How to run Android apps on Linux

June 9, 2020 One minute read

android • linux

A simple tutorial on how to run Android apps on Linux using Anbox and Android Debug Bridge (ADB).

Prerequisites

For this to work, you need to have Snap installed.

Install Anbox

You can install Anbox (currently in beta) using snap with the following command:

snap install --devmode --beta anbox

This will install the Anbox android emulator. It should be all you need, but if you run into problems, check the official documentation.

Install ADB

You then need to install the Android Debug Bridge, which will communicate with Anbox. It is available for several distros.

In Ubuntu and derivates, you can do:

sudo apt install android-tools-adb

Install apps

Then, making sure Anbox is running, all you have to do is:

adb install <PATH_TO_APP_FILE>.apk

ADB will automatically connect to Anbox, and install it there. If not, you can check if they are connect by running abd devices -l, and making sure you see a virtual device with the name Anbox device:x86_64.

After that, the app should be available from the Anbox dashboard.