Introduction
Hi, Developers. In this article, we will look at the amazing upgrades to Android Studio, the most popular platform among Android developers. Android Studio Giraffe | 2022.3.1 is the most recent stable release.
Android Studio is the official Android development IDE, including everything you need to build Android apps. You can download or update it inside Android Studio by clicking Help > Check for updates (Android Studio > Check for updates on macOS or Windows). You can view the Past release notes for the older versions here at Past releases. You can also have early access to the upcoming versions of the Android Studio here at Preview builds of Android Studio.
Get started
1. Bug fixes
Android Studio Giraffe has successfully addressed numerous bugs, including some significant ones listed below:
2. Maximum supported Android API level
Each version of Android Studio and AGP has a maximum API level of support that is appropriate for it. You can use a higher level, but developers warn that this may cause unanticipated problems. As a result, you should use the recommended API version with a compatible Android studio.
Giraffe can support a maximum API level of 33 and a gradle version of 8.1.
3. Use Live Edit to update composable in real-time
The Live edit function of Android became stable with the Giraffe version. It was previously set to experimental in Flamingo. That means you can use real-time code updates to update composables in emulators and physical devices.
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4. New UI preview
This is the major change that developers need to embrace, as the new UI takes inspiration from the official IntelliJ IDE. Although the new UI might seem strange and challenging to use at first, it has the potential to significantly simplify your life once you get accustomed to the new experience. While it might appear unfamiliar initially, trust me, once you adapt, you'll become so used to it that you'll prefer using this UI exclusively.
To opt into this option, go to Android Studio > Settings > Appearance & Behavior. For a full list of changes, see the IntelliJ new UI documentation.
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5. New API support for Compose Animation Preview
In addition to updateTransition and AnimatedVisibility, Compose Animation Preview now includes animate*AsState, CrossFade, rememberInfiniteTransition, and AnimatedContent. You can use these additional APIs with Compose Animation PreviewUpgrade to Android Studio Giraffe and Compose 1.4.0-alpha04 or above.
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6. Support for Grammatical Inflection API
Starting from Android 14, you can personalize the UI according to gender. We can use masculine, feminine, or neutral translations. When no grammatically inflected translation is provided for a string, Android displays the default translation for the language.
Giraffe provides support for the Grammatical Inflection API (available as of Android 14 Developer Preview 1).
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7. View and manage processes in the Device Explorer
Now you can locate the process from the Device Explorer and select the File option. You can view a list of debuggable processes for the connected device. From there, you can also select a process and perform a kill, force-stop, or attach the debugger to a given process.
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8. New Android SDK Upgrade Assistant
The recently introduced Android SDK Upgrade Assistant offers complete assistance for upgrading your app's targetSdkVersion, which is often something we manually change. With Giraffe, we now have an assisting tool similar to AGP that guides us through all the steps needed to migrate your application. Pretty cool, isn't it?
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9. Enhanced diagnostic tools and bug reporting
Now you can get the report of the bugs with relevant log files attached using the Enhanced diagnostic tools. To launch the tool, click Help > Collect Logs and Diagnostic Data. A dialogue appears that lets you choose which files to include.
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10. Make selected modules toolbar button
From Android Studio Giraffe, you can build the current module by selecting the Make Selected Modules button added in the toolbar. With this option, you can compile the code without building more than needed. In Addition, you can build an entire project by clicking on the arrow next to the build button and selecting Make Project.
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11. Download info during sync
The Sync tool window now displays a summary of the time spent obtaining dependencies as well as a detailed view of downloads per repository. This view is updated in real-time when sync occurs. This data can be used to detect whether unexpected dependency downloads are affecting your sync performance.
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This download info is also available during builds in the Build tool window and Build Analyzer.
Summary
We've included nearly all the latest updates up until the time of writing this article. This update truly transformed the way we develop in Android Studio. Feel free to leave comments with any suggestions or corrections for this article. Thank you!