Docker Android

What is Docker Android about?

Docker Android provides ready‑to‑use Docker images that host Android emulators for development, testing, and CI/CD pipelines. It bundles device profiles, VNC for visual access, log‑sharing UI, and integration points for cloud providers and third‑party services.

How to use Docker Android?

1. Ensure Docker is installed and the host supports virtualization (KVM).
2. Pull the desired image, e.g. docker pull budtmo/docker-android:emulator_11.0.
3. Start a container, exposing VNC and specifying a device:

 docker run -d -p 6080:6080 \
   -e EMULATOR_DEVICE="Samsung Galaxy S10" \
   -e WEB_VNC=true \
   --device /dev/kvm \
   --name android-container \
   budtmo/docker-android:emulator_11.0

4. Open http://localhost:6080 to interact with the emulator via noVNC.
5. Connect adb from the host: adb connect <container_ip>:5555.
6. For persistent data, mount a volume at /home/androidusr.

Key features of Docker Android

• Multiple Android versions (9‑14) and device skins (Galaxy S series, Nexus, Pixel C, tablets).
• noVNC web UI for real‑time visual interaction.
• Log‑sharing web UI for easy access to system and application logs.
• adb access from outside the container.
• Integration with Genymotion Cloud and major cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP, Alibaba Cloud).
• Supports building Android projects and running unit/UI tests (Appium, Espresso, Selenium).
• Beta MCP server support for remote control and automation.
• Video recording (pro version) and headless mode (pro version).

Use cases of Docker Android

1. CI/CD pipelines – Run Android builds and UI tests in Jenkins, GitHub Actions, or other orchestrators.
2. Cross‑device testing – Spin up emulators with different device profiles without maintaining physical hardware.
3. Cloud deployment – Deploy containers on Azure, AWS, GCP, or Alibaba Cloud for scalable testing farms.
4. Genymotion integration – Use Genymotion SaaS as a backend for cost‑effective device farms.
5. Debugging & QA – Access emulator screen via noVNC, capture logs, and (pro) record videos for issue reproduction.

FAQ from the Docker Android

Q: Which host operating systems are supported? A: The container must run on a Linux host (Ubuntu is recommended). macOS and Windows users need a VM/WSL2 with Ubuntu.

Q: Do I need a GPU for the emulator? A: No GPU is required; the emulator uses KVM hardware acceleration. VNC provides the display.

Q: How can I persist app data across container restarts? A: Mount a Docker volume to /home/androidusr as shown in the persistence section.

Q: Is there a way to run the emulator head‑less? A: Headless mode is available in the Pro version.

Q: How do I enable the MCP server? A: Use the budtmo/docker-android:mcp image variant; detailed configuration is in the project documentation.

Docker-Android is a docker image built to be used for everything related to Android. It can be used for Application development and testing (native, web and hybrid-app).

Advantages of using this project

1. Emulator with different device profile and skins, such as Samsung Galaxy S6, LG Nexus 4, HTC Nexus One and more.
2. Support vnc to be able to see what happen inside docker container
3. Support log sharing feature where all logs can be accessed from web-UI
4. Ability to control emulator from outside container by using adb connect
5. Integrated with other cloud solutions, e.g. Genymotion Cloud
6. It can be used to build Android project
7. It can be used to run unit and UI-Test with different test-frameworks, e.g. Appium, Espresso, etc.
8. It support mcp server (beta-version)

List of Docker-Images

Android	API	Image with latest release version	Image with specific release version
9.0	28	budtmo/docker-android:emulator_9.0	budtmo/docker-android:emulator_9.0_<release_version>
10.0	29	budtmo/docker-android:emulator_10.0	budtmo/docker-android:emulator_10.0_<release_version>
11.0	30	budtmo/docker-android:emulator_11.0	budtmo/docker-android:emulator_11.0_<release_version>
12.0	32	budtmo/docker-android:emulator_12.0	budtmo/docker-android:emulator_12.0_<release_version>
13.0	33	budtmo/docker-android:emulator_13.0	budtmo/docker-android:emulator_13.0_<release_version>
14.0	34	budtmo/docker-android:emulator_14.0	budtmo/docker-android:emulator_14.0_<release_version>
-	-	budtmo/docker-android:genymotion	budtmo/docker-android:genymotion_<release_version>
-	-	budtmo/docker-android:mcp	budtmo/docker-android:mcp_<release_version>

List of Devices

Type	Device Name
Phone	Samsung Galaxy S10
Phone	Samsung Galaxy S9
Phone	Samsung Galaxy S8
Phone	Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
Phone	Samsung Galaxy S7
Phone	Samsung Galaxy S6
Phone	Nexus 4
Phone	Nexus 5
Phone	Nexus One
Phone	Nexus S
Tablet	Nexus 7
Tablet	Pixel C

Requirements

1. Docker is installed on your system.

Quick Start

1. If you use Ubuntu OS on your host machine, you can skip this step. For OSX and Windows OS user, you need to use Virtual Machine that support Virtualization with Ubuntu OS because the image can be run under Ubuntu OS only.

2. Your machine should support virtualization. To check if the virtualization is enabled is:

   sudo apt install cpu-checker
   kvm-ok
   

3. Run Docker-Android container

   docker run -d -p 6080:6080 -e EMULATOR_DEVICE="Samsung Galaxy S10" -e WEB_VNC=true --device /dev/kvm --name android-container budtmo/docker-android:emulator_11.0
   

4. Open http://localhost:6080 to see inside running container.

5. To check the status of the emulator

   docker exec -it android-container cat device_status
   

Persisting data

The default behaviour is to destroy the emulated device on container restart. To persist data, you need to mount a volume at /home/androidusr: docker run -v data:/home/androidusr budtmo/docker-android:emulator_11.0

WSL2 Hardware acceleration (Windows 11 only)

Credit goes to Guillaume - The Parallel Interface blog

Microsoft - Advanced settings configuration in WSL

1. Add yourself to the kvm usergroup.

   sudo usermod -a -G kvm ${USER}
   

2. Add necessary flags to /etc/wsl.conf to their respective sections.

   [boot]
   command = /bin/bash -c 'chown -v root:kvm /dev/kvm && chmod 660 /dev/kvm'
   

   Then, using PowerShell, open a notepad on notepad $env:USERPROFILE\.wslconfig. Inside, put these other flags:

   [wsl2]
   nestedVirtualization=true
   

3. Restart WSL2 via CMD prompt or Powershell

   wsl --shutdown
   

command = /bin/bash -c 'chown -v root:kvm /dev/kvm && chmod 660 /dev/kvm' sets /dev/kvm to kvm usergroup rather than the default root usergroup on WSL2 startup.

nestedVirtualization flag is only available to Windows 11.

If this setup does not work, you may have an old WSL version. In that case, ignore \.wslconfig and put everything on /etc/wsl.conf, including the [wsl2] flag.

Use-Cases

1. Build Android project
2. UI-Test with Appium
3. Control Android emulator on host machine
4. SMS Simulation
5. Jenkins
6. Deploying on cloud (Azure, AWS, GCP)

Custom-Configurations

This document contains information about configurations that can be used to enable some features, e.g. log-sharing, etc.

Genymotion

For you who do not have ressources to maintain the simulator or to buy machines or need different device profiles, you can give a try by using Genymotion SAAS. Docker-Android is integrated with Genymotion on different cloud services, e.g. Genymotion SAAS, AWS, GCP, Alibaba Cloud. Please follow this document for more detail.

Emulator Skins

The Emulator skins are taken from Android Studio IDE and Samsung Developer Website

USERS

PRO VERSION

Due to high requests for help and to be able to actively maintain the projects, the creator has decided to create docker-android-pro. Docker-Android-Pro is a sponsor based project which mean that the docker image of pro-version can be pulled only by active sponsor.

The differences between normal version and pro version are:

Feature	Normal	Pro	Comment
user-behavior-analytics	Yes	No	-
proxy	No	Yes	Set up company proxy on Android emulator on fly
language	No	Yes	Set up language on Android emulator on fly
Newer Android version	No	Yes	Support other newer Android version e.g. Android 15, Android 16, etc
root-privileged	No	Yes	Able to run command with security privileged
headless-mode	No	Yes	Save resources by using headless mode
Selenium 4.x integration	No	Yes	Running Appium UI-Tests againt one (Selenium Hub) endpoint for Android- and iOS emulator(s) / device(s)
multiple Android-Simulators	No	Yes (soon)	Save resources by having multiple Android-Simulators on one docker-container
Google Play Store	No	Yes (soon)	-
Video Recording	No	Yes (soon)	Helpful for debugging

This document contains detail information about how to use docker-android-pro.

LICENSE

See License