Before Microsoft brought native Android app support in Windows 11, Linux ruined the party. WayDroid is a kind of compatibility layer that lets you run Android apps on any Linux distribution. The best part about WayDroid is that you get far better performance from an optimized Android emulator or a virtual machine running Android x86 on Linux. It almost feels like you are running Android apps locally on your Linux machine. However, let’s not waste any more time and learn how to run Android apps on Linux without an emulator.
Run Android Apps on Linux Without Emulator (2021)
1. First of all, what you need to do Install curl if you haven’t installed it yet. Open terminal and run the following command. Press the “y” key and press Enter when Terminal prompts you for permission.
sudo apt install curl
2. Next, run the following command According to your Linux distribution. If you are using Ubuntu, use focal For Distro and latest Debian bullseye, and such that. If you get a “Permission denied” error along the way, just run sudo su and then continue with commands.
export DISTRO="focal"
3. After doing this, execute the following command To download WayDroid’s GPG key to your Linux distribution.
curl https://repo.waydro.id/waydroid.gpg > /usr/share/keyrings/waydroid.gpg
4. Then run the next command listed below and install WayDroid Source list.
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/waydroid.gpg] https://repo.waydro.id/ $DISTRO main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/waydroid.list
5. Now run the basic Linux command “side apt update” to update the repository and packages.
sudo apt update
6. Finally, Install WayDroid on your Linux machine. Enter the following command, press “y” when prompted and press Enter to continue.
sudo apt install waydroid
7. After the installation is complete, you need to run another command to download the Android image for WayDroid. Note that it will take some time as it is around the image size. 600MB.
sudo waydroid init
8. Now you are almost ready. first you need start some WayDroid services Before you can run Android apps on your Linux PC without an emulator. Execute the following commands one by one.
sudo systemctl start waydroid-container waydroid session start
9. Finally, run the command below and WayDroid’s GUI will open on your Linux PC. Now you can continue and Enjoy Android apps on your Linux computer. By the way, you can also launch WayDroid from the app drawer.
waydroid show-full-ui
Install Android Apps on Linux and Enjoy Near Native Experience
This is how you can install and run Android apps on your Linux PC, whether you’re using Ubuntu, Debian or any other distribution. As we mentioned above, the performance of Android applications is really good. I regularly use Android apps on my Chromebook and I must say the performance is almost the same. One thing is for sure, it doesn’t feel like you are using an Android emulator. Anyway, that’s it for us. If you are a Chromebook user and want to update the Linux container to Bullseye, follow our linked article for detailed instructions. You can also learn how to install Minecraft or Albion Online on your Chromebook via the linked articles. And if you have any questions, let us know in the comment section below.
