Take the APK you want to install (be it Google’s app package or something else) and drop the file into the tools folder in your SDK directory. Since there’s no Play Store, you need to do some file management. Once you’ve booted your virtual device, you’ll need to get apps installed, but the emulator is the bone stock open source version of Android - no Google apps included. Google has some pre-configured emulation options available in the menu for Nexus/Pixel devices, but you can set the parameters manually, too. You’ll need to grab the installer from Google’s site (Opens in a new window) and run through the setup process to download the platforms you want - probably whatever the most recent version of Android happens to be at the time (7.1 at the time of publishing). This is a developer-oriented approach, so the setup process is a bit complicated. The emulator can be used to create virtual devices running any version of Android you want with different resolutions and hardware configurations.

One popular way to get Android apps running on a PC is to go through the Android emulator released by Google as part of the official Android Studio. There are a few different ways to go about it, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Fortunately, with a little leg work, you can run Android apps on a PC. Even in this age of giant phones, you might occasionally want to use those apps on a bigger screen, like the one connected to your Windows PC. Android has grown to become the largest computing platform on Earth, and this has led to a plethora of cool Android apps, some of which aren’t available on iOS or other platforms.

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