5 Best Android Emulators for Mac OS X to Run Android Apps [2019] | Run and install Android apps on your Mac OS X , Macbook Air/Pro
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What are Android Emulators for Mac ? Why do you need them ?
Android Emulators are software which let you install Android apps and games on your Mac . Thus, enabling you to run apps and play games made for Android on your system. Considering, the vast number of productive apps and great games for Android, it increases the amount of activities you can do on your Mac. As using it, you can even run Android apps in addition to apps made for your Mac OS X system.
5 Best Android Emulators for Mac OS X –
1. Bluestacks AppPlayer Android Emulator
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Bluestacks emulator for Mac OS
Bluestacks AppPlayer is probably the Best Android Emulator for Mac OS because it uses the unique “LayerCake” technology which allows android OS apps to be emulated and run without requiring an external Virtual Desktop Application such as Virtual Box or Vmware.
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- Clicking here to download the Bluestacks .dmg file . (Direct Installer)
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2. Nox Emulator for Mac OS X
Nox Android Emulator for Mac
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- Nox is a great emulator for Mac and Mac OS X and is the best suited for playing games without fuss.
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NOTE – You might want to check out this new emulator which runs directly inside Google Chrome Browser – ARChon! Android Emulator., thus it will work on Mac too!
3. Andy OS
ANDY Emulator Gameplay
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- Andy OS by Andyroid.net is another great Android Emulator for Mac OS , but it requires Virtual Box to be preinstalled on the MAC.
- You can also use your phone as a controller for controlling / playing the games, the picture alongside explains it 🙂
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Update : You might love it to check out the New Firefox OS on PC – Click here to Configure Firefox OS Emulator on your Mac
4. Genymotion
Genymotion Live on MAC
- One of the most striking features of Genymotion is unlike other Android Emulators it allows us to change the type of android device as well as android version we are using!!
- This is a great feature and allows us to select a particular device as well as particular Android version which we want to emulate.
- It also supports configuring the amount of resources e.g RAM ,harddisk to be allocated to the Android device is possible! Great feature if your are limited on hardware resources.
- Directly supports networking through ethernet /Wi-Fi , emulates your connected connection directly so you can use internet directly in your emulated android.
- ADB Support and it also supports OpenGL hardware acceleration so you can use your Android device fullscreen and play Games on your MAC!
- Also supports drag and drop file transfer to the emulated SD Card 🙂 , supports Gyroscope,Light and accelerometer sensors too.
- You need an account on Genymotion Cloud – to Download and deploy Genymotion android device .
5. Xamarin Android Player for MAC
- Xamarin is yet another android emulator with variety of devices supported, it supports OpenGL, and virtualizes a device instead of emulating it.
- This Virtualization increases speed of the emulator to a great extent!
- Click here to download Xamarin Android Player for Mac.
- The Configuration/installation instructions for Xamarin on Mac OS can be found here .
So these were the Best 5 Android Emulators for Mac OS , besides these there are other options available too such as the Android SDK (Official) Emulator ,AndroVM , AndroLite but configuring official Android SDK is a tedious task and other two didn’t interest me much , you can check them out too..
Hope you liked this post, if you have any doubts/queries/suggestions feel free to comment!
Have you been able to download Andy for the Mac? When I use the link provided it gives the message: “Andy version for Mac & Linux is due end of May 2014, if you want to join the beta testers please email [email protected] or please visit us again soon.”
i got it installed from them as i am a beta tester 🙂 Thanks
Can you upload the .dmg somewhere? Thank you 🙂
Will try to get it from them, if i get it,I will upload it and shall send you the link 🙂
I would also like the DMG link if possible!
Sorry to say, but i don’t have the dmg file Rob 🙁
looking for some alternative myself 🙁
Hello Chaitanya… I’m requesting the dmg as well. Thanks a bunch! Great post!
Hello James 🙂 there’s a bad news though, My Portable hard drive has crashed 🙁 hence, i have lost the dmg file 🙁 , i have given it for recovery but it may take some time , i guess. 🙁
In the meantime i can upload the Windows virtual box virtual machine, which is available with me, we can transfer it to Mac’s virtual box with a little modifications, i can upload that, will it do ?
What changes did you have to make to get it working in Virtualbox on Mac? I copied over the resources folder and the andy folder with the virtual disks, then redirected the resources and andy folders but it does not start a working version of andy just the processes for it.
Hello Carl, In the beta version i just had to add the vmdisks in to the virtualbox on mac, and they automatically booted up! , Though android was pretty much laggy, it actually started up after taking 7 minutes. Also other functionalities such as connecting android phone as a remote didn’t work during the beta stage on windows
Andy for Mac is now available.
Check it on the Andy website.
Eyal.
Hi Chaitanya, I am also not able to download Andy for mac. Can you send me the link of your uploaded .dmg file? Thanks!
Problem Problem Andyroid for mac not public yet 🙁
If you uploaded the dmg file to somewhere twice already, can’t you just post the link to that file here in one of the comments, please? I would like the old dmg file as well, can’t find it anywhere now…
by the way, Andyroid was not available for download for months now, in June there was a notice about it being available in May, since then they have changed it to “Andy version for Mac & Linux is due mid July 2014” 🙁 and since they already broke their own timelines for a beta release, I have a feeling it’s may not be out even in August or September… so maybe you should change your post reflecting it’s current unavailability
I am very much sorry for the inconvenience El, but my hard drive crash had led me to lose the file and due to its bigger size 400Mb+ i wasn’t able to upload it 🙁 and now for testing i copied the Andyroid Virtual Machine from my Ubuntu installation to the Mac, and it worked fine. Ya you’re right changing my post confirming its unavailability 🙁
End of August 2014 and Andy is still Vaporware.
Ya, its still vaporware 🙁 i fear its never gonna get released 🙁 but the beta one was surely worth using..
lets say i run a android mmorpg game on mac using andy.. while running the app.. can someone run a damage hack on mac to affect the android mmorpg?
Currently its not possible 🙂 as running Andy on Mac itself is a uphill task because of installation of virtual box and copying the windows virtual machine to mac
Hi another good emulator, is Droid4x. Its still in beta mode, but works awesome. Been playing Modern Combat 5 and blitz brigade. Plus, it comes prerooted. Enjoy!
Hi..I download it more than one time from different website but it`s not working!
could you please tell me what`s wrong?
Hello 7mom, can you tell us which emulator did you try to download? So that we can assist you better 🙂
Hi I tried to download Droid4x but it is stuck at 80% booting can anyone help with this?
Hello Robert, we have an old offline installer with us, are you ready to install an older version on your device?
Than you Chaitanya For such a nice post Keep posting like this.
i cant play coc on the bluestack for mac app from that link. it say i need like jelly bean or something pls help me that
Genimotion , i can’t find the google playstore. it does not appear on any of the virtual android devices.
The bluestack works flawlessly on my pc but not on my mac mini running the latest os x
genymotion has been great, but can’t get instagram to install. andy don’t install on mac 10.7 🙁
Try DuOS using Bootcamp Windows!
Both Bluestack and Andy runs very slow in mac, in fact it got hanged and other applications are also slow due to the android emulator installation.
Is there any freeviOS emulator for mac?
BlueStacks is regarded as the number one Android Emulator for Windows computers at present. It has extremely simple and easy process of Downloading and Installing it in your computers.
i’ve tried bluestack, genymotion, andy os, and droid4x on MBP 13″ i5 2.6ghz, i tried play seven knights netmarble game, laggy, and eaten up RAM so much, so i must close all application to open those app player and it’s still laggy.. Dunno what to do. Maybe the solution is installing Bluestacks/Nox app player using bootcamp windows.
after installing bluestack pop up coming to login administration,anyone please tell me bout this..
Thanks! Very Useful! :>)
up above’s a load of system corrupting shiz, get android studio instead
i would i like to download hotstar app to watch movies and tv shows. which android emulator is the best for this?
Is the direct download link for andy’s emulator a virus on mac? Im getting really anxious about it because people are saying that it is a virus. Help plz!
It’s the official link given by the Andy OS team. It contains Virtual Box package or VMware depending on the Mac version. Rest assured, I have installed it on my Mac, it just has an installer thing asking to install yahoo tool bar which can be refused
This site says 5 emulators compatible with OS tried all of them but only archon was able to get me a file that can open but even that file was incomplete which means its not an emulator. 0 success with this site if you read comments for reviews dont waste your time here.
Don’t install Andy! At least not from the link in this post (didn’t try other installations, cba). It’s a bundle of viruses and malwares (with MacKeeper being the least harmful one)
Great!! Post but I never try to install any third party software on my Mac PC.
http://www.thinkalso.com/2015-printer-review-wireless-printers-for-mac/