Tag Archives: androidstudio

Android Studio Flamingo is stable

Posted by Steven Jenkins, Product Manager, Android Studio

Today, we are thrilled to announce the stable release of Android Studio FlamingođŸŠ©: The official IDE for building Android apps!

This release includes improvements to help you build pixel-perfect UI with Live Edit, new features that assist with inspecting your app, IntelliJ updates, and more. Read on or watch the video to learn more about how Android Studio FlamingođŸŠ© can help supercharge your productivity and download the latest stable version today!

  

UI Tools

Jetpack Compose and Material 3 templates – Jetpack Compose is now recommended for new projects so the templates use Jetpack Compose and Material 3 by default.

Live Edit (Compose) experimental – Iteratively build an app using Compose by pushing code changes directly to an attached device or emulator. Push changes on file save or automatically and watch your UI update in real time. Live Edit is experimental and can be enabled in the Editor Settings. There are known limitations. Please send us your feedback so that we can continue to improve it. Learn more.

Moving image illustrating a live edit
Live edit

Themed app icon Preview support – You can now use the System UI Mode selector on the toolbar to switch wallpapers and see how your themed app icons react to the chosen wallpaper. (Note: required in apps targeting API level 33 and higher.)

Moving image illustrating preview of themed app icons across different wallpapers
Previewing Themed app icons across different wallpapers
Dynamic color Preview

Enable dynamic color in your app and use the new wallpaper attribute in an @Preview composable to switch wallpapers and see how your UI reacts to different wallpapers. (Note: you must use Compose 1.4.0 or higher.)

Moving image illustrating dynamic color wallpaper in Compose Preview
Compose Preview: dynamic color wallpaper

Build

Build Analyzer task categorization – Build Analyzer now groups tasks by categories such as Manifest, Android Resources, Kotlin, Dexing and more. Categories are sorted by duration and can be expanded to display a list of the corresponding tasks for further analysis. This makes it easy to know which categories have the most impact on build time.

Image of Build Analyzer Task Categorization
Build Analyzer Task Categorization

One-click automated profileable build and run – When you are profiling your app, you want to avoid profiling a debuggable build. These are great during development, but the results can be skewed. Instead, you should profile a non-debuggable build because that is what your users will be running. This is now more convenient with one-click automated profileable build and run. Easily configure a profileable app and profile it with one click. You can still choose to profile your debuggable build by selecting Profile app with complete data. Read more on the blog.

Image illustrating One-click Automated Profileable Build and Run
One-click Automated Profileable Build and Run

Lint support for SDK extensions – SDK extensions leverage modular system components to add APIs to the public SDK for previously released API levels. Now, you can scan for and fix SDK extension issues with lint support. Android Studio automatically generates the correct version checks for APIs that are launched using SDK extensions.

Image showing Lint Support for SDK Extensions
Lint Support for SDK Extensions

Android Gradle Plugin 8.0.0 – Android Studio Flamingo ships with a new, major version of the Android Gradle plugin. The plugin brings many improvements, but also introduces a number of behavior changes and the Transform API removal. Please make sure to read about the required changes before you upgrade the AGP version in your projects.

Inspect

Updates to App Quality Insights – Discover, investigate, and reproduce issues reported by Crashlytics with App Quality Insights. You can filter by app version, Crashlytics signals, device type, or operating system version. In the latest update you can now close issues or add useful annotations in the Notes pane.

Image showing how you can annotate and close issues inside the notes pane
Annotate and close issues inside the notes pane

Network Inspector traffic interception – Network Inspector now shows all traffic data for the full timeline by default. Create and manage rules that help test how your app behaves when encountering different responses such as status codes, and response headers and bodies. The rules determine what responses to intercept and how to modify these responses before they reach the app. You can choose which rule to enable or disable by checking the Active box next to each rule. Rules are automatically saved every time you modify them.

Image showing Network Inspector Traffic Interception
Network Inspector Traffic Interception

Auto-connect to foreground process in Layout Inspector – Layout Inspector now automatically connects to the foreground process. You no longer have to click to attach it to your app.

IntelliJ

IntelliJ Platform Update – Android Studio Flamingo (2022.2.1) includes the IntelliJ 2022.2 platform release, which comes with IDE performance improvements, enhanced rendering performance on macOS thanks to the Metal API and more. It also improves the IDE performance when using Kotlin, which positively impacts code highlighting, completion, and find usages. Read the IntelliJ release notes here.

Summary

To recap, Android Studio Flamingo (2022.2.1) includes these new enhancements and features:

UI Tools
  • Live Edit (Compose) - Experimental
  • Themed app icon Preview support
  • Dynamic color Preview
  • Jetpack Compose and Material 3 Templates

Build
  • Build Analyzer Task Categorization
  • One-click Automated Profileable Build and Run
  • Lint Support for SDK Extensions
  • Breaking changes in Android Gradle Plugin 8.0

Inspect
  • Updates to App Quality Insights
  • Network Inspector Traffic Interception
  • Auto-connect to foreground process in Layout Inspector

IntelliJ
  •  IntelliJ Platform 2022.2 Update

Check out the Android Studio release notes, Android Gradle plugin release notes, and the Android Emulator release notes for more details.

Download Studio Today!

Now is the time to download Android Studio Flamingo (2022.2.1) to incorporate the new features into your workflow. As always, we appreciate any feedback on things you like and issues or features you would like to see. If you find a bug or issue, please file an issue and also check out known issues. Remember to also follow us on Twitter, Medium, or YouTube for more Android development updates!

Android Studio Chipmunk

Posted by Paris Hsu, Product & Design, Android; Takeshi Hagikura, Developer Relations Engineer, Android

Android Studio Chipmunk splash screen 

Today, we are thrilled to announce the stable release of Android Studio Chipmunk ?: The official IDE for building Android applications! This release is a smaller feature release, but we included the latest IntelliJ update and devoted more time to quality and stability. In this release alone, we address over 175+ quality issues.

If you want to be on the latest stable version of Android Studio you can download it today!


What’s in Android Studio Chipmunk

Below is a full list of new features in Android Studio Chipmunk:

Compose Animation Preview

This previously experimental feature is now available to allow Jetpack Compose developers to inspect and debug their animations built with Compose. If an animation is described in a composable preview, you can inspect the exact value of each animated value at a given time, pause the animation, loop it, fast-forward it, or slow it down. It is especially useful to compare animations with their design specs frame by frame.

Compose Animation Preview currently supports AnimatedVisibility and updateTransition. It will support more animation types in the future.

Compose Animation Shrine Cart

Compose Animation Shrine Cart

CPU Profiler

Android Studio Chipmunk now shows updated jank information, including jank types, and expected and actual deadlines that help you spot the actual cause of the jank. This jank information is available when you use the Android Emulator or physical devices with API level 31 (Android 12) or higher. Learn more here.

Showing Jank Information in CPU Profiler 
Showing Jank Information in CPU Profiler

Showing Jank Information in CPU Profiler

Build Analyzer: Check Jetifier

In Chipmunk we have introduced a new Jetifier check in Build Analyzer that will notify you if you can remove the Jetifier flag to improve performance during build.

The Jetifier flag was designed to automatically migrate third-party libraries to use AndroidX, and the vast majority of Android Studio projects still have it enabled. However, the library ecosystem has mostly moved to support AndroidX natively, and having the flag now usually adds unnecessary build overhead -- turning it off will typically save 5-10% on build times.

Showing Jetifier Check in Build Analyzer

Showing Jetifier Check in Build Analyzer

IntelliJ Platform Update

Although the number of Android specific features is light for Android Studio Chipmunk, it however includes the IntelliJ 2021.2 platform major release ?, which has many new features such as project-wide analysis, a new powerful Package Search UI, and IDE actions enhancements to speed up your workflow. Learn more.


Getting Started

In short, Android Studio Chipmunk ? is the update you don’t want to miss! Even though it was a shorter release, with the new version for IntelliJ, our continual efforts to improve quality, performance, and stability of the IDE, and the features listed earlier, we can’t wait for you to download and try it today!

As always, we appreciate any feedback on things you like, and issues or features you would like to see. If you find a bug or issue, please file an issue. To stay up-to-date with the latest features, follow us -- the Android Studio development team ‐ on Twitter and on Medium.

Android Studio Bumblebee (2021.1.1) Stable

Posted by Adarsh Fernando, Product Manager, Android

Bumblbee Android Studio

The Android Studio team has been abuzz with the stable release of Android Studio Bumblebee (2021.1.1) ? and Android Gradle plugin (AGP) 7.1.0; the latest versions of Android official IDE and build system. We’ve improved functionality across a broad area of the typical developer workflow: Build and Deploy, Profiling and Inspection, and Design.

Some notable additions include a unified test execution between Android Studio and your continuous integration (CI) server ✅, convenient pairing flows to support ADB over Wi-Fi ?, Improved Profiler tools to help you identify and analyze jank in your app ?, and new ways to preview animations ? and UI interactions without deploying your app to a device.

As always, this release wouldn’t be possible without the early feedback from our Preview users. So read on or watch below for further highlights and new features you can find in this stable version. If you’re ready to jump in and see for yourself, head over to the official website to download Android Studio Bumblebee (2021.1.1).


What’s in Android Studio Bumblebee (2021.1.1)

Below is a full list of new features in Android Studio Bumblebee (2021.1.1), organized by the three major themes.

Build and Deploy

  • New Device Manager: This new tool window in Bumblebee makes it easier to see and manage your virtual and physical test devices, and you can open it by selecting View > Tool Windows > Device Manager from the main menu bar. In the Virtual tab, create a new device, review device details, delete a device, or anything else you used to do from the now removed AVD Manager. In the Physical tab, quickly pair to a new device using ADB Wi-Fi and see details of each physical device at a glance, or quickly inspect each device’s file system using the Device File Explorer with a click of a button. Learn more about the New Device Manager in the release notes.
Device Manager

Device Manager


  • ADB over Wi-Fi: Bumblebee includes a simplified flow to connect to your Android 11 and higher devices over Wi-Fi for deployment and debugging using ADB. After you enable debugging over Wi-Fi on your device, select the Pair using Wi-Fi action in the Physical tab of the new Device Manager to open the pairing wizard. Then follow the steps provided to pair to a device connected over the same network. Learn more.
Pairing a device with ADB over Wifi

Pairing a device with ADB over Wifi


  • Run Instrumented Tests in Android Studio using Gradle: Have you ever run tests in Android Studio with different results than the same tests running on your CI? This can be a frustrating issue that leads to lost productivity. To resolve this issue, we’ve introduced a new test runner to Android Gradle plugin (AGP) 7.1.0 that Android Studio Bumblebee uses by default when running instrumentation tests, so all your tests run through a unified test runner. This is a similar improvement to Android Studio Arctic Fox, where we started running all unit tests via Gradle by default. And, similarly, this improvement doesn’t require you to change how you write or run your tests!

Using different runners lead to inconsistent results

Using different runners lead to inconsistent results


Android Studio now runs instrumentation tests via Gradle

Android Studio now runs instrumentation tests via Gradle


  • Android Gradle Plugin Upgrade Assistant now updates API usage: Originally introduced in Android Studio 4.2, the AGP Upgrade Assistant helped users update their projects to the latest version, and improvements in Arctic Fox provided a new UI with the ability to review and select the upgrade version and steps. In Bumblebee, the Upgrade Assistant now also checks for and offers to update your DSL to help you avoid using deprecated APIs before they are deleted. For more information see the Android Gradle Plugin DSL/API migration timeline.
  • Non-Transitive R classes on for new projects: Android Studio Arctic Fox introduced new refactoring tools to help you use non-transitive R classes to enable faster builds for applications with multiple modules. When creating new projects using Bumblebee, the IDE configures your project to use non-transitive R classes, by default. While this does bring performance improvements, you now have to refer to R classes by their proper package name, and not by the package names of their parent modules, as they will no longer resolve transitively. For more information see Use non-transitive R classes.
  • Emulator tool window enabled by default: Introduced in Android Studio 4.1, the Emulator launches within an Android Studio tool window and allows you to deploy and interact with virtual Android devices while fully remaining within the context of the IDE. The changes ads an improved UX for extended controls and snapshot management. For more information see Run the Android Emulator directly in Android Studio.
  • Apple Silicon Support Update - For those using macOS on Apple Silicon (arm64) hardware, Android Studio Arctic Fox and the Android Emulator have supported this new architecture since last year. However, with this release, we have now updated the Android SDK platform tools v32.0.0 (which includes ADB and fastboot) and build tools v32.1.0 (which includes aapt) to be universal binaries so that your Android developer tools no longer need the Rosetta binary translator to run. Based on community feedback, those developers on this hardware platform have seen notable performance improvements. See release notes.


Profile and Inspect

  • Jank detection track in Profilers: When profiling your app using devices running Android 11 (API level 30) or higher, the CPU profiler now shows a new group of tracks that illustrate the stages of each frame under Frame Lifecycle: Application, Wait for GPU, Composition and Frames on display. Each track labels the frames with a frame number and color-codes the rectangle to make it easy for you to visualize where a particular frame is in its lifecycle, along with guides you can toggle to compare with Vsync events. You can use this data to understand where Jank might occur in your app and investigate the root causes. In the Analysis panel, there is now a Frames tab, which conveniently summarizes rendering information for all frames. For more information, see UI jank detection.

Detailed frame lifecycle information in the CPU Profiler

Detailed frame lifecycle information in the CPU Profiler


  • Profileable app profiling support in Studio Profilers: When profiling your app, it’s important to generate accurate data with the version of your app that most closely resembles what your users will install. To do so, you can now include the <profileable> property in your app’s manifest to profile apps that are not debuggable, as shown below.

    <profileable android:shell="true"/>

    Profileable is a manifest configuration introduced in Android 10, and is available for CPU and Memory profiling tasks. Using the profileable flag instead of the debuggable flag has the key advantage of lower overhead for performance measurement; however, certain profiling features are not available for Profileable builds, such as the Event timeline, API initiated CPU profiling, heap dumps, or live location recordings. For more information, see Profileable applications.
  • Inspect Jobs, Alarms, and Wakelocks: The Background Task Inspector has been expanded to allow you to inspect Jobs, Alarms, and Wakelocks. You can see live information on how these background tasks are being scheduled, and see detailed information about their execution, similar to how you can inspect Workers. Additionally, when inspecting Workers, you can track and inspect Jobs that your Workers schedule for you. If you used to use the Energy Profiler in previous versions of the IDE, you should now navigate to View > Tool Windows > App Inspection from the menu bar and select the Background Task Inspector to inspect Jobs, Alarms, and Wakelocks.

Inspect Jobs, Alarms, and Wakelocks in the Background Task Inspector

Inspect Jobs, Alarms, and Wakelocks in the Background Task Inspector


  • Network Inspection: The Network Profiler has now migrated to the App Inspection tool window, to allow for a lighter-weight experience for inspecting network traffic in your app. The look and feel of the Network Profiler has been maintained and works with any debuggable app on devices running API level 26 and higher. To use the new inspector, select View > Tool Windows > App Inspection from the menu bar and select the Network Inspector. For more information, see Inspect network traffic with the Network Inspector.
  • Capture Layout Inspector snapshots: You can now capture snapshots of your app’s layout hierarchy to save, share, or inspect later. Snapshots capture the data you would typically see when using the Layout Inspector, including a detailed 3D rendering of your layout, the component tree of your View, Compose, or hybrid layout, and detailed attributes for each component of your UI. When inspecting the layout of a live running app, click Export snapshot from the Layout Inspector toolbar and save the snapshot with an *.li extension. You can then load a Layout Inspector snapshot by selecting File > Open from the main menu bar, and opening a *.li file. The snapshot appears in a tab in the Editor window, so that you can easily compare it with your running app. Learn more at Capture layout hierarchy snapshots.

GIF  
  • Support for Compose semantics in the Layout Inspector: In Compose, Semantics describe your UI in an alternative manner that is understandable for Accessibility services and for the Testing framework. In Android Studio Bumblebee, you can now use the Layout Inspector to inspect semantic information in your Compose layouts. When selecting a Compose node, use the Attributes window to check whether it declares semantic information directly, merges semantics from its children, or both. To quickly identify which nodes include semantics, either declared or merged, use select the View options dropdown in the Component Tree window and select Highlight Semantics Layers.

Design

  • Interactive Preview: Android Studio Arctic Fox launched with support to statically preview your composable functions in the Design / Split window of the Editor. In Bumblebee, we’ve expanded functionality to allow you to interact with certain components of your Compose layouts, to validate behavior without building and deploying the full app to a running device! To get started, navigate to a previewable compose function and click Start Interactive Mode in the Design / Split window. For more information see Interactive mode.

Interact with the Compose Preview to validate behavior

Interact with the Compose Preview to validate behavior


  • Animated Vector Drawables Preview: The Preview window is now also available when viewing vector drawables. When viewing a static drawable, you can use the preview window to change background options between “None”, “White”, “Black”, “Checkedered”, to view your drawable against different conditions. Animated drawables also provide the option to preview the animation at different speeds as well as backgrounds, to help you test animations before using them in your app. To learn more, see Animated Vector Drawables (AVD) preview.

Preview your animated vector drawables

Preview your animated vector drawables


  • Updated Device picker for design tools: To simplify designing your app for the diverse number of Android devices, we’ve updated the device picker in various design tool windows, such as Layout Editor and Layout Validation, with reference devices that reflect popular sizes of each device form factor. From phones to tablets, and Wear devices to Android TVs, it’s now easier to preview, validate, or edit your layout on screen sizes that are most representative of popular real-world devices. To learn more, see Change the preview appearance.

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To recap, Android Studio Bumblebee (2021.1.1) includes these new enhancements & features:

Build and Deploy
  • Run Instrumented Tests in Android Studio using Gradle
  • Android Gradle Plugin Upgrade Assistant now updates API usage
  • Non-Transitive R classes on for new projects
  • New Device Manager
  • ADB over Wi-Fi
  • Emulator tool window enabled by default
  • Apple Silicon Support Update
Profile and Inspect
  • Jank detection track in Profilers
  • Profileable app profiling support in Studio Profilers
  • Inspect Jobs, Alarms, and Wakelocks in the Background task Inspector
  • Capture Layout Inspector snapshots
  • Support for Compose semantics in the Layout Inspector
Design
  • Interactive Preview
  • Animated Vector Drawables Preview
  • Updated Device picker for design tools

Android Studio Arctic Fox (2020.3.1) Stable

Posted by Amanda Alexander, Product Manager, Android

Live Edit of Literals: edit strings and see it reflected immediately in Preview

We are excited to announce that Android Studio Arctic Fox is now available to download in the stable release channel. This latest release brings to life Jetpack Compose 1.0, Android's new toolkit for building native UI. The release also focuses on devices, including Wear OS, and helps with developer productivity, with features like a new Background Task Manager. We used your feedback to create this suite of new Android Studio features that will help empower the developer community to create high quality, modern apps across devices faster!

Note: As we announced last year, we adjusted our version numbering of Android Studio to match the year and version of the IntelliJ IDEA that Android Studio is based on, plus our own patch number. We will be using code names (in alphabetical order); the first is Arctic Fox and the next is Bumblebee (currently in canary).Android Studio Arctic Fox (2020.3.1) updates Android Studio to version 2020.3 of the IntelliJ platform which adds a slew of new features including debugger interactive hints, VCS updates, and several new code editor enhancements to speed up your workflow. Learn more.

To support rapid design of modern UI, we added additional features for Jetpack Compose. Compose Preview lets you create previews of multiple components of your Compose UI to instantly see the impact of your changes across dimensions (such as themes, screen and font sizes, and more). The Deploy Preview to device feature enables deploying snippets of your Compose code directly to a device or emulator so you can quickly test small parts of your code. If you want to dive deeper into your Layouts, we added Compose support to the Layout Inspector to help you understand how your layouts are rendered. Additionally, we added Live Editing of literals so you can instantly see your Compose code changes in previews and when running your app on an emulator or physical device without the need for compilation.

For increased device support, we built a new Wear OS pairing assistant to simplify the pairing of Wear OS emulators with physical or virtual phones. To use the newest Wear OS version, you can now access the developer preview of the Wear OS 3 system image. When you run the Wear OS emulator, you will also find added support for the Heart Rate Sensor API. For apps targeting Google TV, we added the newest Google TV Remote Control features and updated the Google TV system images to reflect the latest UI design. Additionally, we have completed the development and testing workflow for the Automotive OS by enabling the emulator to use car sensor data to simulate driving use cases. For apps targeting tablets, we have updated all templates to support landscape out of the box. Whether you are developing for small or large screen devices, we have included new features to help you keep innovating and building amazing apps.

Lastly, in an effort to boost developer productivity, we have added features to help you work more efficiently. For example, we added lint checks for Android 12 to provide guidance on building apps for the next version of Android. To help you test your code, we added an Accessibility Scanner for Layout Editor so you can more easily identify accessibility issues in your layouts and the new Test Matrix lets you view test results in real time across multiple devices in parallel. Additionally, we added preview support for Apple Silicon (arm64) hardware and extended the emulator controls for wider coverage in testing. Lastly, for debugging, the new Background Task Inspector helps you to analyze your app's background workers.

There are many enhancements to Android Studio Arctic Fox. To see the full list of changes, view the Android Studio Arctic Fox (2020.3.1) Beta release blog and release notes. You can take a look below at some highlights of the changes.

What's new in Android Studio Arctic Fox

Design

Use the @Preview annotation to generate previews of Compose code and visualize the different configurations of multiple components (e.g. devices or themes). Compose Preview can make it simpler for you to construct a mental mapping of the composables in your code.

Compose preview

Compose Preview

Layout Inspector for Compose

For both apps written fully in Compose and apps with some Compose alongside Views, Layout Inspector makes it possible to get more details on your layouts and troubleshoot. For example, you will be able to see the parameters and modifiers passed to each composable. There is an option to turn on Live Updates to stream data from your device as you develop your app.

Compose Layout Inspector

Compose Layout Inspector

Live Edit of literals

You can now ​​quickly edit literals (strings, numbers, booleans, etc.) inline and see the immediate results on the change on screen (previews, emulator, or physical device), without having to compile.

Live Edit of Literals: edit strings and see it reflected immediately in Preview

Live Edit of Literals: edit strings and see it reflected immediately in Preview

Devices

Wear OS Pairing

The new Wear OS Pairing assistant will help walk you through the pairing process to make pairing Wear OS emulators with virtual or physical phone simple. Note that this feature assists with pairing with Wear OS 2 companion; support for Wear OS 3 will be coming soon. Learn more.

Wear OS emulator pairing assistant dialog

Wear OS emulator pairing assistant dialog

Phone + Watch emulators paired successful state

Phone + Watch emulators paired successful state

Developer Productivity

Background Task Inspector

You can use the new Background Task Inspector to visualize, monitor, and debug your app's background workers when using WorkManager library 2.5.0 or higher on a device running API level 26 and higher. You can access it by selecting View > Tool Windows > App Inspection from the menu bar. Learn more.

background task inspector

To recap, Android Studio Arctic Fox (2020.3.1) Stable includes these new enhancements & features:

Design

  • Compose Preview
  • Compose Layout Inspector
  • Deploy Preview to Device
  • Live Edit of literals

Devices

  • Wear OS Pairing
  • Heart Rate Sensor
  • New Wear OS system images
  • Google TV Remote Control
  • Google TV system Images
  • Automotive OS Sensor Replay
  • Templates support for Tablets

Developer Productivity

  • IntelliJ 2020.3.1
  • Android 12 lint checks
  • Non-transitive R classes Refactoring
  • Apple Silicon Support Preview
  • Android Emulator Extended Controls
  • Background Task Inspector
  • Accessibility Scanner in Layout Editor
  • Test matrix
  • Memory Profiler new recording UI
  • AGP Upgrade Assistant Improvements
  • C++ editor: Set execution point in debugger

Check out the Android Studio release notes, Android Gradle plugin release notes, and the Android Emulator release notes for more details.

Getting Started

Download

You can download the latest version of Android Studio Arctic Fox from the download page and download the Apple Silicon preview build here. If you are using a previous release of Android Studio, you can simply update to the latest version of Android Studio. If you want to maintain a stable version of Android Studio, you can run the stable release version and canary release versions of Android Studio Arctic Fox at the same time. Learn more.

We appreciate any feedback on things you like, and issues or features you would like to see. If you find a bug or issue, feel free to file an issue. Follow us -- the Android Studio development team ‐ on Twitter and on Medium.

Android Game Development Extension is now available to all Android game developers

Posted by Lily Rapaport, Product Manager

After more than a year in closed beta, we are happy to announce that Android Game Development Extension (AGDE) is now available for all game developers to download. This milestone release of Game Tools from the Android Studio team meets game developers where they are; AGDE adds Android as a platform target to Microsoft Visual Studio, making it easier to target Android with existing multi-platform Visual Studio game projects.

AGDE is part of the Android Game Development Kit, which includes both libraries and tools that support making great games on Android. AGDE is best suited for game developers that develop primarily on Microsoft Windows using Visual Studio to write C/C++ code. Game developers that do not fall under these criteria, but are using C/C++, should use Android Studio to develop for Android.

Alongside the release of AGDE 2021.1, we recently published case studies on how our partners, Epic Games and Electronic Arts found success using AGDE.

We built AGDE as part of our effort to address game developers facing issues in targeting Android with their cross-platform workflows. At the top of the list of issues was developers’ preference to remain in a single IDE instead of maintaining multiple projects for different platforms. AGDE enables this for game developers using Visual Studio by removing the need to switch between IDEs when switching between platforms. In addition, we wanted to solve pain points around existing Visual Studio tools for Android that are often dated or suffer from integration issues. Our team is committed to having AGDE support the latest versions of the Android SDK, and NDK as well as providing updated tools easily accessible from Visual Studio. Finally, we wanted to bring you quick access to some of the most useful Android Studio capabilities, built into AGDE. Therefore, we invested in creating seamless integrations to our most popular tools, such as Studio profilers, logcat, and the Android SDK and device manager. Overall, these features are designed to make you more productive in your day-to-day game development workflow.

Build with AGDE

After downloading and installing AGDE in a Visual Studio project, you can treat Android development as you would any other platform.

  • AGDE integrates with MSBuild to compile and link C++ code for Android.
  • Project build settings are configured using the standard Visual Studio property system. After the MSBuild process, AGDE uses Gradle to complete the build and package the project. This Gradle stage can be used to integrate Android libraries containing Java or Kotlin code into the final application bundle.
  • The Android SDK manager provides access to additional tools and frameworks to assist with building Android games.
  • The Android Virtual Device (AVD) manager allows you to launch directly into emulator snapshots so that you can have a repeatable test environment.

Debug with AGDE

AGDE supports deploying to, running on, and debugging with both an Android emulator and a physical device. Debug sessions run inside Visual Studio, using its standard interface for breakpoints, tracing and variable inspection.

  • AGDE interfaces with LLDB for debugging support.
  • Register views, and disassembly of native code allow you to set a breakpoint, and step right into the disassembly of your OpenGL. The assembly view shows the assembly in-line with the current C++, allowing you to step into or over each instruction as they are executed. This is useful for building context and understanding what is running on your device.
    gif demonstrating AGDE supports deploying to, running on, and debugging with both an Android emulator and a physical device.
  • The memory view shows the current values within a block of memory. As we step through the running game, AGDE in Visual Studio automatically highlights the areas of memory that have changed. In the screenshot below we show where in memory the view matrix has changed, as indicated by the red text.
  • Sometimes when debugging isn’t enough to figure out what is going on, we know that having access to the logs can be helpful to dig deeper. The logcat tool allows for searching and filtering logs to pinpoint exactly the data you want.

Profile with AGDE

AGDE integrates with a standalone version of Android Studio Profilers. This profiler can be launched from Visual Studio and attached to a running game session.

  • The Android Studio Profilers display real time usage statistics for CPU, memory, network, and energy.
  • We added support for native memory sampling. Now you can better understand where your memory is going and how to optimize your game for a broader reach of devices.
gif demonstrating how AGDE integrates with a standalone version of Android Studio Profilers.

Integrations

We know everyone has a unique build setup and there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution. That is why we are investing in making AGDE compatible with various tools commonly used by game developers.

  • We partnered with Epic Games to integrate with Unreal Engine (UE 4.26.1+) to provide a seamless Android experience for Unreal Engine game developers.
  • We are working with Sony Distributed Build System (SN-DBS) to enable SN-DBS users to leverage the power of distributed builds for Android with AGDE (coming soon)
  • AGDE is compatible with Incredibuild, a distributed build tool.

Getting started

Download AGDE 2021.1 and see our documentation for additional details. To help you get to know AGDE quickly, we put together a few samples that demonstrate different ways you can use AGDE to configure your project.

Visual Studio IntelliSense features are compatible with AGDE. All current Android CPU architectures are supported: both ARM and Intel in 32-bit and 64-bit.

We appreciate any feedback on things you like, and issues or features you would like to see. If you find a bug or issue, feel free to file an issue. Learn more about Android game development, and follow us -- the Android Studio development team ‐ on Twitter and on Medium.

Microsoft and Visual Studio are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.

Android Game Development Extension is now available to all Android game developers

Posted by Lily Rapaport, Product Manager

After more than a year in closed beta, we are happy to announce that Android Game Development Extension (AGDE) is now available for all game developers to download. This milestone release of Game Tools from the Android Studio team meets game developers where they are; AGDE adds Android as a platform target to Microsoft Visual Studio, making it easier to target Android with existing multi-platform Visual Studio game projects.

AGDE is part of the Android Game Development Kit, which includes both libraries and tools that support making great games on Android. AGDE is best suited for game developers that develop primarily on Microsoft Windows using Visual Studio to write C/C++ code. Game developers that do not fall under these criteria, but are using C/C++, should use Android Studio to develop for Android.

Alongside the release of AGDE 2021.1, we recently published case studies on how our partners, Epic Games and Electronic Arts found success using AGDE.

We built AGDE as part of our effort to address game developers facing issues in targeting Android with their cross-platform workflows. At the top of the list of issues was developers’ preference to remain in a single IDE instead of maintaining multiple projects for different platforms. AGDE enables this for game developers using Visual Studio by removing the need to switch between IDEs when switching between platforms. In addition, we wanted to solve pain points around existing Visual Studio tools for Android that are often dated or suffer from integration issues. Our team is committed to having AGDE support the latest versions of the Android SDK, and NDK as well as providing updated tools easily accessible from Visual Studio. Finally, we wanted to bring you quick access to some of the most useful Android Studio capabilities, built into AGDE. Therefore, we invested in creating seamless integrations to our most popular tools, such as Studio profilers, logcat, and the Android SDK and device manager. Overall, these features are designed to make you more productive in your day-to-day game development workflow.

Build with AGDE

After downloading and installing AGDE in a Visual Studio project, you can treat Android development as you would any other platform.

  • AGDE integrates with MSBuild to compile and link C++ code for Android.
  • Project build settings are configured using the standard Visual Studio property system. After the MSBuild process, AGDE uses Gradle to complete the build and package the project. This Gradle stage can be used to integrate Android libraries containing Java or Kotlin code into the final application bundle.
  • The Android SDK manager provides access to additional tools and frameworks to assist with building Android games.
  • The Android Virtual Device (AVD) manager allows you to launch directly into emulator snapshots so that you can have a repeatable test environment.

Debug with AGDE

AGDE supports deploying to, running on, and debugging with both an Android emulator and a physical device. Debug sessions run inside Visual Studio, using its standard interface for breakpoints, tracing and variable inspection.

  • AGDE interfaces with LLDB for debugging support.
  • Register views, and disassembly of native code allow you to set a breakpoint, and step right into the disassembly of your OpenGL. The assembly view shows the assembly in-line with the current C++, allowing you to step into or over each instruction as they are executed. This is useful for building context and understanding what is running on your device.
    gif demonstrating AGDE supports deploying to, running on, and debugging with both an Android emulator and a physical device.
  • The memory view shows the current values within a block of memory. As we step through the running game, AGDE in Visual Studio automatically highlights the areas of memory that have changed. In the screenshot below we show where in memory the view matrix has changed, as indicated by the red text.
  • Sometimes when debugging isn’t enough to figure out what is going on, we know that having access to the logs can be helpful to dig deeper. The logcat tool allows for searching and filtering logs to pinpoint exactly the data you want.

Profile with AGDE

AGDE integrates with a standalone version of Android Studio Profilers. This profiler can be launched from Visual Studio and attached to a running game session.

  • The Android Studio Profilers display real time usage statistics for CPU, memory, network, and energy.
  • We added support for native memory sampling. Now you can better understand where your memory is going and how to optimize your game for a broader reach of devices.
gif demonstrating how AGDE integrates with a standalone version of Android Studio Profilers.

Integrations

We know everyone has a unique build setup and there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution. That is why we are investing in making AGDE compatible with various tools commonly used by game developers.

  • We partnered with Epic Games to integrate with Unreal Engine (UE 4.26.1+) to provide a seamless Android experience for Unreal Engine game developers.
  • We are working with Sony Distributed Build System (SN-DBS) to enable SN-DBS users to leverage the power of distributed builds for Android with AGDE (coming soon)
  • AGDE is compatible with Incredibuild, a distributed build tool.

Getting started

Download AGDE 2021.1 and see our documentation for additional details. To help you get to know AGDE quickly, we put together a few samples that demonstrate different ways you can use AGDE to configure your project.

Visual Studio IntelliSense features are compatible with AGDE. All current Android CPU architectures are supported: both ARM and Intel in 32-bit and 64-bit.

We appreciate any feedback on things you like, and issues or features you would like to see. If you find a bug or issue, feel free to file an issue. Learn more about Android game development, and follow us -- the Android Studio development team ‐ on Twitter and on Medium.

Microsoft and Visual Studio are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.

Android Game Development Extension is now available to all Android game developers

Posted by Lily Rapaport, Product Manager

After more than a year in closed beta, we are happy to announce that Android Game Development Extension (AGDE) is now available for all game developers to download. This milestone release of Game Tools from the Android Studio team meets game developers where they are; AGDE adds Android as a platform target to Microsoft Visual Studio, making it easier to target Android with existing multi-platform Visual Studio game projects.

AGDE is part of the Android Game Development Kit, which includes both libraries and tools that support making great games on Android. AGDE is best suited for game developers that develop primarily on Microsoft Windows using Visual Studio to write C/C++ code. Game developers that do not fall under these criteria, but are using C/C++, should use Android Studio to develop for Android.

Alongside the release of AGDE 2021.1, we recently published case studies on how our partners, Epic Games and Electronic Arts found success using AGDE.

We built AGDE as part of our effort to address game developers facing issues in targeting Android with their cross-platform workflows. At the top of the list of issues was developers’ preference to remain in a single IDE instead of maintaining multiple projects for different platforms. AGDE enables this for game developers using Visual Studio by removing the need to switch between IDEs when switching between platforms. In addition, we wanted to solve pain points around existing Visual Studio tools for Android that are often dated or suffer from integration issues. Our team is committed to having AGDE support the latest versions of the Android SDK, and NDK as well as providing updated tools easily accessible from Visual Studio. Finally, we wanted to bring you quick access to some of the most useful Android Studio capabilities, built into AGDE. Therefore, we invested in creating seamless integrations to our most popular tools, such as Studio profilers, logcat, and the Android SDK and device manager. Overall, these features are designed to make you more productive in your day-to-day game development workflow.

Build with AGDE

After downloading and installing AGDE in a Visual Studio project, you can treat Android development as you would any other platform.

  • AGDE integrates with MSBuild to compile and link C++ code for Android.
  • Project build settings are configured using the standard Visual Studio property system. After the MSBuild process, AGDE uses Gradle to complete the build and package the project. This Gradle stage can be used to integrate Android libraries containing Java or Kotlin code into the final application bundle.
  • The Android SDK manager provides access to additional tools and frameworks to assist with building Android games.
  • The Android Virtual Device (AVD) manager allows you to launch directly into emulator snapshots so that you can have a repeatable test environment.

Debug with AGDE

AGDE supports deploying to, running on, and debugging with both an Android emulator and a physical device. Debug sessions run inside Visual Studio, using its standard interface for breakpoints, tracing and variable inspection.

  • AGDE interfaces with LLDB for debugging support.
  • Register views, and disassembly of native code allow you to set a breakpoint, and step right into the disassembly of your OpenGL. The assembly view shows the assembly in-line with the current C++, allowing you to step into or over each instruction as they are executed. This is useful for building context and understanding what is running on your device.
    gif demonstrating AGDE supports deploying to, running on, and debugging with both an Android emulator and a physical device.
  • The memory view shows the current values within a block of memory. As we step through the running game, AGDE in Visual Studio automatically highlights the areas of memory that have changed. In the screenshot below we show where in memory the view matrix has changed, as indicated by the red text.
  • Sometimes when debugging isn’t enough to figure out what is going on, we know that having access to the logs can be helpful to dig deeper. The logcat tool allows for searching and filtering logs to pinpoint exactly the data you want.

Profile with AGDE

AGDE integrates with a standalone version of Android Studio Profilers. This profiler can be launched from Visual Studio and attached to a running game session.

  • The Android Studio Profilers display real time usage statistics for CPU, memory, network, and energy.
  • We added support for native memory sampling. Now you can better understand where your memory is going and how to optimize your game for a broader reach of devices.
gif demonstrating how AGDE integrates with a standalone version of Android Studio Profilers.

Integrations

We know everyone has a unique build setup and there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution. That is why we are investing in making AGDE compatible with various tools commonly used by game developers.

  • We partnered with Epic Games to integrate with Unreal Engine (UE 4.26.1+) to provide a seamless Android experience for Unreal Engine game developers.
  • We are working with Sony Distributed Build System (SN-DBS) to enable SN-DBS users to leverage the power of distributed builds for Android with AGDE (coming soon)
  • AGDE is compatible with Incredibuild, a distributed build tool.

Getting started

Download AGDE 2021.1 and see our documentation for additional details. To help you get to know AGDE quickly, we put together a few samples that demonstrate different ways you can use AGDE to configure your project.

Visual Studio IntelliSense features are compatible with AGDE. All current Android CPU architectures are supported: both ARM and Intel in 32-bit and 64-bit.

We appreciate any feedback on things you like, and issues or features you would like to see. If you find a bug or issue, feel free to file an issue. Learn more about Android game development, and follow us -- the Android Studio development team ‐ on Twitter and on Medium.

Microsoft and Visual Studio are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.

Android Studio Arctic Fox (2020.3.1) Beta

Posted by Paris Hsu, Product & Design, Android

Android Studio Arctic Fox splash screen

Android Studio Arctic Fox splash screen

Note: As we announced late last year, we've changed our version numbering scheme to match the number for the IntelliJ IDE that Android Studio is based on, 2020.3, plus our own patch number, as well as a handy code name to make it easier to remember and refer to. We'll be using code names in alphabetical order; the first is Arctic Fox, now in beta, and the next is Bumblebee, now in canary.

Today, we are excited to unveil Android Studio Arctic Fox (2020.3.1) Beta ❄?: the latest release of the official Android IDE focuses on Design, Devices, and Developer Productivity. It is available for download now on the beta channel for you to try out all the new features launched this week during Google I/O 2021!

Inspired by developer communities around the world, who despite having to adjust to challenges this past year still continue to create amazing and innovative apps, we have delivered and updated the suite of tools to empower three major themes:

  • Rapid UI design - with Jetpack Compose, it's never been easier to create modern UIs, and we have tools to help complete that journey: you can create previews in different configurations and navigate your code with Compose Preview, test it in isolation with Deploy Preview to Device, and inspect the full app with Layout inspector. Throughout iterations, you can quickly edit strings and numbers and see immediate updates. Moreover, with the Accessibility Scanner in Layout Editor, your View based layouts are audited for accessibility problems.
  • New devices, both large and small - reimagine and extend your app beyond phones--whether it's for Wear OS, Google TV, or Android Auto, we have prepared new emulators and system images, and even authentic simulations for different testing scenarios: pair your watch and phone emulators with Wear OS Pairing, take a virtual run with Wear OS heart rate sensors, switch channels with GoogleTV Remote Control, and drive with Automotive OS Sensor Replay.
  • Developer productivity boost - we want to ensure your workspace and environment are ready for the latest systems and optimized for speed and quality. Now you can enjoy a whole slew of new features and improvements that come with a major update to Intellij 2020.3, test your app with what Android 12 has to offer, improve your app performance with the updated UI for Memory Profiler, understand background task relationships with WorkManager Inspector, and use Non-Transitive R classes IDE Refactoring to increase build speed.

In short, this is an upgrade you do not want to miss! ✹ There are many more features and improvements surrounding these themes you can find in this Beta version, so read or watch below for further highlights. Or, skip the reading, download Android Studio Arctic Fox (2020.3.1) Beta in the beta channel and try out the latest features yourselves today! Give us feedback and help us to continue to focus on the areas you care about most in the next version of Android Studio.

What's new in Android development tools (I/O 2021)


What’s in Android Studio Arctic Fox (2020.3.1) Beta

Below is a full list of new features in Android Studio Arctic Fox (2020.3.1) Beta, organized by the three major themes:

Design

  • Compose Preview - You can create previews of your Compose UI with Compose Preview! By using the @Preview annotation, Compose previews can be made to visualize multiple components at once in different configurations (i.e themes, device) as well as create a mental mapping for you to navigate your code.
Compose Preview

Compose Preview

  • Layout Inspector for Compose - You can now inspect layouts written in Compose with Layout Inspector. Whether your app uses layouts fully written in Compose or layouts that use a hybrid of Compose and Views, the Layout Inspector helps you understand how your layouts are rendered on your running device or emulator, obtain rich details (such as parameters and modifiers passed to each composable), and debug issues that might arise. As you interact with the app, you now also have the option to either enable Live Updates to constantly stream data from your device, or reduce performance impact on your device by disabling live updates and clicking the Refresh action as needed.
Compose Layout Inspector

Compose Layout Inspector

  • Deploy Preview to Device - Use this feature to deploy a snippet of your UI to a device or emulator. This will help to test small parts of your code in the device without having to start the full application. Your preview will benefit the same context (permissions, resources) as your application. You can click the Deploy to device icon on the top of any Compose preview or next to the @Preview annotation in the code editor gutter and Android Studio will deploy that @Preview to your connected device or emulator.
Using Deploy to device from preview and gutter icon

Using Deploy to device from preview and gutter icon

  • Live Edit of literals - Live Editing of literals allows developers using Compose to quickly edit literals (strings, numbers, booleans) in their code and see the results immediately without needing to wait for compilation. The goal of the feature is to increase your productivity by having code changes appear near instantaneously in the previews, emulator, or physical device.
Editing numbers and strings update immediately in the preview and on device

Editing numbers and strings update immediately in the preview and on device

  • Accessibility Scanner for Layout Editor - Android Studio now integrates with the Android Accessibility Test Framework to help you find accessibility issues in your layouts. When using the Layout Editor, click on the error report button to launch the panel. The tool will report accessibility related issues and also offers suggested fixes for some common problems (e.g. missing content descriptions, or low contrast)
Accessibility Test Framework Scanner in Layout Editor

Accessibility Test Framework Scanner in Layout Editor

Devices

  • Wear OS Pairing - We created a new Wear OS pairing assistant to guide developers step by step through pairing Wear OS emulators with physical or virtual phones directly in Android Studio! You can start by going to device dropdown > Wear OS emulator pairing assistant. Note that this will currently pair with Wear OS 2 companion, and Wear OS 3 will be coming soon. Learn more.
Wear OS emulator pairing assistant dialog

Wear OS emulator pairing assistant dialog

Phone + Watch emulators paired successful state

Phone + Watch emulators paired successful state

  • New Wear OS system images - a developer preview of the Wear OS 3 system image is now available so that you can use and play with the newest version of Wear OS!
Wear OS system image

Wear OS system image

  • Heart Rate Sensor for Wear OS Emulators - To help you test your Wear OS apps, the Android Emulator now has support for the Heart Rate Sensor API when you run the Wear OS emulator. Make sure you are running at least Android Emulator v30.4.5 downloaded via the Android Studio SDK Manager
Heart Rate Sensor for Wear OS Emulators

Heart Rate Sensor for Wear OS Emulators

  • Google TV Remote Control - On top of running the new Google TV UI, we now have an updated Remote control panel, which has mapping for the new Google TV remote controls features like: user profile, and settings.
Google TV remote controls

Google TV remote controls

  • New Google TV system images - We have updated the system images to reflect the new Google TV experience allowing you to freely explore the UI.
Google TV system image

Google TV system image

  • Automotive OS Sensor Replay - You can now use the Android Automotive emulator to simulate driving scenarios, with the ability to replay car sensor data (e.g. speed, gear), completing your development and testing workflow.
Android Automotive OS Sensor replay

Android Automotive OS Sensor replay

Developer Productivity

  • IntelliJ Platform Update - Android Studio Arctic Fox (2020.3.1) Beta includes the IntelliJ 2020.3 platform release ?, which has many new features such as Debugger interactive hints, new Welcome screen, and a ton of new code editor enhancements to speed up your workflow. Learn more.
  • Android 12 lint checks - We’ve added lint checks that are specific to building your app for Android 12 so that you can get guidance in context. To name a few -- we have built checks for custom declarations of splash screens, coarse location permission for fine location usage, media formats, and high sensor sampling rate permission.
  • Non-transitive R classes Refactoring - Using non-transitive R classes with the Android Gradle Plugin can lead to faster builds for applications with multiple modules. It prevents resource duplication by ensuring that each module only contains references to its own resources, without pulling references from dependencies. You can access this feature by going to Refactor > Migrate to Non-transitive R Classes.
  • Apple Silicon Support Preview - For those using MacOS on Apple Silicon (arm64) hardware, Android Studio Arctic Fox provides preview support for this new architecture.  The arm64 platform support is still under active development, but we wanted to provide you a release order to get your feedback. Since this is a preview release for the arm64 architecture, you will have to separately download this version from the Android Studio download archive page and look for Mac (Apple Silicon).
  • Extended controls in the Emulator tool window - Developers now have access to all extended emulator controls when the emulator is opened in a tool window. The extended controls will give developers powerful tools for testing their apps such as navigation playback, virtual sensors, and snapshots all within Android studio. To launch the Emulator within Android Studio go to Android Studio's Preferences > Tools > Emulator and select “Launch in a tool window."
Extended controls in the Emulator tool window

Extended controls in the Emulator tool window

  • Background Task Inspector - You can now utilize the Background Task Inspector to visualize, monitor, and debug your app's background workers when using WorkManager library 2.5.0 or higher. You can access it by going to View > Tool Windows > App Inspection from the menu bar. When you deploy an app on a device running API level 26 and higher, you should see active workers in the Background Task Inspector tab, as shown below. Learn more.
Background Task Inspector

Background Task Inspector

  • Parallel device testing with Test Matrix - Instrumentation tests can now be run across multiple devices in parallel and investigated using a new specialized instrumentation test results panel, called the Test Matrix, which streams the test results in real time. Learn more
Test matrix running tests across multiple devices in parallel

Test matrix running tests across multiple devices in parallel

  • Memory Profiler new recording UI - We have consolidated the Memory Profiler UI for different recording activities, such as capturing a heap dump and recording Java, Kotlin, and native memory allocations.
Memory Profiler: recorded Java / Kotlin Allocations

Memory Profiler: recorded Java / Kotlin Allocations

  • Updated system requirements - In order to ensure that we provide the best experience for Android developers, we are updating the system requirements when using Android Studio. These requirements also represent the configurations we use to thoroughly test Android Studio to maintain high quality and performance, and we plan to update them more frequently going forward. So, while you’re still able to use systems that fall below the requirements, we can’t guarantee compatibility or support when doing so. You can see the updated system requirements on the official developer site.

To recap, Android Studio Arctic Fox (2020.3.1) Beta includes these new enhancements & features:

Design

  • Compose Preview
  • Compose Layout Inspector
  • Deploy Preview to Device
  • Live Edit of literals
  • Accessibility Scanner in Layout Editor

Devices

  • Wear OS Pairing
  • Heart Rate Sensor
  • New Wear OS system images
  • Google TV Remote Control
  • Google TV system Images
  • Automotive OS Sensor Replay

Productivity

  • Intellij 2020.3.1
  • Android 12 lint checks
  • Non-transitive R classes Refactoring
  • Apple Silicon Support Preview
  • Android Emulator Extended Controls
  • Background Task Inspector
  • Test matrix
  • Memory Profiler new recording UI

You might also have seen other new features at I/O which are not included in the list above; they are included in Android Studio (2021.1.1) Bumblebee Canary since these features were not quite ready for a beta channel release:

Design

  • Interactive Compose preview
  • Compose Animation preview
  • Preview Configuration Picker
  • Animated vector drawable preview
  • Compose Blueprint Mode
  • Compose Constraints Preview for ConstraintLayout

Devices

  • Automotive OS USB Passthrough - Coming soon
  • Automotive OS Rotary Controls - Coming soon

Productivity

  • Kotlin Coroutines debugger
  • Device Manager
  • Gradle Instrumented Test Runner Integration in Android Studio
  • Gradle Managed Devices

Sessions at Google I/O 2021

With this exciting release, the Android Studio team also presented a series of sessions about Android Studio. Watch the following videos to see the latest features in action and to get tips & tricks on how to use Android Studio ?:


Getting Started

Android Studio Arctic Fox (2020.3.1) is a big release, and now is a good time to download and check out the Beta release to incorporate the new features into your workflow. The beta release is near stable release quality, but as with any beta release, bugs may still exist, so, if you do find an issue, let us know so we can work to fix it. If you’re already using Android Studio, you can check for updates on the Beta channel from the navigation menu (Help > Check for Update [Windows/Linux] , Android Studio > Check for Updates [OS X]). When you update to beta, you will get access to the new version of Android Studio and Android Emulator.

As always, we appreciate any feedback on things you like, and issues or features you would like to see. If you find a bug or issue, please file an issue. Follow us -- the Android Studio development team -- on Twitter and on Medium.

Android Studio 4.2

Posted by Jamal Eason, Product Manager, Android

Android logo

We are excited to announce that Android Studio 4.2 is now available to download in the stable release channel. The focus areas for this release is an upgraded IntelliJ platform and a handful of new features centered around improving your productivity as an Android app developer.

We know sometimes upgrading your app project to the latest version can be complicated. To address this, we have a new app project upgrade assistant in Android Studio 4.2 that makes it easier to migrate your project and to take advantage of the latest Android Gradle Plugin APIs. Additionally, we have added a whole range of enhancements to the existing features like the Database Inspector, System Trace, SafeArgs support, Apply Changes, the new project wizard and more. If you use these features and you are looking for the next stable version of Android Studio, you should download Android Studio 4.2 today!

Check out the list of new features in Android Studio 4.2 below, organized by key developer flows.

Develop

  • IntelliJ Platform Update - Android Studio 4.2 includes all the major features and updates found in IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition 2020.2, which includes an updated GitHub UI for pull requests, and new centralized problems window, and more. Learn more.
  • Safe Args Support - Using Safe Args is the recommended way to ensure data encapsulation if you want to pass data between two destinations in your app when you are using the Jetpack Navigation component. With Android Studio 4.2, you now have code autocompletion for Directions Args, and code navigation from source to XML. Learn more.
    safe arfs support

    Safe Args Support

  • New Project Wizard and Module Wizard Updates - This release includes a visual refresh to the new project wizard to make it easier to discover Android device types, plus we added ViewBinding to each of the templates as well. Furthermore, we also made a visual update to the new module wizards to make it easier to understand the variety of module types you can add to your app.
New Project Wizard New Module Wizard

New Project Wizard & New Module Wizard

Debug

  • Database Inspector Improvements - Managing and monitoring your in app database is easier to do with the Database Inspector. In this release we made a couple new enhancements. We added a new offline mode, so that you can still keep inspecting your app's databases after a process disconnects, making it easier to diagnose your app after a crash. And we added a handy query history option as well.
Query History with the Database Inspector

Query History with the Database Inspector

  • Retrace Command Line Tool - As part of your app compilation process, R8 obfuscates Kotlin and Java programming language code. This can make stack traces impossible to decipher since types and method names are obfuscated and shortened to reduce the memory footprint of your app. The Retrace command line tool deobfuscates these names and recovers inlined frames using a mapping.txt file, making stack traces understandable again The new standalone tool can be found at ./sdk/cmdline-tools/latest/bin/retrace. Learn more.

Build

  • AGP Upgrade Assistant - Migrating your project to the latest Android Gradle Plugin (AGP) can sometimes be tricky especially if you use deprecated APIs. To solve this and to better prepare you for the transition to the Android Gradle Plugin 7.0, we created a new upgrade assistant. The assistant allows you to toggle the commands that will be executed on your project to upgrade to a higher version of AGP, preview exactly which files will be affected by the AGP upgrade, and lastly globally update deprecated configurations.
AGP Upgrade Assistant<

AGP Upgrade Assistant

  • Apply Changes Enhancements - Apply Changes lets you push code and resource changes to your running app without restarting your app. In Android Studio 4.2 we have expanded the number of compatible changes with Apply Changes to include adding resources (which accounted for 23% of changes that needed a full restart) and adding static final fields (e.g. constants) when running on an Android 11+ device or emulator.
  • Android Gradle Plugin 4.2 - With AGP 4.2, we made a number of notable changes. First, we implemented a new resources compiler which should aid in improving build performance especially on Windows machines. Secondly, we have updated the default Java programming language to version 8. Lastly, we added support for the APK v3 and APK v4 signing format. Learn more about additional AGP updates here. 
// build.gradle.kts

android {
   ...
   signingConfigs {
      config {
          ...
          enableV3Signing(true)
          enableV4Signing(true)
      }
   }
}

APK v3 and APK v4 singing support

Test

  • Multiple Device Deployment - Sometimes when you are developing and testing your app it is helpful to deploy your app on multiple devices to see the results. We brought back this feature from very early versions of Android Studio and integrated it directly into the device selection menu in Android Studio 4.2. To note, if you deploy tests to multiple devices you may be prompted to enable this behavior.
Multiple Device Deployment

Multiple Device Deployment

Profile

  • System Trace Improvements - To understand the fine-grained performance characteristics of your app, it helps to use the system trace features inside of the Android Studio profiers. With this release of Android Studio, system trace now has a new events table. With this new table view you can see; BufferQueue, RSS memory counters, and CPU core frequency all within a compact user interface. Profiler with new System Trace Events Table

    Profiler with new System Trace Events Table

    To recap, Android Studio 4.2 includes these new enhancements & features:

    Develop

    • IntelliJ 2020.2.3 Platform Update
    • Safe Args Support
    • New Project Wizard and Module Wizard Updates

    Debug

    • Database Inspector Improvements
    • Retrace Command Line Tool

    Build

    • AGP Upgrade Assistant
    • Apply Changes Enhancements
    • Android Gradle Plugin 4.2

    Test

    • Multiple Device Deployment

    Profile

    • System Trace Improvements

    Check out the Android Studio release notes, Android Gradle plugin release notes, and the Android Emulator release notes for more details.


Getting Started

Download

Download the latest version of Android Studio 4.2 from the download page. If you are using a previous release of Android Studio, you can simply update to the latest version of Android Studio. If you want to maintain a stable version of Android Studio, you can run the stable release version and canary release versions of Android Studio Arctic Fox at the same time. Learn more.

We appreciate any feedback on things you like, and issues or features you would like to see. If you find a bug or issue, feel free to file an issue. Follow us -- the Android Studio development team ‐ on Twitter and on Medium.

Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Announcing Android Studio Arctic Fox (2020.3.1) & Android Gradle plugin 7.0

Posted by Jamal Eason, Product Manager

Android Studio logo

Today marks the release of the first version of Android Studio Arctic Fox (2020.3.1) on the canary channel, together with Android Gradle plugin (AGP) version 7.0.0-alpha01. With this release, we are adjusting the version numbering of Android Studio and our Gradle plugin. This change decouples the Gradle plugin from the Android Studio versioning scheme and brings more clarity to which year and IntelliJ version Android Studio aligns with for each release.

New versioning scheme - Android Studio

With Android Studio Arctic Fox (2020.3.1) we are moving to a year-based system that is more closely aligned with IntelliJ IDEA, the IDE upon which Android Studio is built. We are changing the version numbering scheme to encode a number of important attributes: the year, the version of IntelliJ it is based on, plus feature and patch level. WIth this name change you can quickly figure out which version of the IntelliJ platform you are using in Android Studio. In addition, each major version will have a canonical codename, starting with Arctic Fox, and then proceeding alphabetically to help make it easy to see which version is newer.

We recommend that you use the latest version of Android Studio so that you have access to the latest features and quality improvements. To make it easier to stay up to date, we made the version change to clearly de-couple Android Studio from your Android Gradle Plugin version. An important detail to keep in mind is that there is no impact to the way the build system compiles and packages your app when you update the IDE. In contrast, app build process changes and APK/Bundles are dictated by your project AGP version. Therefore, it is safe to update your Android Studio version, even late in your development cycle, because your project AGP version can be updated in a different cadence than your Android Studio version. Lastly, with the new version system it is even easier than before for you or your team to run both the stable and preview versions of Android Studio at the same time on your app project as long as you keep the AGP version on a stable release.

In the previous numbering system, this release would have been Android Studio 4.3. With the new numbering system, it is now Android Studio Arctic Fox (2020.3.1) Canary 1 or just, Arctic Fox.

Going forward, here is how the Android Studio version number scheme will work:

<Year of IntelliJ Version>.<IntelliJ major version>.<Studio major version>

  • The first two number groups represent the version of the final IntellIj platform that a particular Android Studio release is based on (earlier canaries may still be on the earlier version). For this release, this is 2020.3.
  • The third number group represents the Studio major version, starting at 1 and incrementing by one for every major release.
  • To make it easier to refer to each version, we are also giving major releases a code name, incrementing from A to Z based on animal names. This initial release name is Arctic Fox.

New versioning scheme - Android Gradle plugin

With AGP 7.0.0 we are adopting the principles of semantic versioning, and aligning with the Gradle version that AGP requires. Compatibility between Android Studio and Android Gradle plugin remains unchanged. Projects that use stable versions of AGP can be opened with newer versions of Android Studio.

We will publish another post soon with more details about our AGP versioning philosophy and what is new in AGP 7.0.

What is new in Android Studio Arctic Fox

We are in early days in the feature development phase for Arctic Fox, but we have invested much of our time in addressing over 200 quality improvements and bugs across a wide range of areas in the IDE from the code editor, app inspection tools, layout editor to the embedded emulator. Check out the release notes for the specific bug fixes.

For those trying out Jetpack Compose, we have a host of new updates, like deploy @Preview composables to device/emulator:

Deploy preview composable

Also try out the new Layout Validation Tool in Arctic Fox to see how your layout responds to various screens sizes, font sizes, and Android Color Correction/Color Blind Modes. You can access this via the Layout Validation tool window when you are using the Layout Editor.

Layout Validation

Lastly, for those running MacOS (other platforms are coming soon) with the latest Android Platform tools and an Android 11 device, you can try out the IDE integration for the Wireless ADB feature by going to the Run device selection dialogue → Pair Devices Using Wi-Fi.

Menu to access Wireless ADB feature

Wireless ADB Setup Window

What’s Next

If you want to learn more about other detailed changes coming with this release for both Android Studio and the Android Gradle plugin, make sure to take a look at the release notes.