Xamarin more of an IDE than an emulator; you can say that it is like Android Studio, but there are quite some differences. To begin with, Xamarin has a list of different features than Android Studio. For starters, the Xamarin can plug into the Microsoft Visual Studio, and for those wondering, it does offer emulation just like Android Studio does. Use Nox to run Android apps on Mac Xamarin Android Player for MAC Xamarin is one of the preferred Android emulator software for Mac. There are step by step instructions throughout the setup process of this software. So that you find it comfortable working with. Your loved Android apps would run on a Mac using this program.
- Xamarin Android Emulator Black Screen
- Xamarin Android Emulator Mac Free
- Xamarin Android Emulator Mac Download
I've developed a cross-platform PC (.NET Winforms) and Mac (Xamarin) project, with 30k lines of shared PCL code and approx 20k lines of non-shared code per platform, and although I struggled a bit in the early days (well over a year ago) with lack of documentation for Xamarin Mac. LatestVersion Plugin for Xamarin and Windows apps. Easily detect if you are running the latest version of your iOS, macOS, Android, or Windows app and open it in the App Store, Play Store, or Microsoft Store to update it. Build an iOS app in Visual Studio 2019. It's possible to build and debug the iOS app from Visual Studio with a networked Mac computer. Refer to the setup instructions for more information. This video covers the process of building and testing an iOS app using Visual Studio 2019 on Windows. Go ahead and run the app on your platform of choice. After a short wait, you should see your first Xamarin app running! Deploying your Xamarin app on Visual Studio for Windows. Deploying to Android on Windows is fairly straightforward but iOS requires some work. Both platforms will be covered in this section. Running your Xamarin app on iOS. The next release of Xamarin Forms, Xamarin Forms 3, is going to add full support for desktop apps on Windows, Mac OS and Linux. The MacOS support is in preview now, but the Windows support is still in development.
Creating mobile apps with Xamarin involves more than just coding and pressing F5. Since your apps will be running on a mobile operating system like Android or iOS, testing and debugging them requires running them on a device running one of those operating systems or a simulation of a device.
The first post in this series showed how to get set up and build your first app in Xamarin with C# .NET. This post will show you how to deploy and run your Xamarin app on an iPhone or Android device. You’ll also learn how to deploy and run on iOS and Android emulators. With these techniques you’ll be able to test and debug a single app on a variety of devices and OS versions without needing a stack of phones.
Prerequisites
Visual Studio 2017/2019 for Windows or Visual Studio for Mac
Mobile development with .NET workload for Visual Studio
If you followed along with the first post in this series you should be set up with at least one mobile device emulator, either iOS or Android, and the code for a mobile app.
If not, you can download the code from the companion repository on GitHub.
This post will introduce you to deploying and running your first app on both Windows and macOS. You can skip the sections that aren’t relevant to your environment without missing anything.
If you would like to see a full integration of Twilio APIs in a .NET Core application then checkout this free 5-part video series. It's separate from this blog post tutorial but will give you a full run down of many APIs at once.
Deploying on Visual Studio for Mac
If you are running on a Mac, you can target either iOS or Android emulators almost out of the box. Visual Studio for Mac comes with the iOS simulators built-in, so when developing on a Mac this is the easiest platform to target for quick functionality testing. However, Android doesn’t require much configuration to get you up and running.
Right-click on the platform project of your choice in the Solution Explorer panel and click Set as Startup Project.
Doing so will allow you to run the app when you click the start ('play') icon in the top left, or press F5.
The first time you target Android with a fresh install of Visual Studio, you may find that when running initially, it loads the Android Device Manager with a blank list of devices as shown below.
Click + New Device in the top left.
When the New Device window appears, leave all the defaults unchanged and click Create.
The first time you run against either iOS or Android emulators the app will take some time to cold start. Android is particularly slow, both booting the emulator and building and deploying the app. This is due to the work going on underneath that Android requires for an app; so if it takes some time don’t be worried that something is wrong.
If you have a physical device connected via USB cable you can chose to run the app on it, or on the simulator, from the dropdown list at the right of the three different entries you see to the right of the play icon. The first option is your chosen platform, the second is the deployment configuration, either Debug or Release, and the third is the target device.
If you are targeting an iOS simulator, all the different models of iPhone are available already; just select the one you'd like to use for testing. Device Atlas provides a list of the most popular iPhone models, based on web traffic.
Go ahead and run the app on your platform of choice. After a short wait, you should see your first Xamarin app running!
Deploying your Xamarin app on Visual Studio for Windows
Deploying to Android on Windows is fairly straightforward but iOS requires some work. Both platforms will be covered in this section.
Running your Xamarin app on iOS
Right-click on the iOS platform project in the Solution Explorer panel and click Set as Startup Project.
First up is iOS, as this is the most complicated. You may notice that you cannot deploy your iOS project out of the box. Apple’s license agreement states that you must use “Xcode Build Tools” to compile iOS applications. However, Xcode is only available on Mac. This means you need access to a Mac to act as a “Build Agent”.
If you already have a Mac device, either a Macbook, Mac, or iMac, then as long as it is on the same network as your development machine you will be able to connect to it from Visual Studio by selecting the Tools > iOS menu and clicking Pair to Mac.
If you don’t have a Mac, then you can take advantage of cloud “rental” services such as MacInCloud, which allow you to use a cloud-based Mac for a small fee. The cloud-based Mac will provide you with a network address so you can connect to it and use it as a build agent.
Once the connection is established to your macOS device it will be listed in the Pair to Mac window with a little chain link icon to the right, signifying your machine is successfully connected.
The amazing thing about targeting iOS simulators on Windows is that the simulators are actually being run on the Mac you are connected to, simply bringing the window over for you to view. If you own a touch screen laptop you can interact with the app like a real phone—which is one step better than simulators on the Macs themselves!
Running your Xamarin app on an Android emulator
Now for Android, which is much simpler. If you're running on an Android emulator for the first time you'll see the Android Device Manager window appear with no devices. Click New in the top-right to create a new device. Leaving all values as default is fine.
The first time you run against either iOS or Android emulators it will take some time to cold start. Android is particularly slow booting the emulator, building the app, and deploying it. This is due to the work going on underneath that Android requires for an app; so if it takes some time, don’t be worried that something is wrong.
How to open snip app on mac. To read more about getting started with deployment on Windows for iOS, read the Microsoft Docs page on Xamarin.iOS and Windows.
Go ahead and run the app on your platform of choice and soon you should see your first app, boom!
Deploying to a physical Android device
So you have an Android phone and you want to deploy your app to it? Look no further!
Deploying to Android is fairly straightforward, once you know how to configure your phone for development.
Android has a snazzy, hidden Developer Options menu which allows USB Debugging, which is the feature that allows us to install apps we have made for it, or 'side load', as it is also known.
The steps for accessing USB Debugging on your device will vary slightly depending on the version of Android, but in the Settings menu on your Android device, possibly under a sub-menu such as About Device or System, there should be a Build Number entry. If you tap this a minimum of 7 times it will unlock a new entry in the settings menu called “Developer options”.
There are many options, but the essential thing is to ensure that “Allow USB Debugging” is enabled. This may be a simple “On” toggle at the top of the page, or it will be specified in the list.
When you've enabled USB debugging, connect your Android device to your computer with a USB cable. If you're connecting the phone for the first time a message box should appear on the phone asking if you want to trust the computer attached. Click Yes.
Once the phone is connected and you are targeting Android as your startup project your physical device will appear as an option in the dropdown box where you select your device of choice.
For further details on deploying to Android devices, including troubleshooting, see the Microsoft Docs Page on setting up your device for development.
Deploying to a physical iOS device
If you are running on Visual Studio for Mac, then as long as your device is connected via a cable you should be all set up. It will appear as an option in the devices list that you can select.
On Windows, the same applies if you have already followed the earlier steps and paired your remote Mac with Visual Studio.
However, if you own an iPhone or iPad, and the Mac you are using for building is accessible, it is possible to deploy over WiFi rather than using a cable. The first time you set it up you will need a cable, but once it is done you won’t have to do it again.
If you open Xcode on the Mac with your device connected, select Windows > Devices and Simulators.The window that opens will show any devices connected via a cable. Select the attached device from the Connected list on the left and ensure that the Connect via Network checkbox is selected. Once selected, Xcode will take a few seconds to process the request and then you are ready to access the device on your network.
Your device should now appear in the devices list on Visual Studio or Visual Studio for Mac.
For more information, see the Microsoft Docs page on Wireless Deployment for Xamarin.
Learning more
Future posts in this series on building your first Xamarin app will introduce the power of data binding and the Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) architectural pattern.
Summary
In this post, you have learned:
- Deploying on Visual Studio for Mac
- Deploying on Visual Studio for Windows
- Deploying to an iOS Simulator
- Deploying to an Android emulator
- Deploying to physical devices
Luce Carter is a Software Developer at dunnhumby by day, Microsoft MVP and Twilio Champion by night. She is also the face behind the scenes, editing content for @JamesMontemagno, ensuring editorial quality in his blogs and episode descriptions on his podcast network, @soundbitefm. She can be found at @LuceCarter1 on Twitter, LuceCarter on Github and blogs on her own website. She writes C# in her dayjob, working mainly on an ASP.NET backend but Xamarin is her passion. When not writing apps for fun she can be found speaking around the UK or Europe on her two favourite Microsoft technologies, Xamarin and Cognitive Services.
-->Watch this video and follow along to create your first mobile app with Xamarin.Forms.
Step-by-step instructions for Windows
Follow these steps along with the video above:
Choose File > New > Project.. or press the Create new project.. button:
Search for 'Xamarin' or choose Mobile from the Project type menu. Select the Mobile App (Xamarin.Forms) project type:
Choose a project name – the example uses 'AwesomeApp':
Click on the Blank project type and ensure Android and iOS are selected:
Wait until the NuGet packages are restored (a 'Restore completed' message will appear in the status bar).
New Visual Studio 2019 installations won't have an Android emulator configured. Click the dropdown arrow on the Debug button and choose Create Android Emulator to launch the emulator creation screen:
In the emulator creation screen, use the default settings and click the Create button:
Creating an emulator will return you to the Device Manager window. Click the Start button to launch the new emulator:
Visual Studio 2019 should now show the name of the new emulator on the Debug button:
Click the Debug button to build and deploy the application to the Android emulator:
Xamarin Mac Desktop App
Customize the application
The application can be customized to add interactive functionality. Perform the following steps to add user interaction to the application:
Edit MainPage.xaml, adding this XAML before the end of the
</StackLayout>:Edit MainPage.xaml.cs, adding this code to the end of the class:
Debug the app on Android:
Note
The sample application includes the additional interactive functionality that is not covered in the video.
Build an iOS app in Visual Studio 2019
It's possible to build and debug the iOS app from Visual Studio with a networked Mac computer. Refer to the setup instructions for more information.
This video covers the process of building and testing an iOS app using Visual Studio 2019 on Windows:
Step-by-step instructions for Windows
Follow these steps along with the video above:
Choose File > New > Project.. or press the Create new project.. button, then select Visual C# > Cross-Platform > Mobile App (Xamarin.Forms):
Ensure Android and iOS are selected, with .NET Standard code sharing:
Wait until the NuGet packages are restored (a 'Restore completed' message will appear in the status bar).
Launch Android emulator by pressing the debug button (or the Debug > Start Debugging menu item).
Edit MainPage.xaml, adding this XAML before the end of the
</StackLayout>:Edit MainPage.xaml.cs, adding this code to the end of the class:
Debug the app on Android:
Tip
It is possible to build and debug the iOS app from Visual Studio with anetworked Mac computer. Refer to the setup instructionsfor more information.
Step-by-step instructions for Mac
Follow these steps along with the video above:
Choose File > New Solution.. or press the New Project.. button, then select Multiplatform > App > Blank Forms App:
Ensure Android and iOS are selected, with .NET Standard code sharing:
Restore NuGet packages, by right-clicking on the solution:
Launch Android emulator by pressing the debug button (or Run > Start Debugging).
Edit MainPage.xaml, adding this XAML before the end of the
</StackLayout>:Edit MainPage.xaml.cs, adding this code to the end of the class:
Debug the app on Android:
Right-click to set iOS to the Startup Project:
Debug the app on iOS:
You can download the completed code from the samples gallery or view it on GitHub.
Next Steps
- Single Page Quickstart – Build a more functional app.
- Xamarin.Forms Samples – Download and run code examples and sample apps.
- Creating Mobile Apps ebook – In-depth chapters that teach Xamarin.Forms development, available as a PDF and including hundreds of additional samples.
When you are developing on an emulator, you may want to look at the files created by the application. Each emulator and SDK tools have different capabilities on reading and writing files to disk. You may want to do this to open a SQLite Database, or to change the hosts file in Windows Mobile Emulator.
Windows Mobile Emulator
Windows Mobile Emulator, I have found to be the most cumbersome. You must shutdown the emulator, and load the VDD separately to see what is stored locally.
Open up HyperV and ensure the image you want to open is stopped.
Next, go to the Settings for this Emulator, select the Hard Drive and copy the location of its Virtual Hard Disk.
Open Disk Management and select Action > Attach a VHD.
Copy the virtual hard disk’s location and press OK.
Locations
The hard drive will now be available for you to browse. The folder structure is very similar to a Windows installation.
Visual Studio Android Emulator
There are multiple ways to access vhd for Android. You can use the same method as above or you have two other options.
Install App
You can install a file explorer app on your Android device to browse through files. There are a lot to choose from, search File Explorer on Google Play Store on your emulator.
Android SDK Tools
Xamarin Android Emulator Black Screen
Open the Android Device Monitor
From here you can select your emulator and open the files as needed in the File Explorer.
Locations
iOS Simulator
The iOS simulator runs on a Mac, even if you are building via Windows. IOS is much simplier to access than the others as it is just stored in a directory on the main disk drive.
First you will want to find your DeviceId. On your Mac, go to Hardware > Device > Manage Devices.
Then find your simulator and record the Device Identifier.
Xamarin Android Emulator Mac Free
Now to get to your file location in iOS 8 and above, fill in the below. Regarding the ApplicationId, I normally look through a few folders until I find the right one.