Since our initial launch of the Visual Studio Emulator for Android, we’ve worked quickly to deliver on top feature requests, adding in support for hot-ticket items such as OpenGL ES 2.0, Lollipop, multi-touch, and advanced camera simulation. Today we’re announcing two more features to help you debug and test your Android apps on our fast, Hyper-V compatible, x86 emulator: Device Profiles and WiFi simulation.
Device Profiles
It’s no secret that testing your Android app for compatibility across the staggering variety of Android hardware can be a challenge. Android phones and tablets in the market span a wide range of versions and screen sizes and come in many different hardware configurations (RAM, CPUs, architecture, etc). Making sure that your app works as expected for the most popular devices on the market can mean developer desks cluttered with devices and USB cables and require a significant financial investment. Now, the Visual Studio Emulator for Android is making testing across the gamut of Android devices a cinch by introducing Device Profiles. We’ve curated a set of device profiles that represent the most popular hardware in the market, including devices from Samsung, Motorola, Sony, LG, and more. When you install Visual Studio 2015 RC, you’ll find a new option in Visual Studio under the tools menu—a link to the “Visual Studio Emulator for Android…”
Clicking this menu item will bring up the Emulator Manager, with which you can install, uninstall, and start device profiles. By default, we’ve gone ahead and pre-installed the four device profiles that came with previous versions of the emulator (KitKat and Lollipop phone and tablet configurations), as indicated by the white text and icons. Other profiles in the list will appear grayed out until you click the “Install Profile” button and the installation completes. You can filter the list by API Level (currently 19 and 21, but more to come soon) and click the details arrow on the bottom right-hand side of a profile to view its full configuration details.