Google Integrates Android Studio with Project IDX

With Google I/O 2024 behind it, Google is taking I/O on the road via its I/O Connect tour. And it made some additional announcements at this week’s stop in Bengaluru, India. Key among them that it’s integrating Android Studio with Project IDX, its AI-powered, cloud-hosted integrated development environment (IDE).

“At I/O Connect Bengaluru, we are happy to share how we’re starting to bring our products together into a more integrated, app development suite,” Google’s Jeanine Banks and Karthik Padmanabhan write in the announcement post. “Now you can build and run AI-enabled apps across platforms with ease, speed, and confidence.”

As you probably know, Android Studio is Google’s IntelliJ IDEA-based IDE for creating Android apps. Today, developers install Android Studio locally—it works with Windows, Mac, Linux, and ChromeOS—and test their apps using emulators or devices physically connected to the computer. Project IDX, meanwhile, is based on Visual Studio Code, and it entered public beta at Google I/O in May. It, too, supports Android emulators (and iOS simulators) so developers can build Flutter or web apps and test them against mobile devices.

Today, Google announced that it’s integrating Android Studio into Project IDX via an early preview of Android Studio that runs in the cloud and is accessible through a web browser. It’s implemented as a new Project IDX workspace, and developers interested in getting started now can sign up for the waitlist on the Project IDX website.

“Android Studio on IDX enables you to conveniently open Android Studio projects directly in your web browser, hosted on IDX,” Google notes. “Whether it’s exploring sample projects or accessing existing Android app projects on GitHub, this feature streamlines your workflow by eliminating the need for local installations.”

In addition to this exciting development, Project IDX now offers React Native support in preview, 10 new Gemini-enabled solution templates, new backend templates, new database templates, and several new features for Gemini in IDX, including Write My Docs, Write My Tests, and new agent templates.

Speaking of agents, Google also announced that it is open-sourcing Project Oscar, its reference AI agent. You can learn more on the Project Oscar website.