Best Android Emulator on PC in 2023?
Hey there, I've been using Bluestacks as my main android emulator for a while, but I disliked how bloated it is, especially that their cloud service app comes preinstalled.
Im wondering if there are other android emulators that are good to use. I've already heard about emulators such as:
I haven't actually tried most of these myself yet since I don't quite trust them. They are quite sketchy and heavily advertised
I personally use bluestacks.
Windows subsystem for android with magisk for root
For Linux there is waydroid which is inspired from the defunct anbox which I used in the past but it is wayland only
The ones in the thumbnail for the link look like they are from sketchy companies that sell your data
And also since when is Google play games an emulator
They've been advertising it recently. But for whatever reason, they are using Homescapes and Gardenscapes in their main brunt of advertising so idk why those two lightweight games.
They are slowly testing each game and how it works on Windows.
Play Store literally notifies me each time a new game is added.
I might reconsider redownloading WSA with magisk again considering yeah the well-known emulators I showed on the thumbnail are sketchy 💀.
Google play games launched a beta for several android games not that long ago on PC, though I do get mixed up with the service aswell
Waydroid works quite well for me, but it's Linux+Wayland only.
I think you should be able to install the Play Store and Play Services on Windows Android Subsystem, there's probably guides on how to do that but I've never tried myself. I think it uses Windows Subsystem for Linux in under the hood so I imagine it's probably possible to root it/install additional stuff to it.
Waydroid only fits a small number of configurations, including Wayland and x86. I definitely wish there was something like Bluestacks for Linux
Once it runs it absolutely slaps though! I'm not sure why it's wayland-only, it still just runs in a window anyway. Nothing seems to really require Wayland there.
But of everything, the performance is impressive, as it's just a container. Makes for a sick tablet on the 2-in-1 netbooks.
waydroid looks great! though I am a windows user :(
I've actually tried installing play store alongside Windows Android Subsystem before via MagiskOnWSALocal. It works quite well actually and root is enabled with Magisk. It was a bit of a hassle for me when installing though since Windows Subsystem for Linux and the other steps are required for installation. Though im not sure if there are easier methods now
Once you've got wsl installed you only have to copy and paste a few commands to start running the run.sh script
You can install debian from the windows store if I recall correctly
though if you want to install it in a different location you'll need to install manually with commands or move the installed files of debian wsl to a new location and use mklink in command prompt to create a link of those files to the original location you moved them from (don't rename folders and make sure you move and link the top level folder containing the debian files)
It's really a shame it's Wayland only. I always have issues with Wayland; if one Wayland app crashes it effectively brings down my entire machine.
You can run a Wayland compositor under x I believe (heard Weston mentioned a lot)
There is Anbox that's usable for Xorg but I don't think it's as performant.
Waydroid, by far the best solution
The only one I ever used was nox to play some games and it was very unpleasant
android x86 and qemu is pretty good
I use the MSI App Player (pretty sure that's the name). I think it is built off Blue Stacks and it has some bloat still, nothing that isn't too manageable but I'll like to see other people's opinions.
It's not hard to make WSA to accept every apk you want qith Google Services etc. There are many guides online, @me if you can't find one that works for you
As people said here already, I prefer Windows subsystem for Android. It’s built-in and fairly robust.
You can try to debloat Nox. https://gist.github.com/Log1x/12d330ef7685d6fbc611d1d57efb5c29