Genymotion 2.0 Emulators with Google Play support
Genymotion is an incredibly fast, memory-efficient VM that runs the Android OS in a more accurate manner than even the official emulator. Many Android developers do all their device testing using this emulator especially when Google Play services is concerned. In addition, the official Android emulator is plagued with a lot of bugs (i.e. intermittent network loss) that Genymotion is usually a far more reliable option.
To setup your genymotion emulator sign up and follow the installation guide:
- Sign up for an account on the Genymotion Website
- (Mac or Linux) You must install VirtualBox, a powerful free virtualization software for Genymotion to run.
- Download Genymotion Emulator for your platform.
- Install the Genymotion Emulator
- Windows: Run the MSI installer
- Mac: Open the dmg and drag both apps to Applications directory
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Go to the Genymotion ADB settings and set the path to your SDK directory (i.e. for Mac OSX, the directory is
~/Library/Android/sdk. For Windows, all SDK files should be by default inC:\Documents and Settings\<user>\AppData\Local\Android\sdk) -
Install the Genymotion plugin for Android Studio. Go to Preferences->Plugins, and click Browse repositories. Search for Genymotion and you should find one provided by http://www.genymotion.com.
After restarting, go to Preferences->Genymotion and setup the location of the Genymotion app.
- Run the Genymotion application
- Sign in and add your first virtual device (i.e. Nexus 4 - 4.4.4 - API 19, Nexus 4 - 5.0.0. - API 21).
- You must use an image running 4.3, 4.4.4, or 5.0.0. Other versions may not work.
- Do not start your emulator yet!
- From within Android Studio, click the genymobile icon
and click "Start" on your virtual device.
and click "Start" on your virtual device.- You can start the emulator through the Android Studio plugin, or can launch the Genymotion application separately.
- Wait for device to boot up into a useable state
Note: On Ubuntu/Linux, make sure to 3D acceleration mode by launching VirtualBox and going to Settings -> Display to fix. VirtualBox appears to prone to memory leaks, so you may find yourself killing the process from time to time. To avoid large CPU consumption by the compiz window manager and swapping in general, try increasing the video memory allocation and Base Memory (found in Settings -> System).
Note: Are you getting an error when starting the emulator? Error Failed to load VMMR0.r0? Follow the advice here. In short, go to virtual box page and download and install VirtualBox 4.3.6 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack.
Note: If you get Failed to load OVI error when re-adding the emulator, you need to use a new name for the same device. For example, "Nexus 4 - 4.4.4 - API 19" might be called "Nexus 4 - 4.4.4 - API 19 New".
- The Google Play APK package needed is specific to the Android emulator version. You must use the corresponding Google Play Service package. Otherwise, you may notice problems with Google Play not having Internet connectivity or other strange issues.
| Version | APK Link |
|---|---|
| Android 5.0 | Google Play Services APK - requires Genymotion 2.4.0+ |
| Android 4.4.4 | Google Play Services APK |
| Android 4.3 | Google Play Services APK |
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Drag and drop the zip file onto the running Genymotion emulator device
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You must close and restart the emulator so that Google Play Store can be installed.
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After restart, open the "Play Store" app on your emulator and sign in with a google account.
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Android 5.0.0 only: If you are using Android 5.0.0, you will be prompted to update to the latest version of Google+ app. In addition, make sure to upgrade to at least Genymotion 2.4.0 (there appears to be issues with Genymotion 2.3.1).
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Make sure to update to the latest version of Google Play Services.
Next, if you don't have the emulator started yet, be sure to boot the genymotion emulator from within the Android Studio plugin:
Now we need to enable the GPS location on the emulator by manually selecting a location on the map:
