Genymotion now bears easy Google Play Services install feature

The last years I’ve been using Genymotion to test and debug mobile apps for the Android platform because of the speed, the ease of use and the possibility to add new simulated devices within a few button clicks.

In other words: no hassle, it just works.

One of the things I often need to test when developing a mobile app is Push Notification functionality that often needs to be implemented for a mobile solution.
Apple’s Simulator isn’t capable of that and I use debugging on a device for that platform.
But for Android, it’s another story since You actually CAN receive push notifications on a simulated device using a Google emulator.

The process for doing that involves adding Google Play Services, which – I’m glad to report – has been simplified.

In order to receive push notifications on a Genymotion virtual Android device (in its guts, Genymotion runs on VirtualBox), you would need to install Google Play Services.

The Google Play Services functionality isn’t available on the downloadable Android images that Genymotion relies on. In order to make it work, you would previously have to download some zip files that contain the Google Play Services functionality and more and drag and drop them on the virtual machine that you would like to test it on.

As of Genymotion version 2.1.0, Genymotion has implemented the “Open GApps” widget in their Genymotion application. You can read about the newly implemented functionality on their blog.

You can install it as follows:

  1. click the GApps icon on the right side of the running Genymotion virtual Android deviceOpen GApps
  2. Accept their terms and conditionsGApps terms and conditions
  3. Watch it install
    GApps installing
  4. Click ok after the validation message and restart the device
    Gapps installed

That’s it! Enjoy this new and improved installation process, I know I will!