Anbox, new software to run Android apps on Ubuntu

Mobile applications are becoming more and more popular and there is probably one that we want to use on our Ubuntu PC. There are different emulators, like ARC Welder via Chrome, but these emulators are far from perfect software. That perfection when running Android applications on Linux is what the project seeks anbox, what I would describe as a Remix OS Player for computers running Linux operating system.

Why do I compare it to Remix OS Player? Jide's "Android player" allows us to install Android inside Windows in a virtual machine that allows us not to see an entire operating system, but only the application windows, something that we can also do with VMware Workstation (if my memory does not play a trick on me). That is what Anbox promises to allow us: we will install software and within it we will be able to install Android applications that will run in their own window within Linux. Sounds good right?

Anbox is available as a Snap package

But before starting to dance and ring the bells, you have to take some things into account: as they warn on the official website of the project:

NOTICE: Before you go ahead and install Anbox on your system, please keep in mind that Anbox is in ALPHA phase right now. Not all functions are supposed to work or work fine yet. You will find bugs, you will see closures and unexpected problems. If it happens to you, please report the bug here.

Personally, I think the above notice just means that let's not use the software doing important tasks because we could lose our job, but we can try to use all kinds of applications, such as games or Apple Music, something that many users in the Linux community have wanted to use for months and have not succeeded.

How to install Anbox on Ubuntu

People say that, at the moment, Anbox only works on Ubuntu, but this information is probably outdated considering that Fedora just included support for Snap packages. In any case, the installation command for this software on any supported system (which we repeat now says is only Ubuntu Desktop), would be the following:

sudo snap install --classic anbox-installer && anbox-installer

The program weighs just over 78MB, so the download will take a few seconds. To perform the installation, we will have to intervene at some point:

1. First we will have to choose between option 1 or 2 to install or uninstall Anbox. As we want to install it, we choose option 1 + Enter.
2. Next, we have to write "I AGREE" (without the quotes. It means "I agree") and press Enter to continue with the installation.

3. We wait. This already takes a little longer than downloading the software.
4. Once the installation is finished, we restart the computer. Otherwise the apps will not work.

NOTE: : We will have created a new unit of, in my case, 326MB.

The bad thing is that, being software at a very early stage, there is still no simple way to get Anbox and its applications working. It could be said that at the moment the software is at a point where only the most expert will be able to make it work. To begin, to install the applications you have to do it via Android Debug Bridge (adb), for which you have information in this link. On the other hand, and this is not 100% clear to me if it is normal for not having any application installed, Anbox closes seconds after launching it in Ubuntu 16.10.

In any case, it seems that Anbox is a very interesting project and I am convinced that in a matter of months we will be able to run Android applications on Linux (not only on Ubuntu) perfectly after performing a simpler installation, as we can see in the previous video. And one more thing: This project also intends for Ubuntu Phone users to be able to use Android applications, which seems more important because it would allow us, for example, to use WhatsApp on phones that use the mobile operating system developed by Canonical.

I hope this project goes ahead. There is an Android app that I have wanted to use in Ubuntu for a long time.

More information.