This was set up using the Ubuntu 20.04 for the WSL machine and probably works for other Linux distros. Setup is required for both the Windows host and the WSL in order to make this work. Code project is cloned inside the WSL file system.With this configuration, you’ll be able to do all your development inside the WSL with VS Code and debug your application on an emulator running on the Windows host. The solution was to run the emulator on the Windows host and bridging it to the WSL setup. WSL does not support virtualization out-of-the-box, and adding virtualization required experimental configurations. The problem came when running the emulator. So I started setting up the project and the Android SDK in the WSL only. One option was using Android Studio, but that meant giving up the uniformity of my development process. Recently, working with BookSloth on their Android app, I wanted to run and debug the app locally.

Having all my projects in VS Code within WSL has been a great development experience. Paired with VS Code and its remote development feature, it is a powerful alternative to the traditional MacOS and Linux development environments. The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) has been a game-changer for software development on Windows.

Visual studio android development