Running Google Maps v2 on the Android emulator

Question

I\'ve tried to implement Google Maps v2 in my Android application, but unfortunately instead of maps I get this message:

Answer 1

I have successfully run our app, which requires Google Maps API 2, on an AndroVM virtual machine.

AndroVM does not come with Google Maps or Google Play installed, but provides a modified copy of the Cyanogen Gapps archive, which is a set of the proprietary Google apps installed on most Android devices.

The instructions, copied from the AndroVM FAQ:

How can I install Google Apps (including the Market/Play app) ?

• Download Google Apps : gapps-jb-20121011-androvm.tgz [basically the /system directory from the Cyanogen gapps archive without the GoogleTTS app which crashes on AndroVM]
• Untar the gapps…tgz file on your host – you’ll have a system directory created
• Get the management IP address of your AndroVM (“AndroVM Configuration” tool) and do “adb connect x.y.z.t”
• do “adb root”
• reconnect with “adn connect x.y.z.t”
• do “adb remount”
• do “adb push system/ /system/”

Your VM will reboot and you should have google apps including Market/Play.

You won’t have some Google Apps, like Maps, but they can be downloaded from the Market/Play.

So follow those instructions, then just install Google Maps using Google Play!

Some great side effects of using a VM rather than the emulator:

• Vastly superior general performance
• OpenGL acceleration
• Google Play support

The only bump in the road so far has been lack of multi-touch gestures, which is a bummer for a mapping app! I plan to work around this with a hidden UI mechanism, so not such a huge problem.