What is Android Studio used for?

Android Studio is the integrated development environment used to build Android applications and libraries. It covers editing, building, debugging, testing, profiling, and packaging for Play distribution.

Do I need a physical device to start?

No. The Android Emulator provides virtual devices with configurable API levels, screen sizes, and hardware profiles. Physical hardware remains valuable for sensors, vendor-specific behavior, and performance realism.

Which languages are supported in the editor?

Kotlin and Java are first class for Android app modules. C and C++ are supported through the Android NDK toolchain. Groovy and Kotlin DSL are common for Gradle build scripts.

How does Android Studio help with app size?

APK Analyzer and bundle tooling visualize packaged dex, resources, and native libraries so you can remove unused assets, enable splits, and compare builds over time.

Android IDE

Build Android apps faster with Android Studio

Android Studio brings together a fast editor, a flexible Gradle-based build system, emulators for phones and foldables, and deep tooling for performance, quality, and modern UI with Jetpack Compose.

Get Android Studio Explore features

1Kotlin-first editing with smart completions and safe refactorings
2Visual layout editors and live previews for Compose
3CPU, memory, network, and energy profilers
4APK and app bundle insights for size and dependencies

Android Studio workspace showing project tree, editor, and build output panes

At a glance

Designed for Android

Templates, SDK Manager, and platform tools are integrated so you can go from install to running code on a device or emulator.

Latest

New features

Highlights from recent Android Studio releases. Scan the cards, then watch the short clips.

Feature

Try Gemini in Android Studio

Gemini in Android Studio is an AI assistant that helps you generate code, fix code, and answer questions about Android app development.

Feature

Test on real devices with Android Device Streaming

Android Device Streaming lets you run apps on real devices, directly from Android Studio, to help you make sure your app works great across different screen sizes, OEMs, and Android versions.

Product

Key features

Design, develop, build, test, and publish with tooling that stays aligned from first layout ideas through store ready bundles.

Design

Compose design tools

Create dynamic layouts with Jetpack Compose. Then preview your layouts on any screen size and inspect Compose animations using the built-in inspection tools.

Design with Compose

Develop

Intelligent code editor

Write better code, work faster, and be more productive with an intelligent code editor that provides code completion for Kotlin, Java, and C/C++ programming languages. Moreover, when editing Jetpack Compose you can see your code changes reflected immediately with Live Edit.

More about the editor

Build

Flexible build system

Powered by Gradle, Android Studio's build system lets you customize your build to generate multiple build variants for different Android devices from a single project. Then analyze the performance of your builds and understand where potential build issues exist in your project with the Build Analyzer.

More about Android Build

Gradle sync and variant panel inside Android Studio on a developer workstation

Test

Easily emulate any device

The Android Emulator lets you to test your application on a variety of Android devices. Unlock the full potential of your apps by using responsive layouts that adapt to fit phones, tablets, foldables, Wear OS, TV and ChromeOS devices.

Use Android Emulator

Publish

Android App Bundle

Find opportunities to optimize your Android app size before publishing by inspecting the contents of your app APK file or Android App Bundle. Inspect the manifest file, resources, and DEX files. Compare two APKs or Android App Bundles to see how your app size changed between app versions.

More about the APK Analyzer

APK and app bundle analyzer chart listing DEX, resources, and native libraries

Why teams choose it

Why teams standardize on Android Studio

From indie apps to large product teams, Android Studio is built to keep you in flow: fewer context switches, clearer diagnostics, and tooling that understands Android modules, resources, and build variants.

Productive editing

Navigate large codebases with search everywhere, call hierarchies, and structured replace that respects Kotlin and Java semantics.

Build insight

Gradle sync issues surface with actionable messages, dependency graphs help you audit libraries, and build scans clarify bottlenecks.

Quality at runtime

Profile jank, leaks, and excessive wakeups with tools tuned for Android runtime behavior, not generic desktop assumptions.

Social proof

What developers say

Short notes from engineers about day to day wins with Android Studio. Hover the strip to pause.

Compose preview saves hours

Interactive preview and animation inspection make UI iteration feel immediate compared to full deploy cycles.

Mobile engineer, productivity app

Profiler found the leak

Memory profiler snapshots helped us track a retained context issue across two screens.

Tech lead, consumer social

Gradle support is first class

Build variant switching and dependency insight reduced duplicate module mistakes for our team.

Android developer, fintech

Emulator fidelity

Foldable presets and quick rotation make layout edge cases testable without a device lab for every engineer.

QA-minded developer, games

Lint catches regressions

Static checks for permissions and deprecated APIs show up early in the editor before CI fails the build.

Staff engineer, health

Layout inspector clarity

Seeing recompositions and the view hierarchy together speeds up UI debugging on complex screens.

UI engineer, e commerce