[android] How to download Google Play Services in an Android emulator?

I want to use Google Play Services API in my application, but when I open the emulator to test my application it sends me a message that says "Google Play Services must be downloaded". I know that occurs because I coded this test in my MainActivity in the method onResume().
I want to know how I can install Google Play Services in my emulator, because soon I will need to test my maps.

In the current version (Android Studio 0.5.2) there is now a device type for "Google APIs x86 (Google Inc.) - API Level 19".

To the latest setup and information if you have installed the Android Studio (i.e. 1.5) and trying to target SDK 4.0 then you may not be able to locate and setup the and AVD Emulator with SDK-vX.XX (with Google API's).

See following steps in order to download the required library and start with that. AVD Emulator setup -setting up Emulator for SDK4.0 with GoogleAPI so Map application can work- In Android Studio

But unfortunately above method did not work well on my side. And was not able to created Emulator with API Level 17 (SDK 4.2). So I followed this post that worked on my side well. The reason seems that the Android Studio Emulator creation window has limited options/features.

Google Play Services in emulator, implementing Google Plus login button etc

I tried to develop google MAP API V2 application recently and tried to run it through emulator but I everytime it showed me error "Google Play Servcies is not installed in this phone". From my perpective even I think google MAP API V2 doesn't work on emulator.

Solution

Then I tried to run the same example on my Sony Experia you and again it showed me same error. Then I installed google play services on my mobile and amazingly it started working..:)))

If your emulator x86 this method works your me.

Download and install http://opengapps.org/app/opengapps-app-v16.apk. And select nano pack

More info http://opengapps.org/app/

I know this is an old question, but I got here because I had a similar problem as everyone above. I solved it by just reading a little closer!

I hadn't noticed there were 2 possible system Images I could choose from, one that contained Google APIs and one that didn't (on my laptop the menu was too small for me to read the (with Google APIs) text appended.

It's a stupid thing to miss, but someone else might have a small screen like I did, and miss this :D

I got it working by

• Installing the Google Play Services through the Android SDK Manager
• Using a Galaxy Nexus Device (4.65", 720 x 1280: xhdpi)
• Targeting the Android 4.2.2 Google API Level 17

For api 21+ you can use system image with Google Play as I describe below.

For api 19+ (Android 4.4 Kitkat) you can use system image x86 with Google Api (I was able to use it).

For api 17+ (Android 4.2.2) you can TRY to use system image ARM with Google Api (It didn't work for me).

I was able to install Google Play and Google Services as separate apks to pure system image api 16 and 17, but they don't really work after that (services crush and play not opens). So seems like it is not possible to make them work on pure AVD image because they should be installed with root access. The same for updating Google Services on AVD system image with Google API preinstalled - can't update because of incompatible certificates, can't uninstall even using adb because don't have access.

How to setup AVD system image with Google Play

Now even better solution exist: using AVD image with build-in Google Play Services. It will enable you to use Google Services including Google Play. Also you will be able update it without re-creating AVD image.

Open AVD manager and choose create new device. You should use device definition with play store icon.

Then choose system image for it. You should choose one with Google Play and NOT with Google API.

Then launch new device.

You can update Play Services as shown on screenshot, or manually on device..

Go to https://university.xamarin.com/resources/working-with-android-emulators . Scroll down to the "Installing Google Play Services" section. Step by step walk through there.

Directly plagarized from xamarin here so I don't get dinged for linking and not including solution. Posting this as I found the hit in stack before I found the solution that worked across the board on the xamarin page.

1. Start the Xamarin Android Player and run one of the supplied images, the following assumes you have started the KitKat Nexus 4 image. Download the proper Google Play Services .zip file from www.teamandroid.com/gapps/ . Make sure to download the image appropriate for your version of Android.
2. Drag the .zip file onto the running emulator and drop it to install the component, here we show it on Mac OS X, but the same mechanism is used in Windows. You will get a prompt to install the package onto the emulator which indicates the image will be restarted
3. Once it restarts, you will get a notification that installation is completed, and the image will now have Google Maps, Google+ and support for the Google Play store. Note that some things do not work correctly and you may get a few errors from some of the services, but you can safely dismiss these and continue the instructions.
4. Next, you will need to associate a Google account so that you can update the services using the Google Play store. It should prompt you for this, but if it does not, you can go into the Google Settings and add a new account. Once you've added the account, you can then update the Google apps by opening the Google Play store application and going into settings from the side bar menu.
5. Select Settings and then scroll down to the Build Version number information and double-tap on it until it tells you it is either up-to-date, or that it will download and install a new version.
6. Power off the device (press and hold the power button in the toolbar on the right) and restart it. Once it restarts, it should indicate that it needs to update the Google Play services, tapping the notification will open the Google Play Store and install the latest version

Now you can run applications that depend on Google Maps in the Xamarin Android Player.

This is how you make Android Google Maps API v2 work on your emulator.

Create a new emulator

• for device choose "5.1'' WVGA (480 x 800: mdpi)"
• for target choose "Android 4.1.2 - API level 16"
• for "CPU/ABI" choose "ARM"
• leave rest to defaults

these are the settings that are working for me. I don't know for different ones.

Start the emulator

install com.android.vending-1.apk and com.google.android.gms-1.apk via ADB install command

The longer answer is on my blog post about this issue https://medium.com/nemanja-kovacevic/how-to-make-android-google-maps-v2-work-in-android-emulator-e384f5423723

The key is to select the target of your emulator to, for example: Google APIs (ver 18). If you select, for example, just Jellybean 18 (without API) you will not be able to test apps that require Google services such as map. Keep in mind that you must first download the Google API of your favorite version with the Android SDK Manager.

This is a good practice and it is far better than juggling with most workarounds.

I came across another solution to use the Google play services on an emulator. The guys at http://www.genymotion.com/ provide very fast emulators on which you can install Google play services. They just need you to sign up to begin downloading and you need Virtual box installed. At the moment they cater for Android 16 and 17 but more are on the way.