Question

I have read this stackoverflow thread already and I tried using the code given in that answer to find out if I run my code on the emulator or on a real device:

import android.content.ContentResolver;
import android.provider.Settings.Secure;
...     
mTextView.setText(Secure.getString(getContentResolver(), Secure.ANDROID_ID));

On my real device it returns “2bccce3…”, however on the emulator it does not return null, but also a string “bd9f8…”

Ideas how to find out if emulator or real device from code would be highly appreciated

Answer 1

There’s a rather old thread on Android Developers group that suggests checking the number of sensors on the device. Something like this might work:

SensorManager manager = (SensorManager) getSystemService(SENSOR_SERVICE);
if (manager.getSensorList(Sensor.TYPE_ALL).isEmpty()) {
    // running on an emulator
} else {
    // running on a device
}

I haven’t tried this, so I have no idea how reliable the suggestion is. (Perhaps some emulators now report some sensors; perhaps some devices report no sensors. [Is there an Android toothbrush yet?]) But it can’t be worse than checking for a null ANDROID_ID (which doesn’t work as of 2.2).

P.S. Another thread claims that as of 2.2, the ANDROID_ID for the emulator is always “9774D56D682E549C”. However, you are apparently getting some other hex string, so I don’t think this is right, either.

P.P.S. Other suggestions I haven’t tried are here. One that seems particularly nice (if it works) is:

if (android.os.Build.MODEL.equals(“google_sdk”)) {
   // emulator
} else {
   //not emulator
}