How to set up an Android Emulator on your new M1 Mac (May 2021)

Hey! A few things have changed recently, with support for the M1 increasing by the day. Google’s M1 Android Emulator preview is no longer needed — we are now able to install straight from the AVD Manager. In this article I will explain how to do just that!

1. Open up Android Studio. Hover over “Configure” and you’ll get a list of options, including the AVD Manager. This is where we want to go!

2. Choose “Create Virtual Device” in the bottom left-hand corner.

Select a device, then click “Next”.

3. Go to the “Other Images” tab, select an ARM64 based image (in the ABI column, it will be prefixed by arm64). Using the Google APIs version enables testing with Google Play Services.

Download it, then go to “Next”.

Finally, “Finish”. Your emulator is all set up!

Thanks for reading!