Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 18, 2026

Comparison of OS emulation or virtualization apps on Android

There are many apps in Android that can run or emulate other operating systems, via utilizing hardware support for platform virtualization technologies, or via terminal emulation. Some of these apps support having more than one emulation/virtual file system for different OS profiles, thus the ability to have or run multiple OS's. Some even have support to run the emulation via a localhost SSH connection (letting remote ssh terminal apps on device access the OS emulation/VM, VNC, and XSDL. However, there are a few emulator or VM apps that require that the android device to be rooted for the app to work, and there are others that do not require such. Some remote terminal access apps also have the ability to access Android's internally implemented Toybox, via device loopback support. Some VM/emulator apps have a fixed set of OS's or applications that can be supported.

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There are many apps in Android that can run or emulate other operating systems, via utilizing hardware support for platform virtualization technologies, or via terminal emulation. Some of these apps support having more than one emulation/virtual file system for different OS profiles, thus the ability to have or run multiple OS's. Some even have support to run the emulation via a localhost SSH connection (letting remote ssh terminal apps on device access the OS emulation/VM, VNC, and XSDL. However, there are a few emulator or VM apps that require that the android device to be rooted for the app to work, and there are others that do not require such. Some remote terminal access apps also have the ability to access Android's internally implemented Toybox, via device loopback support. Some VM/emulator apps have a fixed set of OS's or applications that can be supported.

Since Android 8 (Oreo) and later versions of Android, some of these apps have been reporting issues as Google has heightened the security of file-access permissions on newer versions of Android. Some apps have difficulties or have lost access to SD card.12 It is also been reported that some of the apps have trouble utilizing packages like udisks2, Open vSwitch, Snort (software), and Mininet, due to new hardware or Android API restrictions on apps that have been put into place in the recent years.34 Due to this, many of these app developers and their community members are stating that the emulation/VM app can run itself and an OS without being rooted, however not all packages will be able to run unless the device is rooted.3456

OS emulators or VM Android apps

The following is a list of OS emulators and OS virtualization Android apps.

App Name Type Device architecture & OS version requirement Guest OS architecture Requires rooted device Connection technologies References
Termux Enhanced Terminal Emulator Android 7.0 and newer same as host No Emulation inside app (none) 789
UserLAnd Technologies Compatibility layer /Android 5.0 + same as host (sometimes emulates Aarch packages for ARM devices if "arm64" package is not available, but "aarch32" or "aarch64" package is available.) No SSH, VNC, XSDL (supports access from another app on the phone that links to these technologies.) 1011
GNURoot Debian Compatibility layer ?/Android versions below 5.0 same as host No 121314
AnLinux Compatibility layer (utilizes Termux) ARMv7, ARM64, x86, x86-64/Android 5.0 + same as host No SSH, VNC (similar support statement like in UserLAnd.) 1516
VMOS (software) platform virtualization app ?/Android 5.0+ same as host No Emulation inside app (none) 1718
Virtual Master — Android Clone virtualization app ?/Android 5.1+ same as host No Emulation inside app (none)
VPhoneGaGa virtualization app ?/Android ?.? same as host (support 32-bit programs) No Emulation inside app (none)
AndroNIX Compatibility layer (utilizes Termux) ARMv7, ARM64, x86-64/Android 5.1 + same as host No 1920
LinuxDeploy Compatibility layer ARM, ARM64, X86, x86-64, emulation mode (ARM ~ 86)/Android 4.0.3 + Yes 212223
VMware Horizon Client Desktop virtualization ?/Android 5.0 + Connected to a server:

VMware Server, VMware ESXi

No 2425
Vectras VM platform virtualization app Android 6.0 and newer x86, x86_64, ARM64, ARMv7 No Emulation inside app (none) 26
Limbo PC emulator platform virtualization app No Emulation inside app (none) 27
Android Virtualization Framework platform virtualization app Android 16 and newer same as host No 28

29 30

Terminal emulation apps utilizing internal OS

App Name Notes Ref
JuiceSSH Other than just local loopback, the app can do SSH, telnet, and Mosh. 313233
ConnectBot Other than just local loopback, the app can do telnet and SSH. 34
Termius Other than just local loopback, the app can do telnet, SSH, and SFTP. 353637
See also

See also

References

References

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  2. "How to access sdcard? · Issue #46 · CypherpunkArmory/UserLAnd". GitHub. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  3. "Apt-Get Install failing - Udisks2 Permission Denied error leads to lots of DPKG error · Issue #992 · CypherpunkArmory/UserLAnd". GitHub. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  4. "[Full Tutorial💻] Install Parrot OS On Android". AndroPalac.com. 2019-10-09. Archived from the original on 2019-10-30. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  5. "Question #266516 : Questions : udisks2 package : Ubuntu". answers.launchpad.net. 19 March 2015. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
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  28. https://source.android.com/docs/core/virtualization
  29. https://www.androidauthority.com/android-linux-terminal-app-3489887
  30. https://github.com/nix-community/nixos-avf-image-app
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  34. "ConnectBot - Apps on Google Play". play.google.com. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
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