Android is Google’s popular mobile operating system used in millions of phones and tablets. There are many Android specific apps that you may be interested in using even if you don’t own an Android device. If you are a developer you may also want to test out your app in a virtual environment. This can be done using an Android emulator such as BlueStacks.
BlueStacks allows you to run a version of Android on your computer which functions in a similar fashion to Android on an actual tablet. You can then download apps from Google Play or other sources.
Your computer does not have to be touch screen to utilize BlueStacks since you can use your mouse to simulate swiping and pressing. This may not feel natural for some apps or games that are touch intensive, but can otherwise be a reasonable alternative. Please note that BlueStacks may also utilize quite a bit of memory as do all virtualization software, so you may notice slower performance if you use it with many other programs simultaneously.
Last Updated on January 22, 2023 by Nathan Vidal