FAQ

FAQ

General

Does Caspian Emulator include an Android emulator?

No. It's a management tool that works with the Android SDK's built-in emulator. You need the Android SDK installed separately (typically via Android Studio).

Which platforms are supported?

Windows, macOS, and Linux — anywhere VS Code and the Android SDK run.

Does it work with physical devices?

Yes. Any device connected via USB (with USB debugging enabled) or over Wi-Fi (via adb connect) will appear in the Connected Devices panel.

Is it free?

Yes. Caspian Emulator is free and open source under the MIT license.

Features

Can I run multiple emulators at once?

Yes. Launch multiple AVDs and they'll all appear in the Connected Devices panel. Each can have its own logcat viewer, screen mirror, etc.

Why is the screen mirror so slow?

The default method uses screencap (~1 FPS). Install scrcpy for much better performance.

Can I drag and drop APKs to install?

Not yet. Currently you use the right-click menu or Command Palette to install APKs via file picker.

Does logcat support regex filtering?

Not yet. Current filtering is plain text matching on tag name and message content.

Setup

Where do I get the Android SDK?

The easiest way is to install Android Studio. The SDK is included. You can also install just the command-line tools.

I have Android Studio but the SDK isn't detected

Check if ANDROID_HOME is set in your environment. On Windows, the default SDK location is %LOCALAPPDATA%\Android\Sdk. You can also set the path manually via caspian.androidSdkPath.

Do I need system images for AVDs?

Yes. Install them via Android Studio SDK Manager or:

sdkmanager "system-images;android-34;google_apis;x86_64"