Prerequisites:

As we here test mobile applications, we need to set up some additional tools:

Java JDK (11 or 17+) – Appium’s Android driver uses Java tooling.

side note: the latest version is JDK 24. So why we use 17? Because it’s the most widely tested combo today. The “latest” (e.g., JDK 24) is a non-LTS release and some Android tools/drivers can be picky with bleeding-edge Java versions. LTS releases (11, 17, 21) get long-term fixes and are what Android tooling and Appium ecosystems are validated against most.

Android SDK / Android Studio – gives you the emulator (AVD) and adb.
Appium 2 + Android driver (UiAutomator2) – the server Appium runs.

Install Java JDK 17

https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/javase/jdk17-archive-downloads.html
in VS Code open a new terminal (terminal and the + icon) and verify:

java -version
javac -version

Common issue: “java is not recognized” on Windows.

If you face this problem, here’s teh solution and the explanation why could it occur:

Running

java -version
javac -version

returned “not recognized” (or pointed to Common Files\Oracle\Java\javapath...).

Why: Windows PATH/JAVA_HOME wasn’t set to the real JDK folder; sometimes installers add only a forwarder (javapath_*) which isn’t a true JDK home.

You can easily auto-find and set the right path with PowerShell:

Find the real javac.exe outside any 'javapath' folder, by running the below lines:

$realJavac = Get-ChildItem 'C:\Program Files','C:\Program Files (x86)' -Recurse -Filter javac.exe -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |
  Where-Object { $_.FullName -notmatch 'javapath' } |
  Select-Object -First 1 -Expand FullName

Derive the JDK root from that path

$realRoot = Split-Path -Parent (Split-Path -Parent $realJavac)

Set user env vars

setx JAVA_HOME "$realRoot"
setx PATH "$($env:PATH);%JAVA_HOME%\bin"

for verification, open a new terminal:

java -version
javac -version
$env:JAVA_HOME

Expected result:

java -version → 17.x (LTS)
javac -version → 17.x
JAVA_HOME → your JDK folder, e.g. C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-17.0.12

Java is correctly configured on Windows. We can now install Android tools (Android Studio/SDK), create an emulator, and move on to Appium.

Installing Android Studio

downlad and install Android Studio:

Android Developers Download Android Studio & App Tools - Android Developers

Once installed, open the SDK Manager under More Actions

Install/ensure:

Android SDK Platform (API 34 is fine)
Android SDK Platform-Tools (gives adb)
Android Emulator

Switch to SDK Tools tab:

Tick Android SDK Platform-Tools (gives adb)
Tick Android Emulator
(optional but nice) Android SDK Command-line Tools (latest)

Create & start an emulator

Back on the Welcome screen: More Actions ▾ → Virtual Device Manager (or Device Manager).
Create Device… → choose Pixel 5 (any Pixel is fine).
Pick a Google APIs (or Google Play) system image for your API (e.g., API 34), click Download if needed, then Next → Finish.
In Device Manager, click Start (►) to launch the emulator.

If you may fail with an error message with “Android Hypervisor driver is not installed”, click here and open for the resolution.

Installing Appium 2 (server + driver)

Just like PlayWright, Appium is a Node package, so we install it with npm.

Open PowerShell and run:

npm i -g appium               
appium -v                      
appium driver install uiautomator2

Then start the server in its own terminal:

appium

Keep the current PowerShell window open running Appium.

Open your test folder in VS Code (appium_test)

Paste in the terminal:

npm init -y
npm i -D selenium-webdriver mocha chai

Open package.json, ctrl+a and set:

Create a tests folder, and in a new file: mobile_web.spec.js, and set:

Then run the test, and see it running through your emulator, openin Android Chrome and navigated to example.org.

$realJavac = Get-ChildItem 'C:\Program Files','C:\Program Files (x86)' -Recurse -Filter javac.exe -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Where-Object { $_.FullName -notmatch 'javapath' } | Select-Object -First 1 -Expand FullName

{ "name": "appium_test", "version": "1.0.0", "description": "", "main": "index.js", "scripts": { "test": "mocha tests/**/*.spec.js" }, "keywords": [], "author": "", "license": "ISC", "devDependencies": { "chai": "^4.4.1", "mocha": "^10.4.0", "selenium-webdriver": "^4.23.0" } }

const { Builder } = require('selenium-webdriver'); const { expect } = require('chai'); describe('Mobile web smoke (Appium + Android Chrome)', function () { this.timeout(90_000); let driver; before(async () => { driver = await new Builder() .usingServer('http://127.0.0.1:4723') .withCapabilities({ platformName: 'Android', browserName: 'Chrome', 'appium:automationName': 'UiAutomator2', 'appium:deviceName': 'Android Emulator', 'appium:chromedriverAutodownload': true }) .build(); }); after(async () => { if (driver) await driver.quit(); }); it('opens example.org and checks title', async () => { await driver.get('https://example.org/'); const title = await driver.getTitle(); expect(title).to.contain('Example Domain'); }); });