To help take advantage of the Android M Developer Preview features, Google are releasing a new version of Android Studio.
Most notable is a much requested feature from the Android NDK & game developers: code editing and debugging for C/C++ code. Based on JetBrains Clion platform, the Android Studio NDK plugin provides features such as refactoring and code completion for C/C++ code alongside your Java code. Java and C/C++ code support is integrated into one development experience free of charge for Android app developers
Included in the updated tools is faster gradle build speeds, along with a new memory profiler. Developers will have full C/C++ debugging, the same IDE as found in Canary. The Polymer library for browsers and mobile adds new elements like menus, maps, toolbars, and more.
Google has also rolled out a Cloud Test Lab, which is the result of the Appurify acquisition. This allows developers to upload an app and it is then tested on 20 popular Android devices, without having to do the work yourself. Cloud Messaging has expanded beyond just Android and Chrome, as it now supports iOS as well. Topic subscriptions allow a user to subscribe, receive a notification from an app that is sent by Google cloud.
Finally, Google is making some big changes to the developer console as well. With these new changes developers will be able to see how many users are seeing their app, purchasing and installing it, and even where they are coming from. Additionally developers can A-B test different graphics and text in their listings to see what users prefer.
Google has also created developer homepages, to which developers can upload custom graphics to, feature their popular app, and make it look much nicer than just a list of apps they have created. New analytics will also reveal how users are using the app, see how long it takes for users to complete a level, and allow developers to pop-up a prompt for an in-app purchase or add if it is taking them too long.
To install the Android Studio 1.3 preview:
- Download and launch Android Studio.
- Open the Settings window by choosing File > Settings.
- Choose the Appearance & Behavior > System Settings > Updates panel.
- On the Updates panel, choose the option Automatically check updates for: Canary Channel.
- On the Updates panel, select Check Now to check for the latest canary build.
- Download and install the build when you are prompted.
To add the Preview SDK components to your development environment:
- Launch the Android Studio 1.3 preview.
- Open the Settings window by choosing File > Settings.
- Choose the Appearance & Behavior > System Settings > Updates panel.
- On the Updates panel, choose the options Automatically check updates for: Canary Channel and Automatically check updates for Android SDK: Preview Chanel.
- Click the Android SDK Manager button to launch the SDK Manager. (With Android Studio 1.3, the SDK Manager is integrated into Android Studio instead of being a standalone application.)
- Under the Platforms section, select Android MNC Preview.
- In the Tools section, select the latest Android SDK Tools, Platform-tools, and Build-tools.
- Click Install packages and accept the licensing agreement for all of the packages.
- Verify that the M Developer Preview is installed by opening the Settings window and choosing the Appearance & Behavior > System Settings > Android SDK panel.
- On the Android SDK panel, choose the SDK Platforms tab. Android MNC Preview should be listed as Installed.
- Also, open the SDK Tools tab to verify that the latest tools are installed.
After completing these steps, the preview components are available in your development environment.
