Android launch emulator from command line

1. Figure out where the emulator command is installed at. Run this command to see if it’s already on the path

which emulator

If this command gives empty results, then it is not yet on the path. On a MAC, it’s usually installed at

~/Library/Android/sdk/tools/emulator

or

~/Library/Android/sdk/emulator

2. Assuming it’s installed at ~/Library/Android/sdk/emulator, run the following command to add it to the command path.

echo "export PATH=$PATH:~/Library/Android/sdk/emulator" >> ~/.bash_profile
source ~/.bash_profile

3. Show a list of available emulators

emulator -list-avds

4. It should show a list of emulators such as this

Nexus_10_API_26
Nexus_5X_API_29
Pixel_4_API_29
Tablet_Nexus_7_API_26

5. To launch the emulator named Pixel_4_API_29 from command line using the @ sign.

emulator @Pixel_4_API_29

or using the option flag -avd

emulator -avd Pixel_4_API_29