Is it possible to programmatically detect if is real or a virtual Android device?

Question

In my Android application I have to use accelerometer and other sensors. Since this sensors aren't emulated by a Virtual Device, I've to use SensorSimulator project. The problem is that SensorSimulator's APIs look different from Android's ones. So I've to use different code if I'm in a real or in a virtual device. Does it exists a way to programmatically detect it? Or do you know other solutions?

see http://code.google.com/p/openintents/wiki/SensorSimulator — njzk2, Nov 23 '12 at 08:25

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 23 '12 at 08:25

7

The following is true for an emulator...

Build.FINGERPRINT.startsWith("generic")

or

boolean inEmulator = "generic".equals(Build.BRAND.toLowerCase());

answered Nov 23 '12 at 08:25

Nermeen

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Marcin Orlowski · Answer 2 · 2015-09-25T18:24:59.287

7

You can try, by checking Build.DEVICE which for not real device shall read generic or check Build.PRODUCT which would be sdk.

edited Sep 25 '15 at 18:24

answered Nov 23 '12 at 08:29

Marcin Orlowski

72,056
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You've made my day :) – hector6872 Jan 14 '15 at 11:09
Build.BRAND and Build.DEVICE can be "generic_x86" for x86 architecture, and Build.PRODUCT can be "sdk_google_phone_x86" – Joe Bowbeer Oct 28 '15 at 08:04

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 21 '16 at 10:54

1

I know it's an old question but just had the same issue. I modified Nermeen answer a bit as it doesn't work anymore:

boolean inEmulator = Build.FINGERPRINT.contains("generic");

edited Oct 21 '16 at 10:54

krlzlx

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answered Oct 21 '16 at 10:35

user3091593

33
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score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 02 '17 at 07:08

There are so many ways to achieve this goal, such as: (1) cat /proc/cpuinfo, emulator contains "goldfish", real devices contains "Qualcomm MSM xxxx",etc. (2) features listed as follows show that it is an emulator:

private static String[] known_pipes={
        "/dev/socket/qemud",
        "/dev/qemu_pipe"
};

private static String[] known_qemu_drivers = {
        "goldfish"
};

private static String[] known_files = {
        "/system/lib/libc_malloc_debug_qemu.so",
        "/sys/qemu_trace",
        "/system/bin/qemu-props"
};

private static String[] known_numbers = { "15555215554", "15555215556",
        "15555215558", "15555215560", "15555215562", "15555215564",
        "15555215566", "15555215568", "15555215570", "15555215572",
        "15555215574", "15555215576", "15555215578", "15555215580",
        "15555215582", "15555215584", };

private static String[] known_device_ids = { 
        "000000000000000"// default ID on emulator
};

see the paper "Morpheus: Automatically Generating Heuristics to Detect Android Emulators" for more infomation.

Is it possible to programmatically detect if is real or a virtual Android device?

4 Answers4