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One unfortunate side effect of adding APIs to Google Play Services, is that it becomes almost impossible to test your app on Google's own SDK emulators. Play Se
by clumsysmurf 13y ago
One unfortunate side effect of adding APIs to Google Play Services, is that it becomes almost impossible to test your app on Google's own SDK emulators. Play Services does not run in any emulator. You can try to find the Vending and related apks from CM or wherever, but Google doesn't help you do that .. and its a pain ;)
So if you want to use the new Play Services Maps API, you'll need a device.
I really wish they would find a workaround, because I use the x86 emulators to test various screen configurations.
Also, while this does provide a layer Google can update independently, it doesn't impact most of the OS. So security fixes, or fixes to the framework, sqlite, dvm, kernel drivers, still need to be handled differently.
- soyangel 13y agoYou can use AndroVM for this. It's a VirtualBox image with Google Play and speed like the Intel one.
- clumsysmurf 13y agoAndroVM is now a commercial product; I'd rather Google just improve the experience of the official SDK tools.
- Zigurd 13y agoI wonder why Google does not make a "Google suite" available for download. What would be the down-side to providing the Google ecosystem, as an installable package, to, for example, Amazon Kindle users? Android has very good app compatibility across the same API level even when Android has been heavily modified, as in Kindle. Doing that would not only make it possible for emulators to run an environment that is similar to a Nexus device, it would enable end-users to join the ecosystem that Google makes money for Google even if their Android device isn't an official Google device.
- methodin 13y agoI could have sworn they announced emulator support in yesterday's Google Play Services session. Maybe I completely misunderstood what they were talking about (was developing at the time).