BlueStacks is an Americantechnology company that produces the BlueStacks App Player and other cloud-based cross-platform products. The BlueStacks App Player is designed to enable Android applications to run on PCs running Microsoft Windows and Apple's macOS. The company was founded in 2009 by Jay Vaishnav, Suman Saraf, and Rosen Sharma, former CTO at McAfee and a board member of Cloud.com. Investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Redpoint, Samsung, Intel, Qualcomm, Citrix, Radar Partners, Ignition Partners, AMD, and others. The company was announced May 25, 2011, at the Citrix Synergy conference in San Francisco. Citrix CEO Mark Templeton demonstrated an early version of BlueStacks onstage and announced that the companies had formed a partnership. The public alpha version of App Player was launched on October 11, 2011. App Player exited beta on June 7, 2014.
App Player
The App Player can be downloaded on Windows and macOS software that virtualizes an Android OS. The software's basic features are free to download and use. Advanced optional features require a paid monthly subscription. The company claims the App Player can run 1.5 million Android apps as of November 2019. As of November 2019, more than 210 million have downloaded BlueStacks. App Player features mouse, keyboard, and external touchpad controls.
BlueStacks for Mac
On June 27, 2012, the company released an alpha-1 version of its App Player software for macOS, while the beta version was released on December 27, 2012. In April 2015, BlueStacks, Inc. announced that a new version of App Player for macOS, 2.0, was in development, which was released in July. Mac OS development and support was discontinued in November 2017.
BlueStacks 2
In December 2015, BlueStacks, Inc. released the new version BlueStacks 2.0 which lets users run multiple Android Apps simultaneously. BlueStacks 2.0 is also available for Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks or later, and currently the most stable of the releases update from 2018.
BlueStacks TV (BTV)
On April 7, 2016, the company released BlueStacks TV which integrated Twitch.tv directly into the BlueStacks App Player. This addition allows users to stream their apps to Twitch without the need for extra hardware or software. BlueStacks released Facebook Live integration in September 2016, allowing users to stream their gameplay to their Facebook profiles, Pages they control, or Facebook Groups they belong to.
BlueStacks 3
In July 2017, BlueStacks released BlueStacks 3 based on a brand new engine and front-end design. BlueStacks 3 added App Center which personalizes game suggestions, an account system, chat, new keymapping interface, and multi-instance. Multi-instance allows users to launch multiple BlueStacks windows using either the same or different Google Play account.
BlueStacks 3N
On January 19, 2018, BlueStacks announced the release of the BlueStacks + N Beta which runs on Android 7 and claimed to be the first and only Android gaming platform to have Android 7 at the time, since the majority of Android emulators ran Android 4.4, including prior BlueStacks versions. This beta version is powered by an upgraded "HyperG" graphics engine allowing BlueStacks to utilize the full array of Android 7 APIs.
BlueStacks 4
On September 18, 2018, BlueStacks announced the release of its latest flagship version, BlueStacks 4. BlueStacks 4 benchmarks 6-8x faster than every major mobile phone according to the Antutu benchmark. BlueStacks 4 also includes dynamic resource management which only initializes the required Android libraries thus freeing resources. A new dock and search offer a clean user interface. New AI powered key-mapping tool auto maps keys in supported games with key customization also available for further tweaking. In addition, BlueStacks 4 runs on a 32-bit version of Android 7.1.2 Nougat. Development for macOS has been restarted, and version 4 is currently available from the website as of November 2019, first released for Mac in January 2019.
BlueStacks 4 64-Bit Beta
On January 17, 2019, BlueStacks released a 64-bit version of BlueStacks 4 via its early access program. This version runs on a 64-bit version of Android 7.1.2 which allows for improved performance, and more efficient memory usage. The prerequisites for running this build include running a 64-bit version of Windows 8 or later, with virtualization enabled, and Hyper-V disabled. This 64-bit release allows the installation and usage of ARM64-v8a android applications.
Minimum requirements
Current minimum requirements for App Player for Windows include: Windows 7 or higher, 2 GB or higher system memory, 5 GB of hard drive space, administrator rights, and an Intel or AMD processor. BlueStacks clashes with the BitDefender antivirus software. An update to the latest graphic card driver version is also recommended. Minimum requirements for macOS are: macOS Sierra or higher, 4 GB RAM, 4 GB disk space.
GamePop
On May 9, 2013, the subscription service GamePop was announced. It allows users to play as many as 500 mobile games on TV. On July 23, 2014 Samsung announced it had invested in and was backing GamePop. This brought total outside investment in BlueStacks to $26 million.
