
APKs packaged up also need to be installed (“unpacked”, in Chrome-speak) manually.ĪRChon also replaces the official extension provided by Google. This supports both desktop Chrome and Chrome OS, and also allows for an unlimited number of Android APKs packaged by the chromeos-apk tool.Īs with the “v1” hack, getting Android apps running on Chrome requires some manual effort, technical acumen and familiarity with your system’s command line prompt. It requires installing a custom version of the Android Runtime extension, called ARChon. Yes, you read that right: Filippov has found a way to run Androids app on desktop PCs through Chrome. Having made a command-line tool able to package up virtually any Android application to run on Chrome OS through the Android Runtime extension (with varying degrees of success), developer Vlad Filippov has now gone one better: it’s now possible to run Android apps on Chrome on Windows, Mac and Linux. Google may need to take their time in bringing select Android apps to the Chrome Web Store - needing to ensure compatibly, stability, and an integrated experience - but the community has no such speed bumps standing in its way.
Most of the rest simply haven’t been updated or in active development in years and don’t really work well anymore with newer operating systems and hardware.ARChon allows Android Apps to run on Windows, Mac & Linux. You can still get it at the link, but it’s not in active development so it won’t get any more updates. YouWave, a once-popular option, has fallen out of favor because it runs much older versions of Android than most of its competitors. If it comes back up by the time we update this piece again, we’ll gladly add it back to the list. However, the website appears to be down as of the time of this writing.
KoPlayer is an outstanding Android emulator for gamers. However, it is no longer actively updated so we removed it from the list. Droid4x used to be one of the best options and its later builds are still available.
We don’t know if it’s from the third-party installer or from the Andy developers so until that whole situation resolves, we’re keeping it off of the list.
Andy began using some seriously not great development tactics, including suspected bitcoin mining without user permission. You can still try it out, but you have to browse the official subreddit for download links. AMIDuOS closed its doors officially on March 7th, 2018. Leapdroid was purchased by Google and no longer operates. If we missed any of the best Android emulators for PC, tell us about them in the comments! You can also click here to check out our latest Android app and game lists! Here are what happened to some old classics from the list: