After releasing version of Android Studio to the Canary channel late last month, yesterday, Google released Android Studio 1.0 for Windows, Mac and Linux to all developers. Google has also named Android studio as the official Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for Android going forward.
The release of Android Studio to the Canary channel, was focused on letting developers find any bugs quickly prior to a full release, and with only a short space of time between that launch and this, any bugs found must have been resolved. Released at Google I/O last year, Android Studio has been developed concurrently with Eclipse, but that development environment will no longer be supported moving forward, with Google advising ‘If you’ve been using Eclipse with ADT, be aware that the ADT plugin is no longer in active development, so you should migrate to Android Studio as soon as possible’. To ease transition, developers using Eclipse can check out a migration guide from Google.
According to the Android Studio page, the highlights of the new development environment include :
- An Intelligent code editor
- Code templates and GitHub integration
- Multi-screen app development
- Virtual devices of all shapes and sizes
- Android builds evolved, with Gradle
Early adopters of Android Studio are encouraged to update their software, with Google advising they have updated the gradle plugin – a project automation tool – to version 1.0, which now has a stable file-format. Overall, developers should ensure that anything they can update on Android studio is updated.
Google has itself taken steps to make accessing the Android development tools a bit easier, offering a kit through the Google Developer groups, which includes essentially everything you need to get started developing for Android. The kit, which is available on DVD or USB Thumb Drive, includes :
- The Google Cloud Platform docs from https://developers.google.com/cloud, including the SDKs (Software Development Kits) for App Engine
- The entire Android Website : http://developer.android.com including Android SDKs and Android Studio installs
- Material Design docs from http://google.com/design
- Web Fundamentals documentation from http://developers.google.com/web
- Videos on Google Cloud Platform development from Google Developers YouTube channel
- Videos on Android development from Google Developers YouTube channel
- The entire I/O Dev Bytes Series
- Full Google Udacity course videos (Android, App Engine, HTML5 games, UX, Mobile Web)
- Google I/O 2014 Design Track videos
If you’d like to order a kit, get in contact with the Google Developer Group nearest you, or for organisations, including Schools, or Tech Hub/Incubators, you can find out more information on the kit, here.
If you’re an Android Developer, you should head on over to the Android Studio site on the Android Developers page, where you can learn all about Android Studio as well as find links to download the software for Windows, Mac and Linux.
