How to open Google Android Emulator in Visual Studio 2017

Question

I recently downloaded Google Android Emulator from Visual Studio Installer. Before that i was using Visual Studio Emulator for Android. But Visual Studio Emulator does not have API 25, so i decided to download Google Android Emulator.

Image of downloaded Google Android Emulator in Visual Studio Installer

Now i can't see Google Android Emulator as an options anywhere in VS17.

Please tell me how to open Google Android Emulator in VS17.

Thank You.

Answer 1

You must not only avoid the VS2017 emulators, but its built-in Android SDK alltogether, they are totally obsolete.

First, install the Android SDK tools v24 (for the GUI) then update the emulators to v27.

After that, return to Visual Studio, go to Tools > Options > Tools for Apache Cordova > Environment Variables overrides and set your ADT_HOME to the path where you have installed the Android SDK using the SDK Installer previously

Now, you'll be using latest build tools that you have installed from the SDK Manager. If you created a single emulator in the AVD Manager, it will be used to emulate your apps. If you created several emulators, simply launch (manually from AVD manager) the desired emulator, then deploy to emulator from Visual Studio. The opened emulator will be used to deploy the app.

Note: Changing the ADT_HOME will cause the Visual Studio Launch button to change its options, now you will see Google Android Emulator in the list of devices.