How can I detect when an Android application is running in the emulator?

Question

I would like to have my code run slightly differently when running on the emulator than when running on a device. (For example, using 10.0.2.2 instead of a public URL to run against a development server automatically.) What is the best way to detect when an Android application is running in the emulator?

Answer 1

How about this solution (class implementation of SystemProperties is available here):

private var sIsProbablyRunningOnEmulator: Boolean? = null

fun isProbablyRunningOnEmulator(): Boolean {
    var result = sIsProbablyRunningOnEmulator
    if (result != null)
        return result
    // Android SDK emulator
    result = (Build.FINGERPRINT.startsWith("google/sdk_gphone_")
            && Build.FINGERPRINT.endsWith(":user/release-keys")
            && Build.MANUFACTURER == "Google" && Build.PRODUCT.startsWith("sdk_gphone_") && Build.BRAND == "google"
            && Build.MODEL.startsWith("sdk_gphone_"))
            //
            || Build.FINGERPRINT.startsWith("generic")
            || Build.FINGERPRINT.startsWith("unknown")
            || Build.MODEL.contains("google_sdk")
            || Build.MODEL.contains("Emulator")
            || Build.MODEL.contains("Android SDK built for x86")
            //bluestacks
            || "QC_Reference_Phone" == Build.BOARD && !"Xiaomi".equals(Build.MANUFACTURER, ignoreCase = true) //bluestacks
            || Build.MANUFACTURER.contains("Genymotion")
            || Build.HOST=="Build2" //MSI App Player
            || Build.BRAND.startsWith("generic") && Build.DEVICE.startsWith("generic")
            || Build.PRODUCT == "google_sdk"
            // another Android SDK emulator check
            || SystemProperties.getProp("ro.kernel.qemu") == "1"
    sIsProbablyRunningOnEmulator = result
    return result
}

Note that some emulators fake exact specs of real devices, so it might be impossible to detect it. I've added what I could, but I don't think there is a 100% way to detect if it's really an emulator or not.

Here a tiny snippet you can make in the APK to show various things about it, so you could add your own rules:

        textView.text = "FINGERPRINT:${Build.FINGERPRINT}\n" +
                "MODEL:${Build.MODEL}\n" +
                "MANUFACTURER:${Build.MANUFACTURER}\n" +
                "BRAND:${Build.BRAND}\n" +
                "DEVICE:${Build.DEVICE}\n" +
                "BOARD:${Build.BOARD}\n" +
                "HOST:${Build.HOST}\n" +
                "PRODUCT:${Build.PRODUCT}\n"

Answer 2

One common one sems to be Build.FINGERPRINT.contains("generic")

Answer 3

Well Android id does not work for me, I'm currently using:

"google_sdk".equals( Build.PRODUCT );

Answer 4

Google uses this code in the device-info plugin from Flutter to determine if the device is an emulator:

private boolean isEmulator() {
    return (Build.BRAND.startsWith("generic") && Build.DEVICE.startsWith("generic"))
        || Build.FINGERPRINT.startsWith("generic")
        || Build.FINGERPRINT.startsWith("unknown")
        || Build.HARDWARE.contains("goldfish")
        || Build.HARDWARE.contains("ranchu")
        || Build.MODEL.contains("google_sdk")
        || Build.MODEL.contains("Emulator")
        || Build.MODEL.contains("Android SDK built for x86")
        || Build.MANUFACTURER.contains("Genymotion")
        || Build.PRODUCT.contains("sdk_google")
        || Build.PRODUCT.contains("google_sdk")
        || Build.PRODUCT.contains("sdk")
        || Build.PRODUCT.contains("sdk_x86")
        || Build.PRODUCT.contains("vbox86p")
        || Build.PRODUCT.contains("emulator")
        || Build.PRODUCT.contains("simulator");
}

Answer 5

Based on hints from other answers, this is probably the most robust way:

isEmulator = "goldfish".equals(Build.HARDWARE)

Answer 6

How about something like the code below to tell if your app was signed with the debug key? it's not detecting the emulator but it might work for your purpose?

public void onCreate Bundle b ) {
   super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
   if ( signedWithDebugKey(this,this.getClass()) ) {
     blah blah blah
   }

  blah 
    blah 
      blah

}

static final String DEBUGKEY = 
      "get the debug key from logcat after calling the function below once from the emulator";    


public static boolean signedWithDebugKey(Context context, Class<?> cls) 
{
    boolean result = false;
    try {
        ComponentName comp = new ComponentName(context, cls);
        PackageInfo pinfo = context.getPackageManager().getPackageInfo(comp.getPackageName(),PackageManager.GET_SIGNATURES);
        Signature sigs[] = pinfo.signatures;
        for ( int i = 0; i < sigs.length;i++)
        Log.d(TAG,sigs[i].toCharsString());
        if (DEBUGKEY.equals(sigs[0].toCharsString())) {
            result = true;
            Log.d(TAG,"package has been signed with the debug key");
        } else {
            Log.d(TAG,"package signed with a key other than the debug key");
        }

    } catch (android.content.pm.PackageManager.NameNotFoundException e) {
        return false;
    }

    return result;

} 

Answer 7

This code works for me

TelephonyManager tm = (TelephonyManager)getSystemService(Context.TELEPHONY_SERVICE);
String networkOperator = tm.getNetworkOperatorName();
if("Android".equals(networkOperator)) {
    // Emulator
}
else {
    // Device
}

In case that device does not have sim card, It retuns empty string:""

Since Android emulator always retuns "Android" as network operator, I use above code.

Answer 8

I tried several techniques, but settled on a slightly revised version of checking the Build.PRODUCT as below. This seems to vary quite a bit from emulator to emulator, that's why I have the 3 checks I currently have. I guess I could have just checked if product.contains("sdk") but thought the check below was a bit safer.

public static boolean isAndroidEmulator() {
    String model = Build.MODEL;
    Log.d(TAG, "model=" + model);
    String product = Build.PRODUCT;
    Log.d(TAG, "product=" + product);
    boolean isEmulator = false;
    if (product != null) {
        isEmulator = product.equals("sdk") || product.contains("_sdk") || product.contains("sdk_");
    }
    Log.d(TAG, "isEmulator=" + isEmulator);
    return isEmulator;
}

FYI - I found that my Kindle Fire had Build.BRAND = "generic", and some of the emulators didn't have "Android" for the network operator.

Answer 9

Both the following are set to "google_sdk":

Build.PRODUCT
Build.MODEL

So it should be enough to use either one of the following lines.

"google_sdk".equals(Build.MODEL)

or

"google_sdk".equals(Build.PRODUCT)

Answer 10

I just look for _sdk, _sdk_ or sdk_, or even just sdk part in Build.PRODUCT:

if(Build.PRODUCT.matches(".*_?sdk_?.*")){
  //-- emulator --
}else{
  //-- other device --
}

Answer 11

I never found a good way to tell if you're in the emulator.

but if you just need to detecet if you're in a development environment you can do this :

     if(Debug.isDebuggerConnected() ) {
        // Things to do in debug environment...
    }

Hope this help....

Answer 12

use this function :

 public static final boolean isEmulator() {

    int rating = 0;

    if ((Build.PRODUCT.equals("sdk")) || (Build.PRODUCT.equals("google_sdk"))
            || (Build.PRODUCT.equals("sdk_x86")) || (Build.PRODUCT.equals("vbox86p"))) {
        rating++;
    }
    if ((Build.MANUFACTURER.equals("unknown")) || (Build.MANUFACTURER.equals("Genymotion"))) {
        rating++;
    }
    if ((Build.BRAND.equals("generic")) || (Build.BRAND.equals("generic_x86"))) {
        rating++;
    }
    if ((Build.DEVICE.equals("generic")) || (Build.DEVICE.equals("generic_x86")) || (Build.DEVICE.equals("vbox86p"))) {
        rating++;
    }
    if ((Build.MODEL.equals("sdk")) || (Build.MODEL.equals("google_sdk"))
            || (Build.MODEL.equals("Android SDK built for x86"))) {
        rating++;
    }
    if ((Build.HARDWARE.equals("goldfish")) || (Build.HARDWARE.equals("vbox86"))) {
        rating++;
    }
    if ((Build.FINGERPRINT.contains("generic/sdk/generic"))
            || (Build.FINGERPRINT.contains("generic_x86/sdk_x86/generic_x86"))
            || (Build.FINGERPRINT.contains("generic/google_sdk/generic"))
            || (Build.FINGERPRINT.contains("generic/vbox86p/vbox86p"))) {
        rating++;
    }

    return rating > 4;

    }

Answer 13

Don't know if there are better ways to detect the emu, but the emulator will have the file init.goldfish.rc in the root-directory.

It's the emulator specific startup-script, and it shouldn't be there on a non-emulator build.

Answer 14

Here is my solution (it works only if you run a web server on your debug machine): I have created a background task that starts when the application starts. It looks for http://10.0.2.2 and if it exists it changes a global parameter (IsDebug) to true. It is a silent way to find out where you are running.

public class CheckDebugModeTask extends AsyncTask<String, Void, String> {
public static boolean IsDebug = false;

public CheckDebugModeTask()
{

}

@Override
protected String doInBackground(String... params) {     
  try {
    HttpParams httpParameters = new BasicHttpParams();
    int timeoutConnection = 1000;
    HttpConnectionParams.setConnectionTimeout(httpParameters, timeoutConnection);
    int timeoutSocket = 2000;
    HttpConnectionParams.setSoTimeout(httpParameters, timeoutSocket);

    String url2 = "http://10.0.2.2";        
          HttpGet httpGet = new HttpGet(url2);
    DefaultHttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient(httpParameters);

    HttpResponse response2 = client.execute(httpGet);
    if (response2 == null || response2.getEntity() == null || response2.getEntity().getContent() == null)
    return "";

    return "Debug";

} catch (Exception e) {
    return "";
}
}

@Override
protected void onPostExecute (String result)
{       
if (result == "Debug")
{
    CheckDebugModeTask.IsDebug = true;
}
}

from the main activity onCreate:

CheckDebugModeTask checkDebugMode = new CheckDebugModeTask();
checkDebugMode.execute("");

Answer 15

From Battery, the emulator: Power source is always AC Charger. Temperature is always 0.

And you can use Build.HOST to record host value, different emulator has different host value.

Answer 16

Another option would be to look at the ro.hardware property and see if its set to goldfish. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be an easy way to do this from Java but its trivial from C using property_get().

Answer 17

I found the new emulator Build.HARDWARE = "ranchu".

Reference:https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/android-emulator-dev/dltBnUW_HzU

And also I found the Android official way to check whether emulator or not.I think it's good reference for us.

Since Android API Level 23 [Android 6.0]

package com.android.internal.util;

/**
 * @hide
 */
public class ScreenShapeHelper {
    private static final boolean IS_EMULATOR = Build.HARDWARE.contains("goldfish");
}

We have ScreenShapeHelper.IS_EMULATOR to check whether emulator.

Since Android API Level 24 [Android 7.0]

package android.os;

/**
 * Information about the current build, extracted from system properties.
 */
public class Build {


    /**
     * Whether this build was for an emulator device.
     * @hide
     */
    public static final boolean IS_EMULATOR = getString("ro.kernel.qemu").equals("1");

}

We have Build.IS_EMULATOR to check whether emulator.

The way the official to check whether emulator is not new,and also maybe not enough,the answers above also mentioned.

But this maybe show us that the official will provide the way of official to check whether emulator or not.

As using the above all ways mentioned,right now we can also use the two ways about to check whether emulator.

How to access the com.android.internal package and @hide

and wait for the official open SDK.

Answer 18

The above suggested solution to check for the ANDROID_ID worked for me until I updated today to the latest SDK tools released with Android 2.2.

Therefore I currently switched to the following solution which works so far with the disadvantage however that you need to put the PHONE_STATE read permission (<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE"/>)

private void checkForDebugMode() {
    ISDEBUGMODE = false; //(Secure.getString(getApplicationContext().getContentResolver(), Secure.ANDROID_ID) == null);

    TelephonyManager man = (TelephonyManager) getApplicationContext().getSystemService(Context.TELEPHONY_SERVICE);
    if(man != null){
        String devId = man.getDeviceSoftwareVersion();
        ISDEBUGMODE = (devId == null);
    }
} 

Answer 19

All answers in one method

static boolean checkEmulator()
{
    try
    {
        String buildDetails = (Build.FINGERPRINT + Build.DEVICE + Build.MODEL + Build.BRAND + Build.PRODUCT + Build.MANUFACTURER + Build.HARDWARE).toLowerCase();

        if (buildDetails.contains("generic") 
        ||  buildDetails.contains("unknown") 
        ||  buildDetails.contains("emulator") 
        ||  buildDetails.contains("sdk") 
        ||  buildDetails.contains("genymotion") 
        ||  buildDetails.contains("x86") // this includes vbox86
        ||  buildDetails.contains("goldfish")
        ||  buildDetails.contains("test-keys"))
            return true;
    }   
    catch (Throwable t) {Logger.catchedError(t);}

    try
    {
        TelephonyManager    tm  = (TelephonyManager) App.context.getSystemService(Context.TELEPHONY_SERVICE);
        String              non = tm.getNetworkOperatorName().toLowerCase();
        if (non.equals("android"))
            return true;
    }
    catch (Throwable t) {Logger.catchedError(t);}

    try
    {
        if (new File ("/init.goldfish.rc").exists())
            return true;
    }
    catch (Throwable t) {Logger.catchedError(t);}

    return false;
}

Answer 20

My recommendation:

try this from github.

Easy to detect android emulator

• Checked on real devices in Device Farm (https://aws.amazon.com/device-farm/)
• BlueStacks
• Genymotion
• Android Emulator
• Andy 46.2.207.0
• MEmu play
• Nox App Player
• Koplayer
• .....

How to use with an Example:

EmulatorDetector.with(this)
                .setCheckTelephony(true)
                .addPackageName("com.bluestacks")
                .setDebug(true)
                .detect(new EmulatorDetector.OnEmulatorDetectorListener() {
                    @Override
                    public void onResult(boolean isEmulator) {
                        if(isEmulator){
                         // Do your work
                        }
                        else{
                        // Not emulator and do your work
                        }
                    }
                });

Answer 21

Build.BRAND.startsWith("generic") && Build.DEVICE.startsWith("generic")

This should return true if the app is running on an emulator.

What we should be careful about is not detecting all the emulators because there are only several different emulators. It is easy to check. We have to make sure that actual devices are not detected as an emulator.

I used the app called "Android Device Info Share" to check this.

On this app, you can see various kinds of information of many devices (probably most devices in the world; if the device you are using is missing from the list, it will be added automatically).

Answer 22

Checking the answers, none of them worked when using LeapDroid, Droid4x or Andy emulators,

What does work for all cases is the following:

 private static String getSystemProperty(String name) throws Exception {
    Class systemPropertyClazz = Class.forName("android.os.SystemProperties");
    return (String) systemPropertyClazz.getMethod("get", new Class[]{String.class}).invoke(systemPropertyClazz, new Object[]{name});
}

public boolean isEmulator() {
    boolean goldfish = getSystemProperty("ro.hardware").contains("goldfish");
    boolean emu = getSystemProperty("ro.kernel.qemu").length() > 0;
    boolean sdk = getSystemProperty("ro.product.model").equals("sdk");
    return goldfish || emu || sdk;
}

Answer 23

you can check the IMEI #, http://developer.android.com/reference/android/telephony/TelephonyManager.html#getDeviceId%28%29

if i recall on the emulator this return 0. however, there's no documentation i can find that guarantees that. although the emulator might not always return 0, it seems pretty safe that a registered phone would not return 0. what would happen on a non-phone android device, or one without a SIM card installed or one that isn't currently registered on the network?

seems like that'd be a bad idea, to depend on that.

it also means you'd need to ask for permission to read the phone state, which is bad if you don't already require it for something else.

if not that, then there's always flipping some bit somewhere before you finally generate your signed app.

Answer 24

Actually, ANDROID_ID on 2.2 always equals 9774D56D682E549C (according to this thread + my own experiments).

So, you could check something like this:

String androidID = ...;
if(androidID == null || androidID.equals("9774D56D682E549C"))
    do stuff;

Not the prettiest, but it does the job.

Answer 25

This works for me

public boolean isEmulator() {
    return Build.MANUFACTURER.equals("unknown");
}

Answer 26

Put a file in the file system of the emulator; since the file won't exist on the real device, this should be stable, reliable and easy to fix when it breaks.

Answer 27

I've collected all the answers on this question and came up with function to detect if Android is running on a vm/emulator:

public boolean isvm(){


        StringBuilder deviceInfo = new StringBuilder();
        deviceInfo.append("Build.PRODUCT " +Build.PRODUCT +"\n");
        deviceInfo.append("Build.FINGERPRINT " +Build.FINGERPRINT+"\n");
        deviceInfo.append("Build.MANUFACTURER " +Build.MANUFACTURER+"\n");
        deviceInfo.append("Build.MODEL " +Build.MODEL+"\n");
        deviceInfo.append("Build.BRAND " +Build.BRAND+"\n");
        deviceInfo.append("Build.DEVICE " +Build.DEVICE+"\n");
        String info = deviceInfo.toString();


        Log.i("LOB", info);


        Boolean isvm = false;
        if(
                "google_sdk".equals(Build.PRODUCT) ||
                "sdk_google_phone_x86".equals(Build.PRODUCT) ||
                "sdk".equals(Build.PRODUCT) ||
                "sdk_x86".equals(Build.PRODUCT) ||
                "vbox86p".equals(Build.PRODUCT) ||
                Build.FINGERPRINT.contains("generic") ||
                Build.MANUFACTURER.contains("Genymotion") ||
                Build.MODEL.contains("Emulator") ||
                Build.MODEL.contains("Android SDK built for x86")
                ){
            isvm =  true;
        }


        if(Build.BRAND.contains("generic")&&Build.DEVICE.contains("generic")){
            isvm =  true;
        }

        return isvm;
    }

---

Tested on Emulator, Genymotion and Bluestacks (1 October 2015).

Answer 28

Whichever code you use to do emulator detection, I'd highly recommend writing unit tests to cover all the Build.FINGERPRINT, Build.HARDWARE and Build.MANUFACTURER values that you are depending on. Here are some example tests:

@Test
public void testIsEmulatorGenymotion() throws Exception {
    assertThat(
            DeviceUtils.isRunningOnEmulator(
                    "generic/vbox86p/vbox86p:4.1.1/JRO03S/eng.buildbot.20150217.102902:userdebug/test-keys",
                    "vbox86", "Genymotion")).isTrue();

    assertThat(
            DeviceUtils.isRunningOnEmulator(
                    "generic/vbox86p/vbox86p:5.1/LMY47D/buildbot06092001:userdebug/test-keys", "vbox86",
                    "Genymotion")).isTrue();
}

@Test
public void testIsEmulatorDefaultAndroidEmulator() throws Exception {
    assertThat(
            DeviceUtils.isRunningOnEmulator(
                    "generic_x86/sdk_google_phone_x86/generic_x86:5.0.2/LSY66H/1960483:eng/test-keys", "goldfish",
                    "unknown")).isTrue();

    assertThat(
            DeviceUtils.isRunningOnEmulator(
                    "Android/sdk_google_phone_x86_64/generic_x86_64:6.0/MASTER/2469028:userdebug/test-keys",
                    "ranchu", "unknown")).isTrue();
}

@Test
public void testIsEmulatorRealNexus5() throws Exception {
    assertThat(
            DeviceUtils.isRunningOnEmulator("google/hammerhead/hammerhead:6.0.1/MMB29K/2419427:user/release-keys",
                    "hammerhead", "LGE")).isFalse();
}

...and here's our code (debug logs and comments removed for conciseness):

public static boolean isRunningOnEmulator() {
    if (sIsRunningEmulator == null) {
        sIsRunningEmulator = isRunningOnEmulator(Build.FINGERPRINT, Build.HARDWARE, Build.MANUFACTURER);
    }

    return sIsRunningEmulator;
}

static boolean isRunningOnEmulator(String fingerprint, String hardware, String manufacturer) {
    boolean isEmulatorFingerprint = fingerprint.endsWith("test-keys");
    boolean isEmulatorManufacturer = manufacturer.equals("Genymotion")
            || manufacturer.equals("unknown");

    if (isEmulatorFingerprint && isEmulatorManufacturer) {
        return true;
    } else {
        return false;
    }
}

Answer 29

Another option is to check if you are in debug mode or production mode:

if (BuildConfig.DEBUG) { Log.i(TAG, "I am in debug mode"); }

simple and reliable.

Not totally the answer of the question but in most cases you may want to distinguish between debugging/test sessions and life sessions of your user base.

In my case I set google analytics to dryRun() when in debug mode so this approach works totally fine for me.

---

For more advanced users there is another option. gradle build variants:

in your app's gradle file add a new variant:

buildTypes {
    release {
        // some already existing commands
    }
    debug {
        // some already existing commands
    }
    // the following is new
    test {
    }
}

In your code check the build type:

if ("test".equals(BuildConfig.BUILD_TYPE)) { Log.i(TAG, "I am in Test build type"); }
 else if ("debug".equals(BuildConfig.BUILD_TYPE)) { Log.i(TAG, "I am in Debug build type"); }

Now you have the opportunity to build 3 different types of your app.

Answer 30

Since the underlying emulation engine for Genymotion is VirtualBox and that's not going to change any time soon I found the following code the most reliable:

   public static boolean isGenymotion() {
        return Build.PRODUCT != null && Build.PRODUCT.contains("vbox");
}