Managing AVDs with AVD Manager

The AVD Manager is an easy to use user interface to manage your AVD (Android Virtual Device) configurations. An AVD is a device configuration for the Android emulator that allows you to model different configurations of Android-powered devices. When you start the AVD Manager in Eclipse or run the android tool on the command line, you will see the AVD Manager as shown in figure 1:

Figure 1. Screenshot of the AVD Manager.

From the main screen, you can create, delete, repair and start AVDs as well as see the details of each AVD.

Creating an AVD

You can create as many AVDs as you would like to test on. It is recommended that you test your applications on all API levels higher than the target API level for your application.

To create an AVD:

1. Start the AVD Manager:
   • In Eclipse: select Window > AVD Manager, or click the AVD Manager icon in the Eclipse toolbar.
   • In other IDEs: Navigate to your SDK's tools/ directory and execute the android tool with no arguments.

2. In the Virtual Devices panel, you'll see a list of existing AVDs. Click New to create a new AVD. The Create New AVD dialog appears.

   

   Figure 2. Screenshot of the Create AVD window

3. Fill in the details for the AVD.

   Give it a name, a platform target, an SD card size, and a skin (HVGA is default). You can also add specific hardware features of the emulated device by clicking the New... button and selecting the feature. For a list of hardware features, see Hardware options.

   Note: Be sure to define a target for your AVD that satisfies your application's Build Target (the AVD platform target must have an API Level equal to or greater than the API Level that your application compiles against).

4. Click Create AVD.

Your AVD is now ready and you can either close the AVD Manager, create more AVDs, or launch an emulator with the AVD by selecting a device and clicking Start.

Hardware options

If you are creating a new AVD, you can specify the following hardware options for the AVD to emulate: