To run Android apps on top of Mac OS, we need to set up an emulator. An emulator in layman terms is a piece of software that allows one computer system (the host) to behave line another computer system (the guest). In this instance, out host is a computer running any version of Mac OS and the emulator will enable us to run Android apps on top. He was delighted when I said that it is possible to run android apps on Mac. There are two ways to run android apps on your mac. Easiest method is to install a android emulator for mac and run android apps on it. Another way is to use ARC (Android Runtime for Chrome) tool to run Android Apps via Chrome OS on your Mac. Let’s see the methods. The best way to run Android apps on your Mac is to install a full version of the Android operating system itself. You can do this using the free VirtualBox software and a build of Android that has been developed for computers with Intel processors.

What do you do if you needed to run an Android app and in your possession is only a Mac computer? You have come to the right place. Read on and find out how you can run Android apps on Mac OS.

Emulator

To run Android apps on top of Mac OS, we need to set up an emulator. An emulator in layman terms is a piece of software that allows one computer system (the host) to behave line another computer system (the guest). In this instance, out host is a computer running any version of Mac OS and the emulator will enable us to run Android apps on top of this.

We can use the popular emulators like virtual box, bluestacks or Andy. In this article, I will show you how to use Andy – your desktop mobile.

Andy

The first thing that you need to do is go to the Andy website, and find the download section, which is the 5th option on the Menu.

Clicking on the download will start the download of the Andy launch file which is about 1.4 MB so it will be pretty fast to download. Once the download is finished, launch the downloaded .dmg file.

Play Android Games On Mac

Installer

And then agree to the terms and conditions, then the Andy installation will start on your system. It might ask you for confirmation to open it as it was downloaded from the internet.

Click open and enter your System password to install.

Password Prompt

If your password authenticates, you will see the following screen where you just have to click continue.

After you click continue, it will start the big download of the entire application. The size of this download is approximately 505 MB.

Downloading the full Emulator

When the download is done, it will continue with the installation and may give you an offer. In my case, it asked to install Booking.com and I skipped it. You may accept or skip the offer as it doesn’t affect the installation.

When the installation is complete, it will show the confirmation that you have successfully installed Andy.

Installation Successful

Android App For Mac

Just click finish and it will close the installation.

After installation completes, a “Thank You for Downloading” page will open from the Andy website. It will usually just show you some features or tips to using Andy.

You can now start the Andy Emulator just like any other program on your computer.

Running Apps

There are two ways to run apps on the Andy emulator. The first one is to search and download it from the Google PlayStore. The second way is to load an .apk file and then install it within Andy. This is the method I will be showing as it is a bit more complicated but allows you to run apps not yet on the PlayStore.

Loading an .apk file

1. Get the .apk file you want ready, i.e. download it or have it in a location you can find it.
2. Go to your Documents file and look for the folder named Andy
3. Inside that folder, create a folder called “Shared”
4. Copy your .apk file into the newly created Shared folder
5. Go back to the Andy Emulator
6. Launch the ES File Explorer
7. Expand the Local option on the left side
8. Click on Device
9. Go to sdcard > Shared > Andy > Shared and you should see the .apk file you put in there
10. Double click it to install it

For a video walkthrough of the above process, please watch the following YouTube video from NKT Studios:

You definitely think that there is a need to run Android apps on Mac, and this is the reason you have ended on to this post. Few months back, I did share a couple of ways to run Android apps on Mac. And this compilation can be labelled as an extension to that list.

Previously, I shared a command line method and a GUI method to run Android apps on Mac. And I would be adding two more ways to it. Yes, you can follow whichever way you feel like following.

How To Run Android Apps On Mac – Best Ways

Method 1 – On Command Line

• First step is to download Android SDK for Mac and once done, you need to extract the zip file
• Launch Terminal, check the location of the unzipped file, and get on to that location on the Terminal prompt
• Once done, enter the below command where <NAME> stands for the name that you want to give to your virtual Android device (on which you would be running Android apps)

Run Android Apps On Manjaro

./android create avd -n <NAME> -t 1

Android Apps Store

• The device can now be activated by the below command

/emulator -avd <NAME>

This is one of the methods to run Android apps on Mac. If you are not comfortable with it, lets learn about the GUI method.

Method 2 – Using GUI

• Launch Finder and get to the location where you have your unzipped file
• Get inside the Tools folder and double click on the file (icon) labelled as Android SDK Manager
• On the launched GUI, click on the Manage AVDs option
• On the window, click on the button labelled as New so that you can configure a virtual Android device
• Now you would have the device ready with you and you are ready to do the things that you can do on your Android device, except for phone calls.

Method 3 – BlueStacks

This is an incredible app which basically acts as a simulator and lets you run Android apps on it. All you need to do is just install this app, and then you can download the apps on its market and start using them. Other than the fact that it won’t let you run all the Android apps, there is nothing wrong about this amazing program.

Infact, it covers all the popular apps, and since there is nothing else to be done from your end, except for installing this program, makes this one of the most popular way to run android apps on PC and Mac.

Method 4 – Check Out For Online Alternatives

If you want to stay away from all sorts of installations, then the quickest and easiest way to use Android apps on computer is to check its online alternatives available. Simple, right?

These are 4 best ways to run android apps on Mac. Try them out and let us know how they worked out for you.

Related posts: