Android Studio

Android Studio is Google's official integrated development environment for building Android applications, available as a free download for Windows, macOS, Linux, and ChromeOS. It combines a full-featured code editor with Android-specific tooling including an emulator, build system, and device streaming capabilities. The current stable release is Android Studio Quail 1 (2026.1.1 Patch 2), actively maintained by Google's Android developer tools team.

What It Is

Android Studio is a desktop IDE purpose-built for Android app development. It covers the full development lifecycle — writing and editing code, building with Gradle, testing on emulated or real devices, profiling performance, and preparing apps for Google Play distribution. The IDE supports Kotlin, Java, and C/C++ with intelligent code completion, and includes Jetpack Compose design tools for building modern Android UIs.

Gemini in Android Studio

A central feature of recent releases is Gemini in Android Studio, described by Google as "your AI-powered coding companion." Gemini integrates directly into the IDE to help developers generate code, fix bugs, and answer questions about Android development. The June 2026 video content on the Android Developers channel confirms that Gemini 3.5 Flash is now available within Android Studio, reflecting ongoing model upgrades inside the IDE.

Core Tooling and Workflow

Android Studio bundles a comprehensive set of tools that cover every stage of Android development:

• Intelligent code editor — code completion for Kotlin, Java, and C/C++; Live Edit for Jetpack Compose lets code changes appear immediately in the preview
• Compose design tools — preview layouts on any screen size and inspect animations with built-in inspection tools
• Android Emulator — test apps across phones, tablets, foldables, Wear OS, TV, and ChromeOS device profiles
• Android Device Streaming — run apps on real physical devices directly from the IDE to verify behavior across OEMs and Android versions
• Flexible build system — powered by Gradle, supports multiple build variants from a single project; Build Analyzer surfaces performance bottlenecks
• APK/App Bundle Analyzer — inspect manifest, resources, and DEX files; compare APK sizes across versions before publishing

Platform and Device Coverage

The IDE targets the full Android device ecosystem. Developers can build and test for phones, tablets, foldables, Android XR headsets and glasses, Wear OS, Android TV, Android for Cars, and ChromeOS. The download page lists installers for Windows (64-bit), macOS (Intel and ARM), Linux (64-bit), and ChromeOS, each approximately 1.5 GB. Standalone command-line tools are also available separately for CI/CD pipelines that do not require the full IDE.

Update: Quail 1 (2026.1.1 Patch 2)

The current stable release as of mid-2026 is Android Studio Quail 1, version 2026.1.1 Patch 2. Google also maintains a preview channel (Android Studio preview) for developers who want early access to upcoming features. Recent video content from the Android Developers YouTube channel highlights Android XR development support — including the ability to build XR apps without physical hardware — as a key direction for the platform in 2026. The Android 17 source code release and API 37 support are concurrent ecosystem milestones that Android Studio is positioned to support.