Try BlueStacks X— Your Alternative Lightweight Android Emulator to run Flutter Code

Ever experienced your PC performance slowing down when running an Android Emulator to test your Flutter Code? Try BlueStacks as your alternative solution!

I noticed that most people use Android Emulator from Android Studio to run their Flutter code, but on my PC, it was a nightmare — lagging, slowing everything down, and even crashing at times. Since my setup couldn’t handle it well, I started looking for an alternative. That’s when I realized I could use BlueStacks — something I usually use for gaming — as an emulator for running my Flutter apps too!

What is BlueStacks?

BlueStacks is an Android emulator that allows users to run Android applications and games on their Windows or macOS computers. It creates a virtual Android environment, enabling users to experience mobile apps on a larger screen with enhanced performance. It supports features like keyboard and mouse integration, gamepad compatibility, and multi-instance functionality, allowing users to run multiple apps simultaneously. It is commonly used by gamers to play Android games with better controls and performance, as well as by developers for app testing. BlueStacks offers different versions, including BlueStacks 5 for optimized performance and BlueStacks X for cloud gaming.

Why choose BlueStacks?

Unlike Android Emulators that uses up a lot of CPU memory space, BlueStacks provides customisation to make it more light-weight and less resource extensive!

Customise BlueStacks Settings — To run smoother!

Follow these simple steps to optimise your BlueStacks settings!

Step 1: Download BlueStacks

• Download any version BlueStacks from **here**, I use BlueStacksX.

Step 2: Settings Page

• Open the “BlueStacks App Player”
• Go to the Settings (gear icon)

Step 3: Customise Performance Tab

• In the Performance tab, adjust the Performance Mode, CPU allocation, and Memory allocation to match your PC’s capabilities. This will help BlueStacks run more smoothly and efficiently on your system. You can also adjust the frame rate.
• I adjusted mine as shown below for best & smooth performance
• Don’t forget to click “Save Changes”!

Step 4: Enable ADB debugging

• Go to Advanced Tab
• Turn on the toggle for Android Debug Bridge (ADB)

How do I connect BlueStacks to Flutter?

Step 1 — Locate the ADB Platform Tools:

• Open your Folder (File Explorer) and go to this file path,

→ C:\Users\***your_username***\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\platform-tools

Step 2 — Open Command Prompt and Set the Directory :

• Copy the file path
• Open your cmd (Commad Prompt)
• Type cdand paste your file path
• Press Enter

Step 3 — Connect BlueStacks to ADB :

• Type, adb connect localhost:5555 and press Enter.

Step 4 — Now open your preferred IDE : VS Code or Android Studio

1. In VS Code :

• On the bottom-right of the window, you will notice the device has automatically selected BlueStacks as the current device.

• If you see “No Device”, then click on it and from the drop down menu select the device with “localhost:5555 — mobile” as shown below!

2. In Android Studio

• The device selection can be seen in on the top-centre of the window, if no device is selected, choose the one with [localhost:5555] from the drop down menu!

Congrats! You’re all set to run your Flutter code on BlueStacks. Happy coding! 😊🚀

Extra Tip!

BlueStacks don’t follow the exact mobile device view! If you wish to make your Flutter Code responsive to almost all mobile devices including iOS and Android, I recommend you to use this flutter package! Give this documentation a read! → Device_Preview Package