Running your App in the Android Emulator

The Android Emulator is essentially a virtual Android device that runs on your computer. You can use it as an alternative to running your app on a physical device.

The steps below will guide you on how to set up and run the emulator.

  1. Click Run
    • In Android Studio to run an app in the emulator you can simply click the Run icon in the toolbar or you can go to Run -> Run ‘app’ in the menu bar.
    • The Select Deployment Target dialog box will appear as shown in the figure.
  2. Create New Virtual Device
    • Click on the “Create New Virtual Device” button in the Select Deployment Target dialog box.
    • Download a system image. Choose the image that you prefer from the Select a system image screen. I downloaded the Nougat system image.
    • Follow the prompts that will appear.
  3. Select Deployment Target
    • Select a device in the Select Deployment Target dialog box and click OK. Your app will then open up in the emulator as shown in the figure.

Select Deployment Target dialog box

Android Emulator

I> During the process of setting up the emulator, Android Studio might prompt you to download certain recommended programs. HAXM (Intel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager) or KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) are examples of this. HAXM and KVM use hardware acceleration to improve the performance of your emulator.