

Whatever the reason, there’s a dead-easy way to install Android apps on Windows: emulation. Maybe you’d rather play some Android-exclusive games on a larger display, or you want to test out a brand new app without installing it onto your phone and taking up valuable storage space.

Maybe you’re looking for a weather application to keep around on your laptop for planning your outfit in the morning. So, if you’re an Android user, there’s no reason not to bring some of those incredible apps to your Windows 10 laptop or desktop PC. Material has been used for everything in Google’s entire suite of software since it was unveiled, and with the guidelines set by Google on how to design modern software, Android has seen a wave of new, innovative apps with fresh designs and improved aesthetics. In 2014, alongside the release of Android 5.0 Lollipop, Google unveiled their new design language, Material Design. Holo was refined over the Android 4.x years, with each major iteration bringing a new, fresh update to the style (most notably, Android 4.4 KitKat ditched the blue highlights in exchange for white, a sign of things to come for Android’s color scheme). The first, Holo, was released with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (which itself was a refinement of the Tron-esque, tablet-exclusive Android 3.0 Honeycomb). But Android has grown into its own with two distinct flavors of visual design.

Early versions of the operating system were critiqued for their visual design and lack of quality apps, with iOS often being considered the older, better-looking sibling. It's also available for macOS 11, 10.15, 10.14, and 10.13 and Ubuntu 20.04LTS, Debian 9+, and Fedora 30+.Android has come a long way since it first launch on the market nearly a decade ago. Genymotion runs on 64-bit versions of Windows 11, 10, and 8. To get started, make a user account, activate it through the link they send to your email, and then download the software. You can use Genymotion for free only if it's for personal use (otherwise, there are three paid editions). You can also make a custom phone or tablet by specifying the screen resolution. Or, maybe you want Motorola Xoom to run Android 4.3. The way it works is you install virtual devices by selecting the Android version you want and the device model that should run that version of Android.įor example, you might select Android 10 and Google Pixel 3 to emulate that phone and OS on your computer. This free Android emulator can run modern versions of Android, not just old ones like some of these emulators.

It's a lot like Android Studio's emulator in that it emulates the entire OS, except that this one doesn't install all the other developer tools. Another free Android emulator for Windows is Genymotion.
