Whenever you need to access the People or Calendar app and want to add contacts or events you need an account. On the emulator though no account exists by default. So in this blog entry I am going to show you how to add your Google account to your emulator.

For existing accounts the method in this post still works. For new accounts that's no longer the case. Should I find a solution for new accounts, I will update this post.

First of all you have to go to the settings and select "Accounts & sync":

You see the list of accounts - which in the emulator should be emtpy:

After you have clicked on "Add account" you will see the selection of sync providers available. In the emulator the following two should be listed. The first one is the Exchange sync adapter, the second one is for email only. So you should select the "Corporate" type:

In the next step you have to enter your Google-account credentials as usual:

The next step is not that straightforward. To use your Google account as an Exchange account you first have to change the presented domain username to your email-address again. Android by default chooses another name based on the mail-address you entered before. But this default domain name does not work here.

You also have to change the server to "m.google.com":

Now if you hit "Next" you are nearly done. You might want to check if the correct check marks are set, but the defaults should normally suit you well.

In the last step you can change the name of this account and after hitting "Next" once again, you are done.

Your newly created account is now listed in "Accounts & sync" screen and the initial synchronization has already been started. If you have mails or appointments you should notice notifications popping up soon. And your contacts and events should show up in the respecting apps.

From now on you can use the Calendar app to create and edit events on your device and have them synced with your account.

If you have any other suggestions that might help or tips on how to improve development on Android, please let me know in the comments section.