Android emulators: Difference between revisions

However, the Linux kernel is flexible enough that it can be emulated well, unlike iOS, older cell phone models, and older Japanese Galapagos mobile phones. While Android natively supports mice<ref group="lower-alpha">If you have an Android device, you can confirm this by connecting a Bluetooth or USB mouse via a USB adapter.</ref>, most apps expect users to have a touchscreen, so Android emulators will usually default to emulating touchscreen presses like [[Nintendo DS emulators|DS emulation]] (though it can be less than ideal in many cases). The host's keyboard may often emulate the button controller add-ons, and some emulators support [[Xbox 360 emulators|Xbox 360]] controllers with some more tweaks.

<references group="lower-alpha"/>

|+Before editing, review the [[Getting involved]] and [[Recommended emulators|Recommended]] pages. See [[Computer_specifications#Recommended_Specifications|system requirements]] page for performance demand of the emulators.<br>See tables for <span style="font-weight: bold; color: #CC0000; border: 1px solid #CC0000; padding: 2px;">[[#Enhancements|enhancements]], [[#Hardware_features|hardware features]], and [[#Android_consoles|Android consoles]]. Also see [[PlayStation Mobile]].</span><br>For more details such as [[licensing]], [[Source_code#Language_levels|programming language]], [[High_and_low-level_emulation|emulation method]], visit each emulator’s dedicated page.

! colspan="7" |PC

| align="left" |{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS}}

|[https://www.genymotion.com/download/ {{GenymotionVer}}]||{{Ya}}||{{Red}} {{License|Proprietary}}  

|?||{{~}}

| align="left" |{{Icon|Windows}}

|[https://play.google.com/googleplaygames#section-system-requirements Beta]<br>[https://developer.android.com/games/playgames/emulator Developer]||{{Ya}}||{{Red}} {{License|Proprietary}}

|<small>[https://play.google.com/googleplaygames/exploregames Only for selected titles] (Beta build)<br>? (Developer build)</small>||{{~}}

|[https://trinityemulator.github.io/ Trinity]

|[https://github.com/TrinityEmulator/TrinityEmulator/releases git]||{{~}}||{{Green}} {{License|GPLv2}} ({{License|Copyleft}})

|?||{{~}}

| align="left" |{{Icon|Linux|LinuxARM}}

|[https://waydro.id/#install git]<br>[https://github.com/casualsnek/waydroid_script Extras script]||{{Ya}}||{{Green}} {{License|GPLv3}} ({{License|Copyleft}})  

| align="left" |{{Icon|Windows}}

|{{Emulator compatibility|link=https://github.com/riverar/wsa-app-compatibility#support-tables|368|558}}||{{~}}

|[[Anbox]]

|align=left|{{Icon|Linux|LinuxARM}}

|[https://docs.anbox.io/userguide/install.html git]||{{Na}}||{{Green}} {{License|GPLv3}} ({{License|Copyleft}})  

|?||{{Na}}

|Andy OS

| align="left" |{{Icon|Windows|macOS}}

|[https://andyroid.net/ 0.47.226.1096.26]||{{Ya}}||{{Red}} {{License|Proprietary}}  

|?||{{Na}}<ref group="lower-alpha" name=Bloatware></ref>

|ARC Welder<br><small>(Google Chrome)</small>

| align="left" |{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS|Web}}

|[https://developer.chrome.com/apps/getstarted_arc ARC 50.5021.602.0]||{{Na}}||{{Red}} {{License|Proprietary}}  

|?||{{Na}}

|ARChon<br><small>(Google Chrome)</small>

| align="left" |{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS|Web}}

|[https://archon-runtime.github.io/ ARC 41.4410.238.0]||{{Na}}||{{Red}} {{License|SA}}  

|?||{{Na}}

| align="left" |{{Icon|Windows|macOS}}

|[https://support.bluestacks.com/hc/en-us/sections/360012290292-Release-Notes {{BlueStacksVer}}]||{{Ya}}||{{Red}} {{License|Proprietary}}

|[https://support.bluestacks.com/hc/en-us/articles/4413818315789-Games-playable-on-different-Android-versions-on-BlueStacks-5 ?]||{{Na}}<ref group="lower-alpha" name=Bloatware>These emulators are closed-source, and while they're distributed for free, their devs look for roundabout ways to monetize them. '''Since these emulators closed-source and comes with adware and bloatware applications, it's important to research the developers background before using them to ensure their trustworthiness and avoid potential privacy risks before using them'''. MuMu, LDPlayer, NoxPlayer and MEmu developed by the various Chinese software companies and BlueStacks App Player developed by American technology company called "[https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4928776 BlueStacks]". Despite data security regulations existing in various regions (e.g., [[Wikipedia:General_Data_Protection_Regulation|GDPR]] in the "EU", [[Wikipedia:California_Consumer_Privacy_Act|CCPA]] in "California", and [[Wikipedia:Cybersecurity_Law_of_the_People's_Republic_of_China|Cybersecurity Law]] in "PRC"), concerns regarding government surveillance remain significant. Therefore, we recommend exercising caution when relying on closed-source software developed within such jurisdictions. Make sure to check if there are pre-installed '''extra''' apps comes with these emulators and disable or uninstall them (e.g. BlueStacks X, BlueStacks Services etc.), monitor your internet traffic and processor activity to detect any abnormal activity and block domains accordingly if the need arises or use tools like '[https://github.com/henrypp/simplewall simplewall]'. Also avoid giving sensitive account data as much as is possible due to potential security reasons. Besides basic safety, these precautions often make impacted emulators run faster and more responsive when the adware services and apps are turned off.</ref>

|Droid4X

| align="left" |{{Icon|Windows|macOS}}

|[https://droid4x.cc/ 0.10.7]||{{Na}}||{{Red}} {{License|Proprietary}}  

|?||{{Na}}

|KoPlayer

| align="left" |{{Icon|Windows}}

|[https://koplayerpc.com/ 2.0.0]||{{Na}}||{{Red}} {{License|Proprietary}}  

|?||{{Na}}

|LDPlayer<ref group="lower-alpha">LDShop and LDPlayer's cloud backend suffered a major data breach exposing user screens and payment sessions, while the bundled Sogou keyboard has been flagged for telemetry that logs plaintext keystrokes. ([https://x.com/nte_wl/status/2054627592054153273 see tweet)]</ref>

| align="left" |{{Icon|Windows}}

|[https://en.ldplayer.net/ 4.0.50.3]||{{Ya}}||{{Red}} {{License|Proprietary}}  

|?||{{Na}}<ref group="lower-alpha" name=Bloatware></ref>

| align="left" |{{Icon|Windows}}

|[https://www.memuplay.com/ {{MEmuVer}}]||{{Ya}}||{{Red}} {{License|Proprietary}}  

|?||{{Na}}<ref group="lower-alpha" name=Bloatware></ref>

|MuMu

| align="left" |{{Icon|Windows|macOS}}

|[https://mumu.163.com/global/download/en/index.html 1.1.0.2]<br><small>[https://mumu.163.com 1.1.0.5 (v2.3.17) (Chinese Ver)]</small>||{{Ya}}||{{Red}} {{License|Proprietary}}  

|?||{{Na}}<ref group="lower-alpha" name=Bloatware></ref>

|NoxPlayer

| align="left" |{{Icon|Windows}}

|[https://www.bignox.com 7.0.2.7]||{{Ya}}||{{Red}} {{License|Proprietary}}  

|?||{{Na}}<ref group="lower-alpha" name=Bloatware></ref>

|[http://www.leapdroid.com/ 1.8.0]||{{Na}}||{{Red}} {{License|Proprietary}}  

|?||{{Na}}

|[http://web.archive.org/web/20191120002207/http://www.peakplayer.net/index.php/en/peakplayeren/ 1.2.5 Beta 2]||{{Na}}||{{Red}} {{License|Proprietary}}  

|?||{{Na}}

|[http://www.shashlik.io/ 0.9.3]||{{Na}}||{{Dunno}}  

|?||{{Na}}

|[http://web.archive.org/web/20190820044528/https://www.smartgaga.com/ 1.1.646]||{{Na}}||{{Red}} {{License|Proprietary}}  

|?||{{Na}}

|[https://sourceforge.net/projects/windroy/ 4.0.3]||{{Na}}||{{Red}} {{License|Proprietary}}  

|?||{{Na}}

|2.9.1||{{Na}}||{{Red}} {{License|Proprietary}}  

|?||{{Na}}

|[https://github.com/xamarin/release-notes-archive/blob/master/release-notes/android/android-player/index.md 0.6.5]||{{Na}}||{{Red}} {{License|Proprietary}}  

|?||{{Na}}

|[http://xeplayer.com/ 6.0.10]||{{Na}}||{{Red}} {{License|Proprietary}}  

|?||{{Na}}

|[https://youwave.com/ 5.11]||{{Na}}||{{Red}} {{License|Proprietary}}  

|?||{{Na}}

| ||{{TBD}}||{{TBD}}  

||[https://steamdb.info/app/3043620/info/ ?]||{{TBD}}

! colspan="7" |Mobile

| align="left" |{{Icon|Win10Phone}}

|Discontinued ($)||{{Na}}||{{Red}} {{License|Proprietary}}  

|?||{{Na}}

! colspan="7" |PC

|[https://archive.ubuntukylin.com/ubuntukylin/pool/partner/kmre_2.4.6.8+22.04_amd64.deb 2.4.6.8]||{{Dunno}} ||{{Dunno}}||{{Dunno}} ||{{Na}}

<references group="lower-alpha" />

::A newcomer to the Android emulation market. Not much is known about this because it required a minimum $25/month subscription to main Xamarin products. The main Xamarin products were [https://blog.xamarin.com/xamarin-for-all made available for free] after the purchase by Microsoft, but Xamarin Android Player was discontinued, as its technology was later incorporated into Visual Studio for Android app development.

::KMRE is a compatibility layer and The official solution to run Android applications on computers with Chinese homegrown Phytium/KunPeng ARM processors and NeoKylin Linux operating system, though later also available on x86-64 on [https://www.ubuntukylin.com/index-en.html Ubuntu Kylin]. KMRE is not designed with third-party applications outside its app store and in fact, force installing third-party apps breaks older versions of KMRE. It's an somewhat reasonable solution if you are restricted to working with these kinds of computers due to national security reasons.

! colspan=2 | Name

| {{Dunno}}||{{Dunno}}

| {{Dunno}}||{{Dunno}}

| {{~}}<br><small>Android Studio emulator [https://developer.android.com/studio/run/managing-avds#skins supports lots of device frame and custom skin] (similarly to libretro overlay/bezels). You can get additional skins from various sources (e.g. [https://github.com/mingchen/android-emulator-skins mingchen's Android Emulator Skins], [https://sourceforge.net/projects/android-emulator-skins/files/ CREAL's AVD skins]), also you can use buttons on these device frames.</small>||{{~}}<br><small>Similarly to Android Studio, it has device skin capability for better immersion but it's exclusive to users with license registration.</small>

| {{Na}}||{{Na}}

| {{Na}}||{{Na}}

| {{Dunno}}||{{Dunno}}

| {{Dunno}}||{{Dunno}}

| Built-in on-screen control<br><small>Simulating touch input on display via keyboard or gamepad. This QoL enhancement is crucial for lots of touch input exclusive games.<br>Also you can use third-party apps such as [https://github.com/Shyri/TouchMapper TouchMapper] for this.</small>

| {{Dunno}}||{{Dunno}}

| {{Dunno|link=https://old.reddit.com/r/WSA/comments/z62m2v/how_do_i_remap_key_to_screen_presses_for_gaming/}}

| [[Hypervisors|Built-in, self-contained or integrated virtualization engine]]<br><small>Emulators that employ a self-contained hypervisor are a distinct class of virtualization solutions that integrate their own layer directly into the application package similarly to [[Computer_specifications#Recommended_Specifications|static linking]]. Unlike emulators that rely on third-party or host operating system (OS) features (Microsoft Hyper-V/WHPX, KVM or Intel's HAXM), these solutions are designed to be functionally independent of the host OS's virtualization stack. On Windows, this is typically achieved for Android emulation by installing a proprietary, kernel-level driver that acts as a hypervisor to manage the virtual machine, bypassing the need for pre-existing host OS'es virtualization stack/feature. This shouldn't be confused with hardware-assisted virtualization (VT-x/AMD-V).</small>

| {{Na}}<br><small>Android Studio has Android emulator, which is [https://developer.android.com/studio/intro/update#recommended QEMU]-based device-emulation tool. Supports [https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator-acceleration#vm-windows-aehd AEHD] driver (although its deprecated?), OR [https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator-acceleration#choose-windows-hypervisor WHPX for Windows] and [https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator-acceleration#vm-linux KVM for Linux] for hardware acceleration.</small>||{{Na}}<br><small>It has built-in QEMU version which asks for Hyper-V ([https://docs.genymotion.com/desktop/Get_started/011_Windows_install/#hypervisor on Windows]) (it's currently in beta), otherwise you need to use "with VirtualBox" builds.</small>

| {{Na}}<br><small><br><small>It's uses [https://github.com/TrinityEmulator/TrinityEmulator#4-code-organization QEMU 5.0] and asks for Hyper-V or obsolete HAXM for hardware acceleration.</small>

| {{Na}}<br><small>''Hyper-V-dependent''</small>

| File sharing<br><small>Similar to "Shared Folder" enhancement for [[Hypervisors#Type_2_hypervisors|Type-2 hypervisors]].</small>

| {{Dunno}}||{{Dunno}}

| {{Na|link=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KEaPQpfzkQ&t=422}}

| On-screen display<br><small>Showcases messages, controller input state which is useful for speedrunners, performance data, active settings, and various notifications.</small>

|Pause/Resume emulation

| {{Na}}||{{Na}}

| {{Na}}||{{Na}}

|Fast forward/Turbo speed

| {{Na}}||{{Na}}

| {{Na}}||{{Na}}

| rowspan="6" |Misc.

| {{Ya}}||{{Dunno}}

| {{Ya|link=https://developer.android.com/games/playgames/pg-emulator}}

| colspan="7" |Exclusive to [https://www.emuvr.net/wiki/Installation_Guide#Downloads libretro cores] at the moment. So there is no support.

| {{Na}}||{{Na}}

|Rich Presence (RPC)<br><small>Allows the emulator to share real-time game session details (e.g., current game title, level, boss, playtime, or custom status) with external applications. This enables features such as displaying what you're playing on your profile, inviting friends to spectate, or triggering join-in-progress functionality where supported.</small>

| [[Wikipedia:Variable_refresh_rate|Variable refresh rate]]

<references group="lower-alpha"/>

! colspan=2 | Name

!ARCVM

! [https://docs.genymotion.com/desktop/04_Emulating_sensors_and_features/ Genymotion]

| colspan="2" | [https://developer.android.com/training/monitoring-device-state/battery-monitoring Battery]<br><small>The Battery simulation allows you to test how your application reacts with different battery charge levels and states of charge.</small>

|{{Ya|link=https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22604305/how-to-use-android-emulator-for-testing-bluetooth-application}}||{{Na}}

|{{Na|link=https://xdaforums.com/t/looking-wsa-for-windows-11-where-bluetooth-also-works.4610551/post-88829045}}

| colspan="2" | [https://developer.android.com/media/camera/camerax Camera] and media input injection<br><small>With this, you can select your host webcams, microphones, videos, images or audio files as the device camera and audio input source.</small>

| colspan="2" | Disk I/O<br><small>Similarly to [[PC_emulator_comparisons#Storage|disk storage emulation on PC emulators]], this allows you to emulate devices with slow internal storage.</small>

|{{Dunno}}

|{{Dunno}}||{{Ya|link=https://docs.genymotion.com/desktop/04_Emulating_sensors_and_features/#disk-io}}

| colspan="2" | [https://developer.android.com/games/optimize/adpf/gamemode/about-API-and-interventions Game Mode]

| colspan="2" | [https://developer.android.com/develop/ui/views/touch-and-input/keyboard-input Keyboard]

|{{Dunno}}

| colspan="2" | [https://developer.android.com/reference/android/location/Location Location]

| colspan="2" |Microphone||{{Dunno}}

| colspan="2" | [https://developer.android.com/jetpack/compose/touch-input/pointer-input/multi-touch Multi-touch]

|{{Dunno}}

|{{Dunno}}||{{Ya|link=https://docs.genymotion.com/desktop/03_Virtual_devices/#touchscreen}}

|{{Dunno|link=https://support.google.com/googleplay/thread/249633800/lack-of-multi-touch-support-on-play-games-beta?hl=en}}

|{{Dunno}}

| colspan="2" |Navigation buttons||{{Dunno}}

|{{Ya|link=https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/android/wsa/release-notes#build-220440000190}}

| colspan="2" |Power button||{{Dunno}}

| colspan="2" |Screen rotation||{{Dunno}}

| rowspan="3" |[[List_of_console_games_that_support_motion_controls#Android_Emulation|Sensors]]

|Accelerometer||{{Dunno}}

| {{~}}<br><small>Exclusive to developer builds, {{YouTubeVideoTime|2KEaPQpfzkQ|280|Demonstration}}. To use sideloading in the developer builds, you need to use adb install "AppName.apk" command in the Command Prompt.</small>

|{{Ya}}<br><small>[https://github.com/TrinityEmulator/TrinityEmulator/wiki/Advanced-Usages#adb-connection Use adb to connect] then use adb install command.</small>

| {{~|link=https://github.com/Simizfo/WSATools#requisites}}

|{{Ya}}||{{Ya}}

|{{Dunno}}

|{{Ya|link=https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator-wifi}}||{{Ya}}

| colspan="2" | [[Wikipedia:Android_version_history#Android_7.1_Nougat|7.1 Nougat]] (API 25)<br><small>New JIT Compiler, making for 75 percent faster app installations and a 50 percent reduction in compiled code size.<br>JIT compiler with code profiling to ART, which lets it constantly improve the performance of Android apps as they run.<br>Vulkan 3D rendering API support.</small>

|{{Ya}}||{{Ya}}<ref group="lower-alpha" name="GenymotionOSsupport"></ref>

|{{Ya}}||{{Na}}<ref group="lower-alpha" name="GenymotionOSsupport">[https://support.genymotion.com/hc/en-us/articles/9511224511901-Which-Android-versions-are-available Genymotion: Which Android versions are available?], Since September 2022, Genymotion no longer provide Android 4.4 and below images, see[https://support.genymotion.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002708018-I-can-t-find-Android-4-4-and-below this page].</ref>

|{{Na}}<br><small>It uses android-x86 9.0 64-bit.</small>

|{{Dunno}}

|{{Ya}}<ref group="lower-alpha" name="GooglePlayGamesABI">[https://developer.android.com/games/playgames/start#playbility-architecture Google Play Games ABI Architecture support].</ref>

| colspan="7" |armeabi and MIPS support deprecated in [[Compatibility layer|libndk translation layer]] version r16 and [https://android.googlesource.com/platform/ndk/+/master/docs/Roadmap.md#ndk-r17 removed in r17].<br>But [[Compatibility layer|libhoudini translation layer]] still supports it?

| colspan="2" | [https://developer.android.com/ndk/guides/abis#v7a armeabi-v7a]<br><small>Supporting armeabi-v7a ABI is crucial for emulators due to compatibility and [[Preservation_projects|preservation]] reasons.<br> Older applications and games often rely on the [[Wikipedia:ARM_architecture_family|ARM 32-bit (Cortex)]] architecture, which isn't used in newer hardware.</small>

|{{Ya}}<ref group="lower-alpha" name=GooglePlayGamesABI></ref>

|{{Ya}}<ref group="lower-alpha" name=GooglePlayGamesABI></ref>

| colspan=2 | [https://registry.khronos.org/OpenGL/index_es.php#specs11 OpenGL ES 1.x]<br><small>Supporting OpenGL ES 1.x is crucial for emulators due to compatibility and [[Preservation_projects|preservation]] reasons.</small>

| colspan=2 | [https://registry.khronos.org/OpenGL/index_es.php#specs31 OpenGL ES 3.x]<br><small>The OpenGL ES 3.x APIs is backwards-compatible with the 2.x APIs which is crucial for emulators due to compatibility and [[Preservation_projects|preservation]] reasons.</small>

| colspan=2 | [https://registry.khronos.org/vulkan/#apispecs Vulkan 1.3]<br><small>See [https://developer.android.com/ndk/guides/graphics/android-baseline-profile Android Baseline 2022 profile] and also see [https://source.android.com/docs/core/graphics/implement-vulkan#versions Vulkan API versions for several Android releases].<br>Vulkan releases are backward compatible with each other.

<references group="lower-alpha"/>

|Released in 2017 by Takara Tomy. The NEO Series are educational consoles only sold in Japan and appear to use a custom version of Android. Because it's still being sold, it's unknown how games will be made for it and when it will be discontinued. Information on how many units have been sold so far has not been released to the public.

<references group="lower-alpha" />