How to change a hosts-file on Android Studio emulated phone

Pre-steps:

1. Install Android Studio
2. Add android to PATH in your .bash_profile or .zshrc file:

• export ANDROID_SDK=$HOME/Library/Android/sdk
• export PATH=$ANDROID_SDK/emulator:$ANDROID_SDK/tools:$PATH
• export PATH=${PATH}:$ANDROID_SDK/tools:$ANDROID_SDK/platform-tools

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Please follow these steps closely:

1. In AVD manager: Create a test device without the (Google API) Play Services

• Choose a new device in "Select Hardware". Click next.
• In "System Image" click on "x86 Images". Choose a version without "(Google APIs)" which you probably have to download on the left.

2. In your terminal window type: emulator -writable-system -avd <your-device-name>

• The emulator should now open a phone.

3. Open another terminal window(!). Then type and hit enter: adb root

• It should say: "restarting adbd as root" or "running as root"

4. Type and hit enter: adb remount

• It should say: "remount succeeded"

5. Type and hit enter: adb push Desktop/hosts /system/etc/

• (Or use any path where your hosts file is.)

6. Validate by going to the shell and looking at the hosts file:

• Type and hit enter: adb shell
• Your are now in the shell.
• Type and hit enter: cat system/etc/hosts
• You should now see the new hosts file.

7. Shut down the emulated phone.
8. Launch the phone again with: emulator -writable-system -avd <your-device-name>
9. Google something like "cats" to see if you're connected to the internet.
10. Type into the browser bar: https://dev.blahblah.com
11. Follow the sign in flow.

To shut down emulator:

adb -s emulator-5554 emu kill