Why we use it
It gives you a phone on your screen, which is useful if you don't have an Android phone or the Wi-Fi blocks Expo Go. It is also needed later for native builds. You don't write code in it; VS Code is still your editor.
Create an emulator
- Android Studio → Device Manager → Create device
- Pick a Pixel profile → download a system image → Finish
- Press ▶ to boot it
- In your project terminal, press
awhilenpx expo startis running
adb devices
emulator -list-avdsSee Setup → Step 4 for the ANDROID_HOME / PATH configuration.
Common problems
Emulator is very slow or won't start
Cause
Hardware virtualisation is disabled.
Fix
Enable VT-x / AMD-V in BIOS. On Windows, also enable "Windows Hypervisor Platform".
"adb: command not found"
Fix
Add the SDK platform-tools folder to PATH, then open a new terminal.
Run
adb --version