Changes

'''Android''' is a mobile operating system (OS) based on the Linux kernel and currently developed by Google. Unlike iPhone, as well as older cell-phone models and older Japanese Galapagos mobile phones, emulating Android software on PC is more developed, though no open source emulator with a high degree of game compatibility exists yet.

|style="text-align:center;"|[[BlueStacks]]

|style="text-align:center;"|Windows, Mac

|style="text-align:center;"|✓

|style="text-align:center;"|Mid

|style="text-align:center;"|✓

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|style="text-align:center;"|Windows, Mac

|style="text-align:center;"|✓

|style="text-align:center;"|High

|style="text-align:center;"|✓

|-

|style="text-align:center;"|✗

|style="text-align:center;"|?

|style="text-align:center;"|✗

|-

|style="text-align:center;"|✓

|style="text-align:center;"|VirtualBox

|style="text-align:center;"|✓

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|style="text-align:center;"|Mid

|style="text-align:center;"|?

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|style="text-align:center;"|[[Shashlik]]

|style="text-align:center;"|✗

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|style="text-align:center;"|Windows 10 Mobile

|style="text-align:center;"|Discontinued

|style="text-align:center;"|✗

|}

* '''Genymotion''' is an Android emulator with hardware-accelerated 3D graphics and USB host support, available for Windows, Mac and Linux. In its latest versions, it has pretty good compatibility with commercial games. It's a commercial product though, aimed at software developers and QA teams. You'll need to create an account and download the free non-commercial use license available. Except for pay-to-remove "free for personal use" watermark on the screen, paid builds add features only useful for Android app developers.

**Setting up the emulator itself is not too hard, but a bit of tinkering is required to add the Google Play store and [http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2528952 ARM processor emulation] (what you need essentially here to play the commercial releases) as well as [https://groups.google.com/d/msg/genymotion-users/JpO8HR39PR0/NpSkrnsB8d8J Xbox 360 controller support]. Not noob-friendly, but if you're experienced enough with Android to know your way around a rooted filesystem it shouldn't be too hard.

* '''andyroid''' works too, though the company behind it did adware before previously.

* '''Android x86''' is a open-source project that aims to port Android operating system to x86-based netbooks. While it can be run on virtual machines like VirtualBox, it does not have 3D graphics emulation and cannot run most games. Genymotion is (or at least used to be) a closed-source fork of Android x86, designed exclusively to be run on VirtualBox.

* '''Xamarin Android Player''' was a newcomer to the Android emulation market. Not much is known about this because it required a minimum of $25/month subscription of 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.

* '''Project Astoria''' was a Microsoft-developed Android emulator for Windows 10 Mobile included in several insider previews. It could run [https://www.reddit.com/r/windowsphone/comments/3gaoct/android_apps_that_work_on_win10_right_now/ a few applicaions], though apps required Google Play Services did not run or had issues. This project was reportedly [http://www.windowscentral.com/microsofts-project-astoria-delayed discontinued] in November 2015 and [http://www.winbeta.org/news/microsoft-confirms-the-death-of-project-astoria-focusing-on-other-bridges-instead its cancellation was confirmed] on February 2016, so the emulator is not included in more recent versions of Windows 10 Mobile.

===Lack of Release Notes and Update History information===

While some emulators such as Genymotion do have version history on their website, most other emulators do not have such history pages, making it difficult to track updates as well as regressions.

Many commercial games refuse to run if the device is "rooted" (hacked to allow access to deep portion of Android OS) in order to reduce cheating and pirating. If the emulator is rooted by default, it must be unrooted manually before the game can be played.

==See also==