How to install Google Play app in Android Studio emulator?

Starting with Android Studio 3.0 Canary 1, you have now some options of devices that come with the Play Store app built-in(Nexus 5X and Nexus 5 on image below).

https://i.stack.imgur.com/jfHJo.png

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After a long while of testing, everything seems to be outdated. I can't find necessary APK's like GoogleLoginService.apk, etc.

I got it to work by installing two virtual devices.

My Device (a Samsung Galaxy Tab A with custom skin and sizes) A device, which had the "Play Store Available" icon in your AVD-Manager on the site where you can create a new profile.

I installed the first device and the second device with the same Android version, and used one profile from Samsung (because my tablet is a Samsung).

After that step, I compared the config.ini file located in:

C:\Users\USER\.android\avd\DEVICE_ID

On Ubuntu/Linux it'll be in

~/.android/avd/DEVICE_ID

Change the following variables to:

PlayStore.enabled = true
image.sysdir.1=system-images\android-27\google_apis_playstore\x86\
tag.display=Google Play
tag.id=google_apis_playstore

Here's an example diff of what fields will be changed:

https://i.stack.imgur.com/Jv3dl.png

After that you'll probably have to re-download the system image for the device, which you can do from Tools > AVD Manager.

Here's an example screenshot of what that'd look like:

https://i.stack.imgur.com/VE4xZ.png

Once done, restart the device, and Play store will be installed and ready to use.

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Download Google apps (GoogleLoginService.apk , GoogleServicesFramework.apk , Phonesky.apk) from http://wiki.rootzwiki.com/Google_Apps#Universal_Packages_2

Start your emulator:

emulator -avd VM_NAME_HERE -partition-size 500 -no-audio -no-boot-anim

Then use the following commands:

Remount in rw mode

adb shell mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock0 /system

Allow writing to app directory on system partition

adb shell chmod 777 /system/app

Install following apk

adb push GoogleLoginService.apk /system/app/.
adb push GoogleServicesFramework.apk /system/app/.
adb push Phonesky.apk /system/app/. # Vending.apk in older versions
adb shell rm /system/app/SdkSetup*

Refer: to this SO Post

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All this is not necessary on the latest MM API images.

All that was needed for me was to:

adb remount
adb push Phonesky.apk /system/priv-app/.
adb stop && adb restart

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On new version of sdk, you could browse:

C:\Users{$User}\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\tools

Create avd from command line:

android create avd --name bphone --package "system-images;android-23;google_apis;x86_64"

There will be a question asking you to custom profile, say yes, then an asking to install CH Play or not, just type yes. Then, open AVD Manager inside Android Studio to reconfig. Notes: Remember to change CPU/ABI to x86

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