With Android apps joining iOS apps, plus the huge amount of existing Mac apps that can be used on M1 Macs and Macbooks like the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) – currently our pick for the best laptop in the world – you’ll soon have a huge library of brilliant apps running in macOS Big Sur. This gives you the power to test new applications that you’re developing and play mobile games that require powerful hardware. While BlueStacks 5 will eventually bring Android apps to ARM-based Windows 10 devices as well, it seems that the company is mainly eyeing up getting Android apps on Macs, with Agarwal stating: “We see the market for BlueStacks App Player expanding considerably with Apple's endorsement of running iOS apps on the Mac form factor.”īlueStacks 5 is currently in beta, and brings faster install and launch times for apps, 40% less RAM consumption, smoother framerates when playing games and an ‘Eco Mode’ that cuts CPU usage by 80% when multitasking. BlueStacks app player lets you emulate an Android device on your Mac desktop. While the Android apps will require a degree of emulation to make them work on M1 MacBooks (or Windows 10 devices with ARM processors), the fact that Android apps usually run on ARM means that there’s no need for “binary translation” as BlueStacks Chief Architect Sharad Agarwal reveals (opens in new tab). At the moment, it only runs on Intel or AMD processors, but ARM support will be coming soon.

BlueStacks (opens in new tab) is a popular Android emulator that brings Android apps to PCs.

Bluestacks 5 for mac release date