How to install Google Play app in Android Studio emulator?

Question

I am completely new to using Android Studio and I am trying to install the Google Play app on the emulator. I have installed the Google Repository and Google Play Services as well as a Google APIs x86 Atom System Image from the SDK manager and I am able to set up Google Play Services for my sample application.

I would now like to install the Google Play application on my emulator. How can this be done ? Any suggestions or a solution itself would be most appreciated. Also, thank you very much for your time.

Solution 1

Starting with Android Studio 3.0 Canary 1, you have now some options of devices that come with the Play Store app built-in(Nexus 5X and Nexus 5 on image below).

Solution 2

After a long while of testing, everything seems to be outdated. I can't find necessary APK's like GoogleLoginService.apk, etc.

I got it to work by installing two virtual devices.

1. My Device (a Samsung Galaxy Tab A with custom skin and sizes)
2. A device, which had the "Play Store Available" icon in your AVD-Manager on the site where you can create a new profile.

I installed the first device and the second device with the same Android version, and used one profile from Samsung (because my tablet is a Samsung).

After that step, I compared the config.ini file located in:

C:\Users\USER\.android\avd\DEVICE_ID

On Ubuntu/Linux it'll be in

~/.android/avd/DEVICE_ID

Change the following variables to:

PlayStore.enabled = true
image.sysdir.1=system-images\android-27\google_apis_playstore\x86\
tag.display=Google Play
tag.id=google_apis_playstore

Here's an example diff of what fields will be changed:

After that you'll probably have to re-download the system image for the device, which you can do from Tools > AVD Manager.

Here's an example screenshot of what that'd look like:

Once done, restart the device, and Play store will be installed and ready to use.

Solution 3

Download Google apps (GoogleLoginService.apk , GoogleServicesFramework.apk , Phonesky.apk) from http://wiki.rootzwiki.com/Google_Apps#Universal_Packages_2

Start your emulator:

emulator -avd VM_NAME_HERE -partition-size 500 -no-audio -no-boot-anim

Then use the following commands:

Remount in rw mode

adb shell mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock0 /system

Allow writing to app directory on system partition

adb shell chmod 777 /system/app

Install following apk

adb push GoogleLoginService.apk /system/app/.
adb push GoogleServicesFramework.apk /system/app/.
adb push Phonesky.apk /system/app/. # Vending.apk in older versions
adb shell rm /system/app/SdkSetup*

Refer: to this SO Post

Comments

[Damn Vegetables]

I do not think this is how to install Google Play Store.

[Pascal]

Great! And what if I want to test my app on a emulator with Play Store, but in Tablet mode?

[1QuickQuestion]

I've been searching for a few hours and finally ran across this! Thank you!

[Peter Cullen]

/system not in /proc/mounts

[IgorGanapolsky]

I don't see this option. Are you sure it is there?

[Ng Sek Long]

@IgorGanapolsky I checked today and it is still there, need to scroll down a bit

[Jeremy Caney]

Please be careful with your formatting, and be sure to preview your answer before posting. Your entire answer was indented by four spaces which made it appear as a code block, and made it difficult to read. I've reformatted it for you; please review to make sure everything is correct, but also to evaluate how the formatting was achieved for future posts.

[Aamnah]

You may also have to download the system image for the device again if the API version is different or the image doesn't already exist. I had to re-download the system image when i was moving from API 29 on Google Pixel 3a to API 30 on Google Pixel 3 XL. If the system image is missing, you'll get PANIC: Cannot find AVD system path. Please define ANDROID_SDK_ROOT when you try to run the emulator. You can download system image from Tools > AVD Manager

[vitek6491]

in the emulator, with whatever tools are the latest as of Feb, 2017, the emulator needs to be launched from the command line with: -writable-system stackoverflow.com/a/42280124/3003905

[lambozsolty]

Working in 2021! Thank you!

[JP711]

When I touch on download I get this error "All packages are not available for download !, The following packages are not available: - Package id system-images; android-23; google_apis_playstore; x86 "

[Federico Navarrete]

The best solution until 2021!

[click_whir]

Heroic. I have a working emulator for API 30 finally

[zerox1212]

The real question is why isn't AVD showing emulator images with Google Play???

[bebosh]

you are smart one!!

[Karmalakas]

Pixel C API 31 works fine now after changing ini