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After googling quite a bit I am unable to find the answer to this question. Is google play store officially support in avd emulators.

I know it was once stopped , then I hear that it was brought back after specific version of android. I am using avd android version 4.4.3 (api 19) google app . I dont see a google play store app there. Am I suppose to expect it? Or is there an official apk for google play store that can be installed on the avd officially?

Utsav Gupta
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10 Answers10

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The Google Play Store is now officially preinstalled the Android Emulator. Make sure you are running the latest version of Android Studio 2.4. In the Android Studio AVD Manager choose a virtual device configuration that has the Google Play store icon next to it, and then select one of the system images that have the label "Google Play". See this release note: https://androidstudio.googleblog.com/2017/04/android-studio-24-preview-4-is-now.html

Android Studio AVD Manager with Google Play Store support

Jamal Eason
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    I appears to be available in 2.3.3 also. But only for two phone images, no tablets yet. I suppose you can choose the phone and then tweak it into a tablet format. My 2.3.3 screen is identical to the one shown here. – Dave Hubbard Sep 14 '17 at 15:37
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    For me avd manager required to pick nexus device to get play store. For instance, Pixel devices did not have option to choose google play system image, but only google apis. – user2576168 Nov 22 '17 at 09:04
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    When I tried this, trying to open the Play Store just got stuck on "Checking Info" screen. Haven't found a workaround yet. – shane Dec 28 '17 at 01:03
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    It didn't work with an existing avd, but it does with a new one as of 6/2018: https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/emulator#google_play_store_on_pixel_device_images – randomor Jun 25 '18 at 22:13
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    Deb's answer helped me most. Without first loading a "Google Play" enabled system image no Google Play enabled AVD could be created. I also noticed that only for a few devices a Googla Play enabled image is available. – Nimral Mar 18 '19 at 08:40
  • it was useful for me, thank you – Alejandro Gonzalez Dec 29 '22 at 13:47
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Easiest way: You should create a new emulator, and before opening it for the first time, follow these easy steps:

  1. Locate the directory where the emulator has been created. For example, in Windows go to: "%userprofile%.android\avd" and open your virtual device folder.

  2. Open file config.ini with a text editor like Notepad.

  3. Locate PlayStore.enabled key and change its value to true:

    PlayStore.enabled = true

  4. Locate image.sysdir.1 entry and change: google_apis => google_apis_playstore. Example:

    image.sysdir.1 = system-images\android-30\google_apis\x86\

    to

    image.sysdir.1 = system-images\android-30\google_apis_playstore\x86\

Smart Manoj
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Sharif Yazdian
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    Currently the best way to have a tablet emulator with Google Play. – Viktor Brešan Apr 29 '21 at 11:38
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    After changing these settings, am I supposed to launch the emulator from the AVD manager? I'm getting an error "The emulator process for AVD ... was killled" – saltandpepper Jun 06 '21 at 18:52
  • As I mentioned; you have to create a "New" emulator, don't open it, and do the changes, then you can open it. – Sharif Yazdian Jun 06 '21 at 20:06
  • Where can I find the file to change ? I have a mac. – Learn2Code Jul 11 '21 at 15:54
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    @Learn2Code open AVD manager, right click device, then select "Show on Disk" – Chris Jul 19 '21 at 11:19
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    You can use an "already used" avd, just click in "wipe data" – Gilian Aug 19 '21 at 17:38
  • thank you @SharifYazdian this worked for me. I was working on a crash that had happened on a Tab and on my emulator the tab does not have google play, I was unable to debug because location services did not work. With this process the emulator now has google play and can access google play services. – Vikas Pandey Feb 07 '22 at 08:44
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    In my case there was no need to create a new AVD, it worked using an existing one. Just in _Settings..._ > _SDK Platforms_ I had to install the corresponding **Google Play ... System Image**. Then I modified the config.ini as mentioned, and _Cold Boot Now_. – Salvador Nov 02 '22 at 17:50
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    Make sure you have the google play store system image downloaded aswell. – Himmet Avsar Nov 11 '22 at 12:10
  • Piggy backing off @HimmetAvsar Its best to go into the settings and fully install the version of the SDK. – Ray Feb 10 '23 at 16:49
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    Thank you. This was it. Wanted to tie together the comments from @saltandpepper and Salvador: If you're getting "The emulator didn't start up" (or some similar error), choose Cold Boot from the device's menu. – Brad Aug 22 '23 at 15:26
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Starting from Android Studio 2.3.2 now you can create an AVD that has Play Store pre-installed on it. Currently, it is supported on the AVD's running

  • A device definition of Nexus 5 or 5X phone, or any Android Wear
  • A system image since Android 7.0 (API 24)

Official Source

For other emulators, you can try the solution mentioned in this answer.

Frank R.
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Prerak Sola
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When creating AVD,

  1. Pick a device with google play icon.

enter image description here

  1. Pick the google play version of the image, of your desired API level.

enter image description here

Now, after creating the AVD, you should see the google play icon .

enter image description here

Lahiru Chandima
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Yes, you can enable/use Play Store on Android Emulator(AVD): Before that you have to set up some prerequisites:

  1. Start Android SDK Manager and select Google Play Intel x86 Atom System Image (Recomended: because it will work comparatively faster) of your required android version (For Example: Android 7.1.1 or API 25)

[Note: Please keep all other thing as it is, if you are going to install it for first time] Or Install as the image below: enter image description here

  1. After download is complete Goto Tools->Manage AVDs...->Create from your Android SDK Manager

  2. enter image description here

Check you have provided following option correctly. Not sure about internal and SD card storage. You can choose different. And Target must be your downloaded android version

  1. Also check Google Play Intel Atom (x86) in CPU/ABI is provided

  2. Click OK

  3. Then Start your Android Emulator. There you will see the Android Play Store. See --- enter image description here

Deb
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    I can neither find *Google Play Intel x86 Atom System Image* in SDK Manager nor *Google Play Intel Atom (x86)* in CPU/ABI section when creating emulator. – Can Poyrazoğlu Jul 09 '18 at 10:43
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    @CanPoyrazoğlu in the right bottom corner there is a switch "Show Package Details" click on it, and you will see it – Palejandro Aug 14 '19 at 11:22
  • thanks this worked, But i noticed that my previous emulator also had the same configurations (Google Play Intel x86 Atom System Image & Android 7.1.1 ). But it didn't have playstore – anandhu Feb 08 '21 at 14:22
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When you create a virtual device from Android Studio pay attention to the Play Store Column in the device table. The images with the play store icon have google play pre-installed.

❗️ In system images that come with google play root is not available.

android studio images with playstore

After you've created the AVD you'll also be able to see from the Android Studio AVD Manager which of your images have google play installed:

enter image description here

ccpizza
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    Not for tablets though. Shame – wbk727 Mar 21 '20 at 17:39
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    @MacaronLover: then, for example, you could use genymotion which is free for personal use and where you can install gapps by clicking in the top right corner icon in the emulator window. see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20121883/how-to-install-google-play-services-in-a-genymotion-vm-with-no-drag-and-drop-su – ccpizza Mar 21 '20 at 17:42
  • Thanks for the visual @ccpizza – jasonleonhard Apr 10 '20 at 20:09
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on the Select a Device option choose a device with google play icon and then select a system image that shows Google play in the target

enter image description here

Javeed Ishaq
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There is no google play store in avd emulator. But you can install it manually.

  1. Install Google APIs System Image, so you will have google services already (without play store)

  2. Create AVD based on Google APIs image

  3. Download smallest archive from http://opengapps.org/ and extract Phonesky.apk from it

  4. Push Phonesky.apk to /system/priv-app/ on avd.

  5. Restart avd. Google play should be there.

Recently I've just tried to do it by myself and you can find detailed tutorial on my blog: http://linuxoidchannel.blogspot.com/2017/01/how-to-install-google-play-store-on.html

Sergey
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    Did you get "Device incompatible" warnings on the apps in the Play Store? About 90% of them are incompatible on mine. I can't really install anything I need (Firefox/Opera) – gavsiu Feb 15 '17 at 03:12
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    The play store is available on a subset of images – Mike dg Jan 10 '18 at 19:43
  • After pushing Phonesky.apk and restarting emulator my emulator is not powering on. – WSS Mar 16 '18 at 09:35
  • This is worked for Nexus_5_API_28. `/` was the mount point for `system`. Therefore used `mount -o rw,remount /dev/root /` – TRiNE Oct 07 '18 at 12:12
  • @gavsiu any resolution to this? Can't seem to download an app we are testing that has been confirmed available on a minimum of Android 4.4 (API 19) and targets the latest Android 9.0 (API 28). How to know if app and why it is "incompatible" if our emulated device supports Google Play store and is running an Android 8.0? – jtth Aug 06 '19 at 23:36
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    @jtth: Does [this article](https://www.ghacks.net/2013/05/06/find-out-why-apps-are-incompatible-with-your-android-device/) help you? If not, please post a new question, and please provide me with a link to the question. – unforgettableidSupportsMonica Mar 09 '20 at 18:18
  • @Sergey this answer is no longer correct, you can install google play now in some emulators. – jasonleonhard Apr 10 '20 at 20:07
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If using the command line, you'll need to use one of the packages listed with

sdkmanager --list | grep "playstore"

Once that is installed you can use the appropriate package in 

avdmanager create avd --force --name testAVD --abi google_apis_playstore/x86_64 --package "system-images;android-28;google_apis_playstore;x86_64" -d 19

Replace google_apis_playstore;x86_64 with the package you installed

William Reed
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    I found the grep for playstore to be critical. I had version 26 revision 14 installed but that did not contain playstore. I need to install version 26 revision 7 and I only found that by using these instructions. – YoungDinosaur Dec 26 '19 at 17:34
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It's not officially supported yet.

Edit: It's now supported in modern versions of Android Studio, at least on some platforms.

Old workarounds

If you're using an old version of Android Studio which doesn't support the Google Play Store, and you refuse to upgrade, here are two possible workarounds:

  1. Ask your favorite app's maintainers to upload a copy of their app into the Amazon Appstore. Next, install the Appstore onto your Android device. Finally, use the Appstore to install your favorite app.

  2. Or: Do a Web search to find a .apk file for the software you want. For example, if you want to install SleepBot in your Android emulator, you can do a Google Web search for [ SleepBot apk ]. Then use adb install to install the .apk file.

unforgettableidSupportsMonica
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