You can set up and run the Raspberry Pi remotely without a monitor or ethernet cable, but you will need a set of wired accessories if you choose to install Android on your Raspberry Pi 4 board. In this article, we provide you with a detailed guide on how to install Android on Raspberry Pi 4 and 3. We also mentioned a way to run Android 11 on Raspberry Pi, but for stability and good performance, we chose this one. Stick to Android 10. With that in mind, let’s go ahead and learn how to run Android on Raspberry Pi 4 and RPi 3.
Install Android on Raspberry Pi 4 and 3 (2022)
This is an all-in-one guide to running Android on Raspberry Pi for beginners and experts alike. I suggest you follow the step-by-step instructions closely and you will have your Android running on your clipboard in no time.
Basic requirements
1. You will need a separate monitor to install and setup Android on Raspberry Pi.
2. HDMI cable according to your motherboard. Raspberry Pi 4 will need a micro HDMI to HDMI cable Raspberry Pi 3, on the other hand, will require an HDMI to HDMI cable.
2. A microSD card with 16GB or more of free space.
3. Keyboard and mouse. If you have a wireless combo device, that’s even better.
4. A power adapter depending on your motherboard.
Basic Downloads
1. First download Android for Raspberry Pi. A developer named KonstaKANG is popular for making Android ROMs for Raspberry Pi 3 and 4. Based on Lineage operating system and available in multiple versions including Android 9, 10 and 11. Download any Android version depending on your motherboard, but I recommend Android 10 for stability. You can do click here Go to the RPi 4 download page. If you want to download RPi3 for Android, click on the Devices menu in the upper right corner.
2. Next, what you need to do Download the GApps package Since Android build doesn’t come with Google apps and services. open this link and select “ARM” and “Android 10” when installing Android 10 build and choose “pico” as it is the minimum required to run Google Play Services.
3. Next, you need to download balenaEtcher (free) to install Android to SD card.
Install Android on Raspberry Pi
1. After downloading the Android build, extract it and create a IMG file.
2. Next, open balenaEtcher and select the Android IMG file. In my case, it’s an Android 10 build. After that, select the SD card and click “Flash!“.
3. After the flashing process is complete, remove the SD card and insert it into the Raspberry Pi module. In addition, connect a mouse and keyboard. Finally, connect the power supply and HDMI cable to the monitor.
4. When you start the Raspberry Pi, you will find: Installing Lineage OS on the screen in a few seconds.
5. After a while, you will be greeted with the normal Android installation process. follow the onscreen instructions and make sure you are connected to a Wi-Fi network.
Install Google Play Store and Services on Android-based Raspberry Pi
1. Now that you’ve installed Android on Raspberry Pi, it’s time to add support for Google Play Store and other services. Use a USB drive and move the GApps package From your computer to Raspberry Pi. I tried downloading the GApps package directly to the Raspberry Pi but that didn’t work. It will be easier for you if you can download it to the clipboard itself.
2. After moving the GApps package to the clipboard, open Settings and go to “About tablet”. Here, “Build number” 7-8 times continuously to unlock Developer Options. If “About tablet” doesn’t appear in the Settings page, you can search for “build” in the Settings page.
3. Now go back to the main Settings menu and System -> Advanced -> Developer Options.
4. Then, “Advanced Restart“.
5. Now, click “Restart Android on Raspberry Pi”F5Press the ” key on the keyboard. Next, click on “Restart” and select “Recovery”.
note: Some keyboard shortcuts for Android on Raspberry Pi are as follows: F1 = Home, F2 = Back, F3 = Multitasking, F4 = Menu, F5 = Power, F11 = Volume down and F12 = Volume up.
6. You will now boot into TWRP recovery. If prompted, click on the “Swipe to Allow Changes” option. After this, “To organise“.
7. Here, Select the GApps package That we transferred to the Raspberry Pi board.
8. Finally, “Swipe to confirm flash“.
9. Now, click on the TWRP icon in the upper left corner, it will take you to the main menu. This time, go to: Erase -> Factory Reset.
10. When the reset is complete, click on “.rebooting the system” on the same page.
11. And voila! You will boot directly to Android on your Raspberry Pi. And this time you will be asked to install Google. Now go ahead and follow the onscreen instructions to sign in to your Google account. I recommend you to not add your primary Google account Because Google has recently terminated accounts for unknown policy violations.
12. Here it is. Google Play Store and all Google services are now installed on Raspberry Pi and work absolutely fine. “Device is not Play Protect certified” notification or some apps like Netflix cannot be downloaded, follow the steps below to fix this issue.
Fix “Device is not Play Protect certified” Error on Android-based Raspberry Pi
If you are getting this error on your Android-based Raspberry Pi, there is nothing to worry about. You can manually register your Android-based Raspberry Pi to Google’s list of certified devices. To start, Install the Device ID app by Evozi (game store/ APKMirror) on Raspberry Pi. If Play Store is not opening for you, you can install Device ID APK from APKMirror.
2. Next, open the Device ID app; Google Service Framework (GSF). Click on it and “copy” the code.
3. Open now google.com/android/uncertified into your Raspberry Pi and paste the GSF code. After this, “RegisterThis is all you need to do to fix the error “Device is not Play Protect certified”. Now wait 5-10 minutes and the notification will be gone. You will be able to access the Google Play Store and all its apps from your Raspberry Pi 4.
4. If it still doesn’t work, restart your Android-based Raspberry Pi. Hold down the F5 key and click Restart -> System. This time the error should be gone. You can do check your device certificate From the Play Store -> Profile menu in the upper right corner -> Settings -> About -> Play Protect certificate. Here it should display “Device certified”.
Run Android Without Restrictions on Raspberry Pi
So you can install and run Android on a Raspberry Pi. In this guide, I chose KonstaKANG’s Android build as it offers greater stability and has broader support for older Pi boards. In case you want to run the latest Android 11 build, Check out recently released OmniROM builds. However, it is only compatible with RPi 4 with at least 4GB of RAM. But the good part is that it comes preloaded with Google services.
So stay tuned for more interesting tutorials on Raspberry Pi. If you want to use your Raspberry Pi to set up Pi-hole, we have a dedicated guide that provides instructions from scratch. Finally, if you have any questions, comment below and let us know. We will try to help you.
