’m not just talking about any average system — even my Macbook Pro with 8GB of RAM makes a lot of noise!

A lot of you might have also c ome across alternatives like Genymotion , Nox , BlueStacks and a lot others. Some are free, while a lot others with really nice features and performance are paid.

So most of us stick to the free ones or end up downloading Android Studio for the really good and easy to use emulator it provides.

But it gets worse when you already have Visual Studio Code , a few tabs on Google Chrome and your music player running!

Okay enough with the memes, let’s quickly set up Android Studio’s emulator in a better way this time — without actually installing Android Studio! ✊

Step 1: Install Java Development Kit 8.

First you’ll need to install JDK 8. Windows and linux users can directly visit the link and download it after accepting the license.

For Mac users, I recommend installing via Homebrew :

Windows and Linux users should make sure that they have set-up path to their Java installation.

Step 2: Install Android SDK.

Once we have installed and set-up Java in our system, we will need to install Android SDK.

Windows and linux users can download the command line tools here.

Mac users can install it by running:

Note for Mac users: If you run into an error like this while installing android SDK :

Then you simply need to run the below command and try installing android-sdk again :

After installing, make sure you have added android-sdk to your system path.

For Mac and Linux users, you need to add the following line to your .bashrc or .zshrc :

Important note for the next two steps:

Incase your system complains about not being able to find the command while trying to issue the next set of commands involving sdkmanager , avdmanager or emulator — you can navigate to the directory where it is present inside the android-sdk folder and run them as ./sdkmanager , ./avdmanager and ./emulator respectively.

For those of you who are feeling lazy to find it yourself :

sdkmanager and avdmanager will be located inside android-sdk/tools/bin whereas emulator can be found inside android-sdk/tools.

Now that we know this, let’s continue towards a better development experience!

Step 3: Install platform and build tools required for React Native.

Now we can go ahead and set-up platform and build tools to help us in creating and running our virtual device in android emulator.

To do this, open your terminal and run the following command :

Once we have downloaded the above packages, run the following command to list all the tools available :

This will fetch the complete list of the available packages on remote that you can download to your system. You can download packages from the list by running :

Note: sdk-path is the string in the leftmost column of the generated list. And it must be wrapped in quotes while running the above command. For example, let’s say we want to create a virtual device which requires Google APIs Intel x86 Atom System Image package, we can install the package by running :

You can download the packages that you need from the list and if you look closely, you’ll find android emulator package there too! But don’t worry I won’t make you go through the long list in your terminal, here’s the command you need to run in order to download the android emulator package :

That’s it! We’ve downloaded the android emulator and we’re ready to set-up our Android virtual device!

Step 4: Create a new virtual device.

Let’s create an android virtual device with the help of Google APIs Intel x86 Atom System Image we downloaded through the previous command, which was :

Now to create a virtual device, run the following command :

This will create a virtual device named myTestDevice using the Intel x86 Atom system image we downloaded .

To check if your device was created, you can run :

This will list all the virtual devices present in your system.

If you followed all the instructions properly, you can see your device listed as well and you must be able to start your virtual device by running :

And now your android emulator will start with the device you just created! But this time in a better way just like you always deserved — without wasting your precious storage space! 🎉

And don’t forget to leave a few claps if you liked this post or share it with someone who might need this! 😄

Don’t forget, you can leave upto 50 claps!! 👏👏

Happy Hacking! Cheers!

Do you have any queries or suggestions? Did you run into some problem while installing or setting up? Leave your comment on the post and I’d love to help you out!

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4 of the Best Android Emulators For Mac

Are you a diehard Mac fan with a yearning to play some Android games or test out an Android-only app? With Android emulators, you don’t have to choose between macOS and Android. By installing an emulator on your Mac, you can run all the latest Android games and Android-exclusives on macOS. Emulators can also be useful if you’re building your own mobile app and want to test the user experience on Android.

Here are some of the best Android emulators for Mac.

1. Bluestacks

Bluestacks is one of the most popular Android emulators for Windows and is probably the best Android emulator for macOS, as well. This emulator is built primarily for mobile gamers and claims to provide a “PC-like” gaming experience for your mobile apps.

Bluestacks has full support for the keyboard and mouse and comes with a set of recommended preset controls that are also fully customizable. If you do create custom controls, Bluestacks lets you export these settings so that you can easily share them with your fellow gamers.

When you launch Bluestacks for the first time, you’ll need to perform some initial configuration exactly as though you’re booting a new Android smartphone or tablet.

As part of this process, you’ll be prompted to sign in to your Google account. This allows you to download mobile games via the Google Play store. After entering this information, you should see the familiar Android homescreen with Google Play already installed.

You can now launch Google Play, find the app you want to run, and download it as normal.

After downloading your app, you can launch it and enjoy your favorite mobile game on macOS.

2. Genymotion

If you’re looking to test your latest Android project, Genymotion is worth a look. This Android virtual machine is targeted at software developers, so it has everything you need to test your app across a wide range of emulated Android smartphones and tablets.

You can run Genymotion as a local app or in the cloud. If you opt to run Genymotion on your Desktop, you can download it from the Genymotion website. Genymotion Desktop is free for personal use, although several paid licenses are available.

In addition, Genymotion offers a cloud-based virtual emulator service. Genymotion Cloud enables you to perform mass testing by spawning multiple virtual machines and running them in parallel. This can significantly reduce the time it takes to test your app, although depending on your plan, you may be charged for each virtual device you create.

3. Android Studio

Unlike the other emulators on this list, Android Studio is created by Google. This Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is aimed firmly at Android developers and has everything you need to design and build your own Android applications.

Using Android Studio, you can create an Android Virtual Device (AVD) that has the hardware and software configuration required to test your app.

You can then run this AVD on Android Studio’s emulator and see how your app handles this unique configuration.

Rinse and repeat to test your project across dozens or even hundreds of emulated Android devices.

With so many features, Android Studio isn’t the best choice for someone just looking to run a few mobile games on their Mac. However, if you’re an app developer, Android Studio is pretty much a must-have tool and is considered the official development for Android.

If you do use Android Studio, it’s worth noting that the Android emulator has a reputation for being slow. Features such as Instant Run have reduced the time it takes Android Studio to deploy your app, but you may still want to do some research into ways to speed up the Android emulator.

4. ARChon Runtime for Chrome

ARChon Runtime for Chrome is a unique project that lets you run Android applications inside the Chrome web browser.

This project uses the App Runtime for Chrome (ARC), which enables Android applications to run on Chrome OS. This means Android developers don’t have to completely rebuild their apps for Chrome OS.

Although ARChon Runtime for Chrome is technically a runtime rather than an emulator, it does make it possible to run Android apps on macOS. However, it should be noted that this is an experimental project. Depending on the Android application you’re trying to run, you may get unpredictable results.

When getting started with ARChon, it may help to download your applications from one of the Chrome APK’s subreddits. These subreddits are dedicated to finding and sharing apps that are compatible with this specific runtime.

This isn’t a straightforward, download-and-use solution, such as Android Studio or Bluestacks. However, if you enjoy tinkering with your tech, you may enjoy exploring the ARChon Runtime.

Wrapping Up

The above are some of the best Android emulators for Mac, though not everyone of them will be suitable for you. If you’re just looking to enjoy some Android games on your Mac, you probably won’t want to pay for Genymotion Cloud. If you want to test your application across multiple emulated devices, you’ll need an emulator that’s targeted firmly at developers, such as Android Studio.

Meanwhile, do also check out the best Android emulators for Linux if you are a Linux user.

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Jessica Thornsby is a technical writer based in Derbyshire, UK. When she isn’t obsessing over all things tech, she enjoys researching her family tree, and spending far too much time with her house rabbits.

One comment

Hi having a problem with old mac running el capitan , trying to find a android emulator .
Stacks will not run on this version of os Help please Barry

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