Google Releases Android Studio 4.0

Google today announced the release of Android Studio 4.0, the next major release of its Android app development environment.

“Android Studio 4.0 is the result of our drive to bring you new and improved tools for coding smarter, building faster, and designing the apps your users depend on, and it’s now available on the stable channel,” Google product manager Adarsh Fernando writes in the announcement post.

Some of the key new features and improvements include:

Motion Editor. This is a new tool that helps developers create, edit, and preview complex motion and widget animations in their apps.

Build Analyzer. This new tool helps you understand and address bottlenecks by highlighting the plugins and tasks that are most responsible for your overall build time and by suggesting steps to mitigate regressions.

Java 8 language APIs. You can now use standard language APIs that were previously available in only recent Android releases, regardless of the minimum API level supported by your app.

CPU Profiler improvements. Now, CPU recordings are now separated from the main profiler timeline and organized in groups to allow for easier analysis. You can move groups up and down, or drag-and-drop individual items within a group for additional customization.

Layout Inspector improvements. Now, you can see live app data while you’re debugging its UI.

Layout validation. This new tool makes it easy to target multiple form-factors, screen sizes, and resolutions, so you can make to your UI look great on every screen you support.

You can download Android Studio 4.0 from the Android Developer website. If you’re already using Android Studio, you’ll be prompted to upgrade.