SaaS User Guide

Basic Steps

In this section, you will find the basic steps to setup, launch, use and save a virtual device instance.

Closing your web browser or logging out will not stop your running virtual devices.
They have to be stopped manually or they will keep running until the Frontend inactivity timeout or the maximum run duration are reached.
Warning
By default, no timeout happens for virtual devices started with gmsaas.
You must specify the --stop-when-inactive option, or they will keep running until manually stopped.
Changes are not automatically saved - see save a virtual device.

From the Virtual devices page, click START and search for the official or custom recipe you wish to use.
A virtual device will be created and automatically launched with the selected recipe.
To see all the recipe properties, navigate to the Recipes page.

Navigate to the Recipes page.
Click on the recipe card you wish to use.
A new device with the selected recipe will be created and launched automatically, and you will be automatically redirected to the Virtual devices page.

From the Virtual devices page, double click on the virtual device or hover the mouse over to it and click the display icon.

Closing your web browser or logging out will not stop your running virtual devices. They have to be stopped manually or they will keep running until the Frontend inactivity timeout or the maximum run duration are reached.
To stop a running device, click Stop from the device display left bar menu.
You can also stop it from the Virtual devices page; hover the mouse over to the desired virtual device and click Stop.
If you are an organization manager, you can also stop a running virtual device even if you are not its owner. Select Message owner to notify the device owner.

Changes are not automatically saved. As a result, any modification to a virtual device has to be saved manually.

If you started a virtual device from an official recipe, you can save it as a custom recipe and custom image:
From the virtual device display, click Save in the left bar menu.
Give a name to your custom recipe and custom image.
Click CREATE.
The newly created custom recipe can be found in the Recipes page, and the new custom image in Recipes > Images.
You can also do it from the Virtual devices page: Hover the mouse over to the desired virtual device and click Name your new custom recipe and custom image, then click CREATE.
This will stop the running virtual device and start the saving process. Your recipe will then appear as Saving until the process is complete - this may take a few minutes.
Once finished, your new custom recipe will appear in the Recipes page, and the new custom image in Recipes > Images.

To save changes of a virtual devices created from a custom recipe, click Save in the left bar menu.
You can either save the changes to your current custom recipe, or create a new custom recipe:
You can also do it from the Virtual devices page: Hover the mouse over to the desired virtual device and click Select Update recipe to update the current custom recipe.
Your recipe will appear as Saving until the update is complete. This can take a few minutes.
You can also select Create new recipe if you wish to create another custom recipe and custom image.

If the installation of an application fails, or if it is not available in Google Play Store (Your device isn't compatible with this version), it probably means that you are not using the correct image architecture. See Applications for ARM for more details.
To deploy an application to a virtual device, you first need to launch a new device from an official or custom recipe. Then, use either one of the following methods to deploy your application:
From an APK file
From Google Play Store
Drag and drop
Install Apps widget
File upload widget
With ADB
Access the virtual device display, then drag and drop the application APK into it:
Click to open the Install Apps widget:
Then, drag'n drop the APK file to install, in the "Install APK files" section, or click BROWSE and select the APK file to install.
You can only install APK files with this widget.
Click to open the File Upload widget:
Then, drag'n'drop the file, or click BROWSE and select a file, to upload it into the virtual device.
APK file will be automatically deployed.
Connect ADB to your virtual device with gmsaas and run the following command to sideload your APK file: adb install <application.apk>
Google Play Store is not pre-installed; you need to install the Open GApps package.
See Installing Open GApps chapter below for instructions.

The application you are developing or testing may require an interaction with Google Play Services (e.g.: in-app purchasing, advertising, etc.). However, for Intellectual Property reasons, Google Apps (Gmail, Drive, Calendar...) and Google Play services are not included in Genymotion virtual devices by default. You need to install the Open GApps package.
We assume no liability whatsoever resulting from the download, install and use of Google Play Services within your virtual devices. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!
Access the virtual device display
Click on in the right toolbar, and INSTALL GAPPS
Read the disclaimer carefully and click INSTALL GAPPS again
Wait for the package to upload and install. When done, you will be prompted to reboot the virtual device: Reboot the device.
Google Play Store, will then be installed. To access it, open the Android Apps dashboard by sliding up the display: hold the mouse left button and slide up the mouse.
Google Play Store in Android Apps dashboard.
Make sure to save your device as a custom recipe, or update the recipe, to keep changes.
If an application is not available or cannot be installed from Google Play Store (Your device isn't compatible with this version), it is probably only available for ARM. See below for more details.

Most modern applications, especially games, are only available for ARM64: they will not install or run if you use an x86_64 image.
You need to use an official recipe, or create a custom recipe, with an arm64 image:
Official recipes with arm64 image
Then start an instance from this recipe and install the application as described previously.
If you use Google Play Store, you will notice that arm-only apps, such as TikTok, are now available:
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The newly created custom recipe can be found in the Recipes page.
The newly created custom image can be found in Recipes > Images.
You can also access the Virtual devices page to perform actions related to customization.

To deploy an application, start a device from an official or custom recipe, then use APK, Google Play Store, or drag and drop to install.
If you encounter incompatibilities, review the ARM vs x86_64 guidance under Applications for ARM.

ARM64-only apps may require using ARM64 images and official ARM64 recipes to run.
TikTok and other ARM-only apps may be available when using Google Play Store with ARM64 images.