What’s new in Google’s Android Studio 3.5 beta

Android Studio 3.5 beta features improvements to memory management and UI responsiveness

By Paul Krill

Editor at Large, InfoWorld |

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Improved support of Java 8 language features via migration to the javac tool chain. The Jack tool chain is being deprecated. The latest Android Gradle build system plugin enables use of Java 8 features in developers’ code and libraries
A breaking API change in the Android Gradle plugin improves scalability and build times. Depending on APIs provided by the previous Gradle plugin, developers are advised to validate compatibility with the new plugin and migrate to new APIs.
For smaller and faster updates, the Maven repository is used by default instead of the Android SDK Manager for finding updates to dependencies in Android Support Library, Google Play Services, and Firebase Maven.
A suite of tools, named Android Profiler, have been added to debug performance problems. Android Profiler replaces Android Monitor.
The Adaptive Icon Wizard creates launcher icon assets and previews how an adaptive icon will look with different launcher screen icon masks.
Features of Instant Apps, which are native Android apps that don’t require a user installer, can be added to projects.
Custom and downloadable fonts using XML can be used for apps targeting the Android Oreo release (API level 26 or higher).
The app bug reporter in Android Emulator helps document bugs. Android Emulator also supports the OpenGL ES 3.0 advanced graphics standard.
Templates in the New Project wizard and the New Module wizard support the Android Things embedded device platform.
To optimize the size of APK files, the APK Analyzer has been fitted with additional enhancements. Also, arbitrary APKs can be debugged.
Support was added for the JetBrains IntelliJ Idea 2017.1 IDE, with capabilities such as Java 8 refactoring and enhanced version control search. IntelliJ has been the basis for Android Studio.
Emulator system images for Android Oreo now include the Google Play store, to enable testing of apps with Google Play.

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Paul Krill is an editor at large at InfoWorld, whose coverage focuses on application development.

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