Jamal Eason, Android Product Manager

Since Google’s major update to the Android Emulator two years ago, we’ve been working to create a fast, fully featured emulator to help you create a great app experience for your users. Android emulators are now the most popular device in Android Studio — more than twice as much as Android physical devices. It’s great to see the Android emulator grow with developers along the way, but the journey is just beginning and we can do even better.

Emulator speed has always been one of the key challenges for the Android Studio team: in previous releases, we added quick launch and emulator snapshot features, allowing developers to quickly launch the emulator and resume previous sessions in less than two seconds. To date, the Android emulator runs smoothly on macOS® and Linux devices, but not for Windows or Hyper-V users, and supports hardware acceleration enhancements that are only available on Intel processors. By adding SUPPORT for AMD processors and Hyper-V virtual machines to the Android emulator, we have successfully addressed both longstanding requests from the developer community in this release update.

Today, you can download the latest version of the Android emulator and run an Android x86 virtual appliance on a computer with an AMD processor. This major update will also make it easier for app developers to access the Android emulator without the limitations of previous software emulation and with hardware acceleration. Also, for those who want to use Hyper-V to run their own native application backends, the Android emulator now works with other applications supported by Hyper-V on Windows 10.

Thanks to the new Windows Virtualization Management Platform (WHPX) API and the efforts of Microsoft’s open source projects, more Android app developers are experiencing significant improvements in the speed and functionality of the emulator.

▽ Running Android emulator on Windows 10 with AMD processor Processor: AMD Rayon 7 1700; Chipset: AMD 5350; Graphics card: AMD®Radeon™ RX580

The above technical support was first piloted in Android emulator V27.3.8 (Canary), but we are now rolling out these preview features (AMD processors and Hyper-V support) to the stable version for more feedback. In addition, we have increased the loading speed of emulator snapshots to make the experience better for developers using Intel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager (HAXM).

How to use

Linux system

If you are using Linux for Android application development, the Android Emulator will continue to use native KVM virtual technology management tools to provide high-speed, high-performance virtualization solutions for Intel and AMD devices. Android emulator V27.3.8 has added an accelerated user interface and improved performance, stability and resource utilization.

MacOS systems

For OS X V10.10 Yosemite or later, the Android emulator continues to use the built-in hypervisor. Framework by default, and when the Framework fails to boot (for example, on OS X V10.9 or later), Switch to Intel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager (HAXM). After upgrading to the latest version of the Emulator for macOS, you can use the new snapshot user interface and enjoy the better performance and stability of the Android emulator.

▽ Android emulator — Snapshot extension control

Microsoft Windows

For devices using Intel x86 processors, the Android emulator will continue to use hardware Accelerated Execution Manager technology (Intel HAXM) by default. This technology is a mature open source virtualization technology solution developed by Intel. In addition, thanks to Intel’s continued investment in innovative research and development, HAXM remains the fastest Android emulator acceleration technology on the market. Check out the Android SDK Manager page for updates and download the latest version of Intel HAXM V7.2.0.

If your device uses AN AMD processor, the following conditions must be met:

  • AMD processor — RECOMMENDED to use AMD Rayon series processor;
  • Android Studio 3.2 Beta or later, click on the Android Studio Preview download page;
  • Android simulator V27.3.8 +, click on the Android Studio SDK Manager page to download;
  • X86 Android Virtual Appliance (AVD), create virtual appliance;
  • Windows 10 Version 1803
  • Select Windows Hypervisor Platform from the Windows Function menu.
    △ Windows Hypervisor Platform configuration page in Windows 10

If you want to run Hyper-V and Android emulator in parallel on a device with an Intel processor, follow the instructions above to update Android Studio and Android emulator, and:

  • Select “Hyper-V” from the Windows Features menu — Only Windows 10 Professional, Education, and Enterprise are supported
  • Intel Processor: Make sure your Intel Core processor supports virtualization technology (VT-X), extended page Table (ETP), and unrestricted Client (UG) capabilities; In addition, enable vT-X virtualization in BIOS Settings.

Click on the documentation for more installation tips and troubleshooting details.

To recap: If your Windows device uses an Intel processor, the Android emulator will continue to use Intel HAXM technology — which is faster and our recommended configuration. If your device is developed using AMD processors or Hyper-V virtual machines, you might want to try out the new Android emulator, which will surprise you.

Next step and feedback

You can download the latest version of the Android Emulator through the Android Studio 3.2 Beta SDK Manager and start experiencing the simulator’s latest performance updates for all supported platforms immediately. We will continue to devote significant resources to improving the performance of the platform in the future, and we welcome your feedback and requests for new features.

Click here to go to the “Android Developers Official Documentation” for more information