# Emulator control for adaptive app development

DevFeed: [Emulator control for adaptive app development](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/emulator-control-for-adaptive-app-development-22691.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<http://android-developers.googleblog.com/2026/08/emulator-adaptive.html>)

Author: Android Developers (noreply@blogger.com)

Published: 2026-08-31T16:00:00Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [Android Developers Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/android-developers-blog-3.md>)

Topics: [Android](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/android.md>), [Emulator](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/emulator.md>), [Command-line interface](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cli.md>), [Large Screen](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/large-screen.md>), [Android Studio](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/android-studio.md>), [Terminal](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/terminal.md>), [Development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/development.md>)

Tags: [adaptive](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/adaptive.md>), [adb](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/adb.md>), [android](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/android.md>), [android-studio](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/android-studio.md>), [app-development](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/app-development.md>), [command-line](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/command-line.md>), [commands](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/commands.md>), [console](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/console.md>), [development](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/development.md>), [devices](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/devices.md>), [emulator](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/emulator.md>), [layout](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/layout.md>), [verify](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/verify.md>), [workflow](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/workflow.md>)

## AI overview

A tutorial on using Android Emulator console commands through adb emu to test adaptive app behavior. It covers folding and unfolding devices, rotating them, simulating physical postures, and resizing displays from the terminal.

## Source excerpt

Posted by Rob Orgiu, Developer Relations Engineer, Adaptive Apps, Android Adaptive app development is fundamental on Android, but making sure everything looks good and every feature works the way it should require multiple tests on multiple devices. Or does it? Well, yes... and no! While Android Studio is bundled with the Resizable Emulator to let you test layouts manually, there's a faster, more streamlined way to control form factors directly from your terminal. By leveraging fire-and-forget console commands using the adb emu shortcut, you can execute commands that immediately return control to your invoking shell. If you have multiple emulators running at the same time, you can target a specific virtual device by passing in the shortcut's serial: adb -s <serial> emu <command> <parameter> First things first: Fold and unfold To test foldable-specific user journeys and layout configurations, you can fold and unfold your emulated device programmatically. adb emu fold If your foldable emulator is unfolded, you can fold it to display its smaller screen configuration, powering on the (virtual) external display. To unfold the emulator and power on the internal display, simply run: adb emu unfold Now, you can instantly verify that your app preserves its state and that layouts appear exactly as they should on different display sizes. Rotation, rotation, rotation Correctly handling orientation changes is a cornerstone of adaptive app development. You can trigger device rotations programmatically to test how well your app handles configuration changes, including state restoration. The following command rotates the device 90° clockwise: adb emu rotate Simulating postures using sensors What about placing the emulator into a specific physical posture, like tabletop mode? The easiest approach is querying for the number of available positions with . First, list all available sensors and their current status: adb emu posture This returns a list of positions similar to the following: