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Is there an Android port for the Raspberry Pi, and if so, where can I find out more about it?

Jon Egerton
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Darren Wilkinson
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    Soon... very soon: - Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) is coming to Raspberry Pi – McKAMEY Aug 01 '12 at 00:19
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    I'm not sure why everyone is pointing out Android's touch-screen requirements; Google TV runs on Android 3/3.1, and there are many useful media apps already in the Play store for it (including Netflix). This is the best link I could find for Google TV-centric source code. – Kit Grose Jun 28 '12 at 23:57
  • Both the droid and the pi run on an arm processor. You can run Linux on the Android using the "Complete Linux Installer" app. So , I believe that you should also be able to run an app on Linux that runs Android. I had an Android emulator running on a PC which isn't even an Arm processor (a few years ago). Anyways. Going with a Virtual Space type scenario, the same app should be able to run a Virtual Raspian, Windows 10, RISC OS. Is any body working in this direction? I think that it was Eclipse that allowed this and it was inside a Virtual PC So hardware porting was not an issue... – user2909029 Jun 20 '15 at 19:12
  • There is no-longer any work being done on an Official Foundation port - the "Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) is coming to Raspberry Pi" link above (reproduced several times in links in some of the answers below) has a comment pretty near the bottom pointing out that an internal alpha was abandoned after a couple of years and that the code was not released to the public. I did see one active GitHub (Jan 2016) repository and there could be other similar projects out there. – SlySven Jan 10 '16 at 04:35
  • Hello, I have an answer to this question, the answer is yes, I have done it, I wish to explain how except I cannot answer, it says I need "10 reputation" but when I check in my profile I have 101 reputation .... – Shodan Dec 23 '21 at 00:34

6 Answers6

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It is technically possible, at least the earlier versions that are not so CPU and RAM-intensive. The question you should be asking yourself though is do you really want that? Android is pretty much a closed platform with a nice Java framework as a redeeming quality. Also it is very mobile and touch-centered, so your user experience will be lower unless you extend your Raspberry.

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    Thanks for your response. One of the main reasons for my interest is precisely that it has a nice lightweight Java framework. However, I've never used Android without a touch screen, so I'm also not sure how good an overall experience it will be. – Darren Wilkinson Jun 12 '12 at 21:20
  • Agreed, it should be possible but only older versions will work due to the amount of memory. – Shane Hudson Jun 13 '12 at 14:03
  • Nah, I didn't really provide any useful information (here to find a port/how to go about making one) –  Jun 18 '12 at 07:27
  • @Keyser- I am just hanging on in case anyone can point to a port, or similar – Darren Wilkinson Jun 18 '12 at 09:45
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    @darrenjw For a look at an Android project without a touchscreen, take a look at the VIA APC project. VIA is doing a custom Android build that is optimized for keyboard and mouse for the project. http://apc.io/ A RPi implementation may end up similar to this. – Zoot Jul 11 '12 at 17:00
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Android 4.0

Eben recently posted on the Foundation's website announcing that Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) is coming to Raspberry Pi!

Status

Eben described the status as

Hardware-accelerated graphics and video have been up and running smoothly for some time; AudioFlinger support is the only major missing piece at the moment... This implementation uses a different kernel and VideoCore binary image from the one available on GitHub, which is why we’ve been keeping quiet about it so far. We’re investigating the feasibility of converging the two code lines to produce a single common platform as soon as we can, at which point we hope to release the sources for you to play with.

References

Alex Chamberlain
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McKAMEY
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    I hope you like my edit @McKAMEY. We like to have answers stand on their own 2 feet without any links, especially ones that are as general as this. Obviously, links are important references, so should be included.

    I would also suggest that this was a community wiki.

     – Alex Chamberlain Aug 01 '12 at 19:48
  • -1 No it is dead, pretty much the last comment on that (duplicated) source link is that, after a couple of years, the Foundation finally declared it dead, with no link to the abandoned alpha code... – SlySven Jan 10 '16 at 04:28
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As answered by Tibor, a port is obviously possible. Other than a decent Java framework, I believe there are quite a few lightweight (yet useful) Android apps that can lend enough motivation for people to attempt to port Android over to Pi. Who knows, Google might already be working on porting it, or at least supporting someone who's interested in doing that. After all, that would allow them to tap into a new, savvy user base.

Community
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torrential coding
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    Netflix for example is available for Android but not for Linux.. – SERPRO Jun 18 '12 at 09:32
  • As source code are available, you should be able to port Android. You will not get all the devices, like GPS etc. And you could add a touch screen, there are some running on USB ports.

    But yes, it will work with keybord and mouse, and yes the hardware is good enough to run quite good at this. Not like a quad core ARM, but ok.

     – Anders Jun 28 '12 at 00:13
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Update

Those of you looking to play with Android on Pi in advance of our source code release might want to check out the community http://www.razdroid.net/ Dead-link! project, which last month produced its first non-accelerated port of Gingerbread on top of the publicly released VideoCore binary.

Yes it is possible and there is already someone (called Naren) working on a port.

But it is unclear when you can install it yourself(the changed source code is not public yet) or if there will be a image available.

Source http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/1700

Update: As already commented the project is dead.

keiki
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  • looks amazing! the graphics are so smooth. I love the slideshows and the ability to make my own app for it using the tools I already know is mega! – Piotr Kula Aug 01 '12 at 11:17
  • -1 No it is dead, pretty much the last comment on that source link is that, after a couple of years, the Foundation finally declared it dead, with no link to the abandoned alpha code... – SlySven Jan 10 '16 at 04:27
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Android 4.0 is coming. It's announced on Raspberry Pi's homepage.

Tuan Anh Tran
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  • -1 No it is dead, after a couple of years the Foundation finally declared it dead with no link to the abandoned alpha code... – SlySven Jan 10 '16 at 04:17
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Yes see : http://squirrelhosting.co.uk/hosting-blog/hosting-blog-info.php?id=22

The current version is slow but the 4.0 looks promising.

Jonathan
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    Welcome to RaspiSE. Link only answers do not provide a helpful reply... could you precis the article? – Andrew Nov 21 '12 at 05:22