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Want to play your Android mobile games on your PC and laptop? Here’s how.
Follow these four simple guides and you’ll be able to play your favourite mobile games on a bigger display in no time. For Windows and ChromeOS users, the majority of these guides should assist you. For Mac users, not all of these programs run on macOS but jump to the last guide to find out how you can run your apps.
Once you’ve got your games up and running, make sure you’re playing on the best gaming laptop. Let’s get straight into how you can play mobile games on PC and laptop.
How to run Android apps on a ChromeOS computer
Having a Chromebook or a Chromebox is one of the easiest ways to run Android apps and games on a PC. ChromeOS already has Android support built in and so getting your mobiles programs to work won’t require much effort at all.
Step 1: Open the Play Store on your desktop
Step 2: Browser for apps and games
If you can’t find the Play Store on your Chromebook, go to Settings and select Google Play Store in the Apps section. From here, you can Manage your apps to view/uninstall/pin them to desktop.
How to run Android apps on Windows via the Amazon app store
Windows also supports Android apps. You can find the apps in the Amazon Appstore or the Google Play Store.
Step 1: Open up the Microsoft Store
Step 2: Search for Amazon Appstore and click Install
Step 3: Either sign in or register for an Amazon account in the app
Step 4: Search for games and apps. To install the app/game, click on Get and then Download.
How to run Android games on Windows using Google Play Games
Microsoft and Google have an official way to play Android games on PC or laptop, but it is unfortunately just games, not apps. At the time of writing, it is still in beta testing, so keep that in mind if you run into any issues.
Step 1: Go to Google Play Games beta page in your web browser and click Download beta.
Step 2: Run the downloaded file. Once it’s downloaded, you’ll be asked to sign into your Google account. Once you’re in, you can start looking through all the apps. Any games you previously installed on an Android phone or tablet will appear.
Step 3: Once you’ve found the game you want to play, click Install. The games you download will be accessible through the library inside Google Play Games, not in the Start menu.
How to use an emulator to get Android apps on Mac and PC
To run apps on macOS and Windows, is to run an emulator. Essentially, the emulators use code written for Android, interpret it, and then create the same results on a desktop. It may mean that the apps run slower on a desktop that on a phone, but it shouldn’t be a noticeable problem. Here’s how you can do it.
Step 1: Install BlueStacks. It’s free, fast and easy to set up.
Step 2: Once installed, head to the Home tab. Here you can see BlueStack’s own games as well as a link to the Google Play Store for more apps.
Step 3: Find what you want to install by scrolling through or searching in the search box. Once you’ve chosen your application, download it.
Everything you install will run through BlueStack’s own interface and app player, not from the Windows Start Menu. You can also find the Multi-instance manager tool in the left-hand navigation pane. With this tool you can run games and apps using different accounts at the same time.
