The latest version of Android Studio is finally leaving beta testing. The integrated development environment (IDE) is now available to app developers with a stable release, a month ahead of Google’s developer conference.
“As the official IDE from Google, Android Studio includes everything you need to build an app, including a code editor, code analysis tools, emulators and more,” Jamal Eason, product manager for Android, wrote in a post on the Android developer blog today. The company said this version, Android Studio 2.0, includes some significant speed improvements along with a variety of other upgrades over the original Android Studio to make mobile developers happy.
Faster Build Times
The original version of Android Studio was released back in 2013. Google unveiled the new version in November of last year, with the beta version only available since February.
To speed up build times, Android Studio 2.0 includes a new feature called Instant Run (pictured above) that allows developers to make changes and see them appear live in their apps while they’re running. Google said the new feature will help accelerate edit, build, and run cycles. “Whenever possible, it will inject your code changes into your running app process, avoiding re-deployment and re-installation [of] your APK,” Eason said. “For some types of changes, an activity or app restart is required, but your edit, build and run cycles should still be generally much faster than before.”
Another speed boost comes via the new Android Emulator, which should run three times faster than the previous emulator, according to Google. Meanwhile, ADB push speeds run as much as 10 times faster. “In most situations, developing on the official Android Emulator is faster than a real device, and new features like Instant Run will work best with the new Android emulator,” Eason said.
The emulator also has a new user interface and sensor controls to let developers drag and drop APKs (android application packages) for quick installation, as well as resize and rescale the window, and use multi-touch actions.
New Testing and Debugging Features
Another new feature in Android Studio 2.0, Cloud Test Lab, enables developers to test their apps across a wide range of devices and device configurations at scale in the cloud. Even if developers do not have tests explicitly written, Cloud Test Lab can perform a basic set of tests to ensure that their apps don’t crash.
The new App Indexing API (application programming language), meanwhile, makes it easier for users to find apps in Google Search by helping developers create the correct URL structures in their apps’ codes and add attributes in the AndroidManifest.xml file that will work with the Google App Indexing service.
Game developers also have a new GPU (graphics processing unit) debugger, although it is still in preview. The debugger will allow developers to step through their apps frame by frame to identify and debug graphics rendering issues with information about the GL (graphics library) state.
Image Credit: Android Studio logo and Android Studio 2.0 Instant Run feature via Google Developers Blog.
