- Therefore, if you want to install a third-party app or APK file in your existing virtual machine, here is what you need to do. As Android Studio is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, you can execute this trick on all those platforms. How To Install APK On Emulator In Android Studio.
- For a detailed list on emulators, check out our listing of the best Android emulators for Windows and Mac. How to Install Android 10 Emulator with Android Studio. The following steps will help you setup and install Android 10 emulator. As mentioned earlier, this post implies that you have already installed and set up Android Studio on your.
Android Studio is the ultimate solution for Android app developers. It doesn’t matter whether you want to create an app or you want to test it in various resolution; you can make use of Android Studio to get it done. However, if you are getting started with Android Studio and you do not know how to install APK on emulator in Android Studio, do follow this step by step guide to get it done.
Android emulators for macOS make it possible to run Android apps on a Mac.With this, one can enjoy over 2.8 million apps from the Play Store and elsewhere. There are several Android emulators for Mac, but BlueStacks is one of the best and easiest for general users.
With the help of Android Studio, you can create a virtual device. For example, this is possible to get a Pixel 2 XL look-a-like, Android TV emulator, Android Watch or anything that runs on Android. With the help of such virtual device, you can create and test your application before launching it publicly. This is possible to create many virtual machines and test app on each of them without any problem. Although some people face low RAM issue, you should not find any problem if you have at least 8 GB of RAM.
There are only a few system images that support Google Play. That means if you have installed Android Pie or something on a Pixel 2 XL emulator, there is a very low chance of getting Google Play Store in your virtual device. That said, you cannot download or install any app from the Google Play Store, which is the primary source of Android application.
Therefore, if you want to install a third-party app or APK file in your existing virtual machine, here is what you need to do. As Android Studio is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, you can execute this trick on all those platforms.
How To Install APK On Emulator In Android Studio
The only requirement of this tutorial is you must have the APK file that you want to install. Your system will not fetch the APK file from the internet. There is countless APK download website, and you can use any of them to download your preferred APK file.
After downloading the APK file, you need to paste it in the platform-tools folder. You can find the platform tools folder in the Android Studio installation folder. For example, if you have installed it in the Program Files (x86) folder, the path of platform-tools will be as follows-
On Mac and Linux, the path will be like this-
On Mac, you can go to Desktop >> click the Go button in the status bar >> press and hold the Option button on your keyboard >> click the Library option. Following that, you can go to:
After pasting the APK file, you need to open the Command Prompt (Windows) or Terminal (Mac/Linux) in this folder.
Windows Users:
Open Command Prompt and enter this command:
Mac Users:
There are two different methods to open the Terminal in that folder. First, you can open the Terminal and enter this command-
The second method is quite different. You can assign a keyboard shortcut and use that to open the Terminal in any folder. For that, open the System Preferences window and go to Keyboard. Then switch to the Shortcuts tab and go to the Services section.
Here you can find an option called New Terminal at Folder. Click this option and select a keyboard shortcut that you want to assign.
After that, open the platform-tools folder and use that keyboard shortcut to open the Terminal in that folder.
The Linux users can use the same command as Mac to navigate to the corresponding folder using Terminal.
After opening the Terminal or Command Prompt in the respective folder, you need to enter this following command.
Windows Users:
Mac/Linux Users:
Now you should find the APK file in your virtual device. If you are getting an error message, power on the virtual device and try again.
If you’re here, you love Android apps and you want to have them on your PC as well. Well, you’re in safe hands. I will guide you through every possible option to bring the Android magic to your laptop.
Just hang on for a while… patience is often rewarding!
Soon there will be PCs that will let you choose between Windows OS and Android OS. At least this is what sources at Intel are saying.
But even if this doesn’t happen anytime soon, you can still run Android apps on a computer even without installing a new OS. The trick will be revealed later. You will have to show some patience for rewards.
1) Mobile emulators offer an excellent solution for anyone trying to run Android apps on PC. However, this isn’t the only way to test mobile apps.
2) You can boot your desktop with Android OS without having to install Virtualbox (explained later). In this case, you will install Android operating system alongside Windows. You will be asked to choose whether to start your computer with Windows or Android when booting up.
3) You can install Virtualbox and install Android OS inside it. This method is also explained in detail later in this article.
Continue reading for tutorials and reviews of free emulators.
1. Run Android apps on PC using an emulator
The easiest way to run mobile apps on a laptop these days is to use a free emulator like Bluestacks or Android official emulator.
Android official emulator comes with a full developer toolkit which means you will need to download Android SDK as well as a number of libraries to finally run the emulator.
Moreover, when you want to run the official emulator, you need to start development studio and from there you can start the emulator. That’s a lot of clicks and programs to run.
Free emulators for your laptop
Bluestacks and other standalone emulators are good at what they do. They emulate an Android operating system inside your Windows or Apple.
There are no additional programs and you don’t really need to install anything like SDK. But still, if you are also interested in trying development, you’d be better using the official emulator.
For everyone else, a free standalone emulator is all you need. Some free standalone options are Bluestacks, Genymotion, Andy, and driod4x.
To make it easier for you to pick an emulator, I’ve reviewed all of them based on my personal experience. I’m going to review two top emulators since these are ones I personally use. If you need more, go ahead and dig reviews in forums for other emulators as well.
But I’m fairly sure you will pick one of these two.
My Short Review of Bluestacks Emulator:
Bluestacks is great. Setting it up is ridiculously easy. Installing new games is as simple as doing it on an actual Android phone.
Stability and performance
Although Bluestacks has focus on games mainly, it does fairly well with other apps. With some high-end games that aren’t listed on Bluestacks website, you might face performance issues.
Features and tools
Bluestacks is a great tool when it comes to basic features. It lets you sideload apps and sync app data with mobile. Unfortunately, these are the only two features that you get with this program.
But don’t be disappointed, the next emulator offers better features.
My Review of Andy Emulator
Where Bluestacks lacks, Andy comes in as a free option. It’s a basic emulator with plenty of extra features to keep you interested.
Stability and performance
Andy is actually better compared to Bluestacks when it comes to stability and performance. It plays apps much better compared to Bluestacks. In fact, Andy can play some of the games better than latest smartphones. It’s a clear winner when it comes to performance.
Features and tools
With Andy, you get almost same features as your phone. So expect to have notifications, widgets, and other standard Android features such as sideloading.
You can even install third-party launcher apps when emulating Android using Andy. This emulator is definitely the perfect option for those looking to try something better than Bluestacks.
2. Install Android-x86 on your PC
If you want a more dedicated Android operating system environment than what you get with an emulator, then you need to go this route. Install mobile OS on your PC so you can run your gamses.
Fortunately, it’s easy as you’ll learn later.
There is no official Android OS port for x86 computers but you can still make it work using a community-developed version. This community project has ported Android OS to x86 platform.
Is there an easy way to install this operating system?
Everyone can take this project and install it on their PCs just the way you install Windows.
To get this port for your desktop, find the official website for this project and download the operating system files from there.
A word of advice – don’t install Android OS on your work computer.
It’s a community project and it’s not stable. Install it on a PC that no one uses anymore. This OS can run even on outdated hardware.
For more information how to install Android 86x go here.
3. Install Android OS inside a Virtualbox
If you don’t want to dual boot your machine with Android 86 and Bluestacks isn’t your thing, you’re left with the last option to play your favorite apps on your desktop – that is to run the mobile operating system inside VirualBox.
VirtualBox let you emulate an operating system of your choice within Windows environment.
As I promised earlier, I won’t leave you alone on this treacherous path. Follow instructions below to run Android OS on Virtualbox.
- Download Virtualbox from the official website.
- Once downloaded, double-click the installer file.
- Follow on-screen instructions to complete installation of Virtualbox.
- Now run the program by double-clicking its icon on your desktop.
Now you need to figure out a way to install Android OS in Virtualbox so that you can play all those crazy games and use your favorite Android apps on PC.
Follow instructions below to create an Android virtual environment.
- Click the NEW button on the left top.
- Provide details for your new OS.
- The wizard will ask for virtual Android-86 image. You can download one here.
- On the next screen, you will need to create partitions for your new operating system.
- After creating partitions, select one of them as primary and make it bootable.
- Now exit partitioning utility and reboot your virtual machine.
- Now you should be able to boot up Android in your virtual machine like any other OS.
Android Emulator For Pc
When you are able to run mobile apps on PC, you can play your favorite games on a bigger screen. Imagine playing Traffic Rider on PC.
You will find a number of other console-quality games in Play market that are great fun to play on a bigger screen.