Android Emulator Launcher

A Godot 4 editor plugin that builds, installs, and launches your project on an Android emulator with one click — without leaving the editor.

Stop alt-tabbing to a terminal to run adb install and adb shell am start. This plugin wires it all into a dock panel.

Features

• Auto-detects your Android SDK from ANDROID_HOME / ANDROID_SDK_ROOT or the default install path
• Lists available AVDs and starts them in the background
• Polls boot state asynchronously — the editor stays responsive while the emulator boots
• Builds the APK headlessly via the active export preset
• Waits for the device to leave offline state before installing (avoids ADB handshake races)
• Reports the device's ABI list so ABI mismatches are obvious
• Launches the app via monkey after install
• Resolves Godot's $genname placeholder so the default export preset works out of the box

Requirements

• Godot 4.x (tested on 4.6)
• Android SDK with platform-tools and emulator installed
• At least one AVD created (use Android Studio → Device Manager)
• An Android export preset configured in your project, with the right architectures enabled (x86_64 for emulators on x86 hosts)
• The Android build template installed (Project → Install Android Build Template)

Installation

From source

1. Clone or download this repo
2. Copy addons/android_emulator_launcher/ into your project's addons/ folder
3. Project → Project Settings → Plugins → enable Android Emulator Launcher

From the Asset Library

Search for "Android Emulator Launcher" inside the editor's AssetLib tab.

Usage

The plugin adds an Android Emu dock to the right side of the editor.

1. Verify the SDK path (auto-detected on first run; click ... to override)
2. Pick an AVD from the dropdown (hit refresh after creating new ones in Android Studio)
3. Click Start emulator — the dock polls until the device finishes booting
4. Set your Export preset name (default: Android) and optionally a package name (auto-resolved from the preset if blank)
5. Click Build && Run — the plugin exports the APK, waits for the device, installs, and launches the activity
6. Click Stop app to force-stop the running app on the emulator

The output log shows every step in color, so you can see exactly where it fails if something goes wrong.

Troubleshooting

INSTALL_FAILED_NO_MATCHING_ABIS

Your APK doesn't contain native libraries for the emulator's architecture. Most emulators on Windows/Linux x86 hosts use x86_64. Open your Android export preset and tick x86_64 (and optionally x86) under Architectures, then re-run.

device offline during install

ADB and the emulator are still completing their handshake. The plugin already waits for the device state to reach device before installing — if it still fails, your ADB client and emulator's bundled ADB may be different versions. Run adb kill-server once and retry.

No activities found to run, monkey aborted

The package name in your export preset uses $genname (Godot's auto-derived name). The plugin substitutes it for you, but the installed package must match. Set an explicit package/unique_name in the preset (e.g. com.yourname.yourgame) for clarity.

emulator -list-avds returns nothing

The SDK doesn't have any AVDs yet. Create one in Android Studio → Device Manager. The plugin reads from the same SDK location.

How it works

All blocking calls happen via OS.execute; the long-running emulator process uses OS.create_process so it survives the editor restart.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests welcome. This is a small plugin (two GDScript files) so changes should be easy to review. Some ideas:

• Logcat tail in the dock
• AVD wipe / cold-boot toggle
• Multi-device picker when more than one device is attached
• Release-build option

License

MIT. See LICENSE.