Enabling Google Play Store in Android Studio emulator

Introduction:

When doing a hand’s on lab on Android Mobile Application Pentesting using Android Studio, you might encounter scenarios where you want to spin up your preferred AVD (emulator) but it has no Google Play Store installed on it.

In this guide, we’ll explore how to enable the Google Play Store on AVDs by modifying the config.ini file.

Prerequisites:

Before proceeding, ensure you have the following:

1. Android Studio installed on your system.
2. Basic knowledge on how to spin up emulators(AVD) in Android Studio

Step 1: Locate the config.ini File:

First, we need to locate and edit the config.ini file, which holds the configuration settings for our AVD.

Navigate to the .android directory in your user folder. The path typically looks like this: C:\Users\YourUsername\.android\avd\<the-name-of-your-emulator>.

Step 2: Modify the config.ini file:
Now, let’s modify the config.ini file to enable the Google Play Store on our AVD.

Open the config.ini file using a text editor of your choice.

Step 3: Update Configuration Settings:
Within the config.ini file, locate the following lines:

PlayStore.enabled=false
image.sysdir.1=system-images\android-31\google_apis\x86_64\

Step 4: Enable Google Play Store and Specify Image Path:

Change the value of PlayStore.enabled from false to true. You may comment out the previous entry. This enables the Google Play Store on your AVD. Next, ensure that the image.sysdir.1 line points to the correct system image directory with Google Play Store support. Update the path accordingly if necessary. In my lab, the path is system-images\android-31\google_apis_playstore\x86_64\

Step 5: Save the file and restart.
After making the changes, save the config.ini file and close the text editor.
Also, restart your AVD to apply the changes. You can do this from within Android Studio.

Step 6: Verify Google Play Store:
Once the AVD restarts, launch it and verify that the Google Play Store is now available.

Modifying the config.ini file is one of the ways to enable the Google Play Store on your Android Virtual Device in Android Studio. This tutorial discusses how to enable it

Stay tuned for more tutorials!

Reference/s: https://karthikeyanh4ck0r.medium.com/rooting-emulator-and-installing-magisk-c3cbd34ec436