BlueStacks: Your Favorite Android Apps On Your PC Or Mac

We review the latest version of this highly popular app player.

BlueStacks App Player is a brilliant little tool that lets you run almost all your favorite Android apps and games on a full screen monitor using your PC or Mac.

Yes that’s right, there’s a Mac version as well, and works pretty much exactly the same as the PC version that we are concentrating on today.

While a lot of Android apps have their Windows counterparts, not all of them do, and this can be for want of a better word, really annoying. It’s not as if releasing an app for a Windows version of your favorite Android app is all that difficult for developers, it’s just that a lot of the time, there’s a widespread perception in the industry that there’s no market for them.

BlueStacks App Player – problem solver

While a lot of Android apps have their Windows counterparts, not all of them do, and this can be for want of a better word, really annoying. It’s not as if releasing an app for a Windows version of your favorite Android app is all that difficult for developers, it’s just that a lot of the time, there’s a widespread perception in the industry that there’s no market for them.

While that may or may not be true, BlueStacks App Player at least solves that issue. BlueStacks essentially turns your PC into an emulator without having to fork out for new hardware or expensive developer tools.

Download and install

Downloading and installing BlueStacks is simple and straightforward. The interface is sleek and sophisticated. If you’ve ever owned an Android based smartphone then you should be using the emulator app like a pro in minutes.

How does it work?

BlueStacks essentially gives you a virtual Android tablet on your desktop, and it works surprisingly well. All of the supported apps work with your PC’s mouse, camera, webcam and microphone. BlueStacks also has support for multi-touch screens as well, which is nice.

To get the most out of BlueStacks, signing in or creating a Google account is a must.

GTA from your Android device on your PC… nice

Not only does signing in provide a much more integrated experience, you can install new apps and games from the Google Play Store. You don’t have to, but the general consensus seems to be that you’re missing out if you don’t.

Signing in also allows you to utilize the single best feature BlueStacks offer, the ability to synchronize your data and apps with other Android devices you own. It also makes copying files from Android to PC and vice-versa, really simple and easy to do.

Running BlueStacks is like having a proper Android device on your PC, just on a bigger scale.

Possibilities

The fact that BlueStacks is running on your PC and Mac means that there are far more options for changing things around and performance optimization. For instance, you can increase the amount of RAM available to BlueStacks, which can be a real game changer for playing games without frame-rate or graphics issues.

Another particularly nice feature is the way that BlueStacks can give you peace of mind if you want to try Android apps not available through the Play Store. With BlueStacks you can also download and install several APK files from different sources all at once.

With or without ads?

There are two different version of Bluestacks App Player available; a free one that comes with occasional adverts, and a premium version for $24 a year, without adverts. Other than that, there is virtually no difference between them, which is nice.

Crucially, it should be noted that not every app works with Bluestacks, but most of them do, and if previous versions are anything to go by, its developers are constantly working to get them all working, and that’s a good thing.

Conclusion

Overall, BlueStacks App Player is an easy and fully featured, well designed and easy to use way of accessing almost all of your Android apps on your PC.

Download the Windows version today for free direct from FileHippo.com.

Or get the Mac version, here too!