Android Studio

BETA

This download includes:

  • Android Studio Beta
  • All the Android SDK Tools to design, test, and debug your app
  • A version of the Android platform to compile your app
  • A version of the Android system image to run your app in the emulator

Android Studio is a new Android development environment based on IntelliJ IDEA. It provides new features and improvements over Eclipse ADT and will be the official Android IDE once it's ready. On top of the capabilities you expect from IntelliJ, Android Studio offers:

  • Flexible Gradle-based build system.
  • Build variants and multiple APK generation.
  • Expanded template support for Google Services and various device types.
  • Rich layout editor with support for theme editing.
  • Lint tools to catch performance, usability, version compatibility, and other problems.
  • ProGuard and app-signing capabilities.
  • Built-in support for Google Cloud Platform, making it easy to integrate Google Cloud Messaging and App Engine.

Caution: Android Studio is currently in beta. Some features are not yet implemented and you may encounter bugs. If you are not comfortable using an unfinished product, you may want to instead download (or continue to use) Eclipse with ADT.

Android Studio vs. Eclipse ADT Comparison

The following table lists some key differences between Android Studio Beta and Eclipse with ADT.

Feature Android Studio ADT
Build system Gradle Ant
Maven-based build dependencies Yes No
Build variants and multiple-APK generation (great for Android Wear) Yes No
Advanced Android code completion and refactoring Yes No
Graphical layout editor Yes Yes
APK signing and keystore management Yes Yes
NDK support Coming soon Yes

Updating from older versions

If you already have Android Studio installed, in most cases, you can upgrade to the latest version by installing a patch. From within Android Studio, select Help > Check for updates (on Mac, Android Studio > Check for updates) to see whether an update is available.

If an update is not available, click the button above to download and replace your existing installation.

Caution: Replacing your existing installation of Android Studio will remove any additional SDK packages you've installed, such as target platforms, system images, and sample apps. To preserve these, copy them from your current SDK directory under Android Studio to a temporary location before installing the update. Then move them back once the update is complete. If you fail to copy these packages, then you can instead download them again through the Android SDK Manager.

As you continue developing apps, you may need to install additional versions of Android for the emulator and other packages such as the Android Support Library. To install more packages, use the SDK Manager, which you can open from Android Studio by clicking SDK Manager in the toolbar.

Revisions

Android Studio v0.8.6 (August 2014)

See tools.android.com for a full list of changes.

Android Studio v0.8.0 (June 2014)

Added support for Android Wear projects.

See tools.android.com for a full list of changes.

Android Studio v0.5.2 (May 2014)

Android Studio v0.4.6 (March 2014)

Android Studio v0.4.2 (Jan 2014)

Android Studio v0.3.2 (Oct 2013)

Android Studio v0.2.x (July 2013)

  • Merged in the latest IntelliJ codebase changes. Includes fixes for issues reported by Studio users such as tweaks to Linux font sizes and font rendering.
  • Android Gradle plug-in updated to 0.5.0.

    Caution: This new version is not backwards compatible. When opening a project that uses an older version of the plug-in, Studio will show an error stating Gradle <project_name> project refresh failed.

    The updated Gradle plug-in includes the following changes:

    • Fixed IDE model to contain the output file even if it's customized through the DSL. Also fixed the DSL to get/set the output file on the variant object so that it's not necessary to use variant.packageApplication or variant.zipAlign
    • Fixed dependency resolution so that we resolved the combination of (default config, build types, flavor(s)) together instead of separately.
    • Fixed dependency for tests of library project to properly include all the dependencies of the library itself.
    • Fixed case where two dependencies have the same leaf name.
    • Fixed issue where Proguard rules file cannot be applied on flavors.

    All Gradle plugin release notes are available are here: http://tools.android.com/tech-docs/new-build-system.

  • Gradle errors from aapt no longer point to merged output files in the build/ folder, they point back to the real source locations.
  • Parallel Builds. It's now possible to use Gradle's parallel builds. Please be aware that parallel builds are in "incubation" (see Gradle's documentation.) This feature is off by default. To enable it, go to Preferences > Compiler and check the box Compile independent modules in parallel.
  • Further work on the new resource repository used for layout rendering, resource folding in the editor, and more:
    • Basic support for .aar library dependencies (e.g. using a library without a local copy of the sources). Still not working for resource XML validation and navigation in source editors.
    • Cycle detection in resource references.
    • Quick Documentation (F1), which can show all translations of the string under the caret, will now also show all resource overlays from the various Gradle flavors and build types, as well as libraries. They are listed in reverse resource overlay order, with strikethrough on the versions of the string that are masked.
    • Fixes to handle updating the merged resources when the set of module dependencies change.
    • XML rendering fixes to properly handle character entity declarations and XML and unicode escapes.
  • Save screenshot support for the layout preview and layout editor windows.
  • Template bug fixes.
  • Lint bug fixes.
  • Various fixes for crash reports. Thank you, and keep filing crash reports!

Android Studio v0.1.x (May 2013)

  • Various bug fixes, including a fix for a common Windows installation issue.

 

Note: Periodic updates are pushed to Android Studio without requiring you to update from here. To manually check for updates, select Help > Check for updates (on Mac, select Android Studio > Check for updates).

Troubleshooting

If you encounter problems in Android Studio, look at the following page for possible resolutions to known issues: http://tools.android.com/knownissues.