Best Ways To Use Android Apps In Ubuntu

​Android, the most-used mobile operating system worldwide with tons of users, daily updates, releases and much more. So what if we could run some Android applications on your Linux distro? Play your android preferred game on a bigger screen? In this article, we will talk about a few available (but good) Android Emulators that allow us to run android in Linux. But first, let us see some android statistics.  

Android Statics

• More than 1.4 billion users
• 87.7% of global share (November 2016)
• An average of 1.5 Million android activated devices every day  

Genymotion

​Genymotion is a multiplatform Android emulator with 5.5 Million registered users and more than 10,000 enterprise customers.

It can emulate more than 40 Android devices with access to all android versions and unlimited application installation. It is fast, reliable, memory efficient and is used by many Android developers for testing their applications.  

Genymotion Features At A Glance

• ​Use your laptop webcam as the video source for your Android camera.
• Test your app with various charge levels and see how it handles those use cases.
• Genymotion works on Linux, Windows, Mac OS X.
• Use the GPS widget to easily develop and test your geolocation-based apps.
• Test your website in various Android browsers: Webkit for Android, Firefox for Android and much more.
• It allows us to easily Download pre-configured Android Images of various Android Versions.
• Supports drag and drop file transfer from the host to the virtual device.

Download And Install Genymotion In Linux

​First, you need to be signed up on the Genymotion website to use the emulator. Genymotion runs as a virtual machine on top of VirtualBox so, for it to run, VirtualBox needs to be installed. Download Genymotion Personal Edition or a paid one.

Now install the app and you’re good to go.  

Android Studio

It is an Android IDE provided by Google with the purpose of accelerating development and built of higher-quality applications.

​Android Studio provides the fastest tools for building apps for every type of Android device. It allows code editing, debugging, performance tooling, a flexible build system, and an instant build/deploy system that allow you to focus on building unique and high-quality apps.  

Android Studio Features At A Glance

​Instant run – when clicking run/debug Android Studio’s Instant Run feature pushes code and resource changes to your running app, it runs the apps without having to redeploy the whole app for seeing the changes immediately.

Intelligent code editor – for developers, the code editor helps you write better code, work faster, and be more productive by offering advanced code completion, refactoring, and code analysis;
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Optimized for all android devices and versions.  

Andyroid

​Although it still on closed alpha for Linux they accept the invitation for testers. You can use it as a full operational android for playing games on your desktop, WhatsApp, and other messaging applications. It uses the host network and unlimited storage.  

Andyroid Features At A Glance

• ​Full Android UI
• Google Play Store
• App Sync to Mobile
• Phone as Controller
• Android access to local File System
• Multi-Touch support
• Cloud Save in Android
• X86 native apps
• ARM support
• Sensors Integration
• OpenGL Hardware support
• Camera Integration
• Microphone Integration
• Hardware Console
• Run Apps from Desktop
• Desktop Push Notifications
• Developers Support

Bonus: Remix OS

​This one is not an emulator but deserves to be on this list. Remix OS is an Android OS that can run android applications and games on your PC.  

Remix OS Features At A Glance

• ​Multiple window multi-tasking.
• Play multiple games simultaneously while chatting with your friends.
• multi-window support means you can spend less time switching between screens and more time doing what you want and need to do.
• PC taskbar on Android start menu notifications.
• PC keyboard shortcuts and mouse right-click use.
• Use your mouse and keyboard with Remix OS just as you would on a PC.
• PC file manager comes with an amazing collection of functionalities for access, transfer, and save files.
• Android mobile screen capture, allows you to target specific apps and games so you don’t have to waste time cropping it out later.
• Free OTA updates.

Conclusion

​Lately, even if you don’t own an Android device you can still have the option of running some applications or games (for example, WhatsApp, Contacts, Gmail, etc). Android is widely used worldwide and keeps growing and getting polished every day.

So What emulator would you use or will opt to the Installable Operating System? Let me know in the comment section below. If you use any other emulator to run android apps in Linux, share it with us in the comment section below.