Android Studio Ladybug Feature Drop | 2024.2.2

Android Studio is the official IDE for Android development, and includes everything you need to build Android apps.

This page lists new features and improvements in the latest version in the stable channel, Android Studio Ladybug Feature Drop. You can download it here or update to it inside Android Studio by clicking Help > Check for updates (Android Studio > Check for updates on macOS)

To see what's been fixed in this version of Android Studio, see the closed issues.

To view the release notes for older versions of Android Studio, see Past releases.

For early access to upcoming features and improvements, see the Preview builds of Android Studio.

If you encounter problems in Android Studio, check the Known issues or Troubleshoot page.

Android Gradle plugin and Android Studio compatibility

The Android Studio build system is based on Gradle, and the Android Gradle plugin (AGP) adds several features that are specific to building Android apps. The following table lists which version of AGP is required for each version of Android Studio.

Android Studio version	Required AGP version
Ladybug Feature Drop | 2024.2.2	3.2-8.8
Ladybug | 2024.2.1	3.2-8.7
Koala Feature Drop | 2024.1.2	3.2-8.6
Koala | 2024.1.1	3.2-8.5
Jellyfish | 2023.3.1	3.2-8.4
Iguana | 2023.2.1	3.2-8.3
Hedgehog | 2023.1.1	3.2-8.2
Giraffe | 2022.3.1	3.2-8.1
Flamingo | 2022.2.1	3.2-8.0

For information on what’s new in the Android Gradle plugin, see the Android Gradle plugin release notes.

Minimum versions of tools for Android API level

There are minimum versions of Android Studio and AGP that support a specific API level. Using lower versions of Android Studio or AGP than required by your project's targetSdk or compileSdk could lead to unexpected issues. We recommend using the latest preview version of Android Studio and AGP to work on projects that target preview versions of the Android OS. You can install preview versions of Android Studio alongside a stable version.

The minimum versions of Android Studio and AGP are as follows:

API level	Minimum Android Studio version	Minimum AGP version
Baklava Preview	Meerkat | 2024.3.1	8.9.0
35	Koala Feature Drop | 2024.2.1	8.6.0
34	Hedgehog | 2023.1.1	8.1.1
33	Flamingo | 2022.2.1	7.2

The following are new features in Android Studio Ladybug Feature Drop.

Wear Tiles Animation Preview

Android Studio Ladybug Canary 2+ now supports Wear Tile Animation Previews, making it easier than ever to inspect and debug your tile animations directly within the IDE. This feature builds upon the Wear Tiles Preview support introduced in Android Studio Koala.

To get started:

1. Update to Android Studio Ladybug Canary 2 or higher.
2. Add tiles and tooling libraries:
1. Add the dependencies to your app-level build.gradle.kts file:

         # Required for the previews
         debugImplementation(libs.androidx.tiles.tooling)
         implementation(libs.androidx.tiles.tooling.preview)
         # Dependencies needed to build the tiles
         implementation(libs.androidx.tiles)
         implementation(libs.androidx.protolayout)
         implementation(libs.androidx.protolayout.material)
       

2. libs.versions.toml file:

       [versions]
       tiles = "1.5.0-alpha01"
       protolayout = "1.3.0-alpha01"
       [libraries]
       androidx-tiles-tooling = { group = "androidx.wear.tiles", name = "tiles-tooling", version.ref = "tiles" }
       androidx-tiles-tooling-preview = { group = "androidx.wear.tiles", name = "tiles-tooling-preview", version.ref = "tiles" }
       androidx-tiles = { group = "androidx.wear.tiles", name = "tiles", version.ref = "tiles" }
       androidx-protolayout = { group = "androidx.wear.protolayout", name = "protolayout-proto", version.ref = "protolayout" }
       androidx-protolayout-material= { group = "androidx.wear.protolayout", name = "protolayout-material", version.ref = "protolayout" }
       androidx-protolayout-expression= { group = "androidx.wear.protolayout", name = "protolayout-expression", version.ref = "protolayout" }
       

3. Set up Previews for your Tiles Services. Refer to the tiles preview guide for detailed instructions. If your tiles include animations, the Animation Preview will automatically appear, allowing you to inspect and debug them.

This enhancement streamlines your Wear Tile development workflow by providing a visual and interactive way to fine-tune your tile animations within Android Studio.

Motion Editor deprecation

In the upcoming release, we will be deprecating the Motion Editor as part of our ongoing transition from XML to Jetpack Compose. Compose offers a more modern and efficient approach to building animations, and we encourage developers to start using Compose Animation Preview for new projects.

New Gemini in Android Studio features

Android Studio Ladybug Feature Drop introduces a number of new Code Editor features that use Gemini to help you be more productive. To use these features, enable sharing code context with Gemini in your current project.

Use the following links to learn more about these features:

• Gemini code transforms
• Generate documentation
• Rename with Gemini
• Rethink variable names
• Commit message generation

Google Play SDK Index integration

The Android Studio Google Play SDK Index integration now includes warnings from the Google Play SDK Console. This gives you a complete view of any potential version or policy issues in your dependencies before submitting your app to the Google Play Console.

Android Studio now also displays notes from SDK authors directly in the editor to save you time. When a recommended version or version range is available, Android Studio will also include a quick fix:

Android Studio also displays warnings when a specific SDK version has known security vulnerabilities. This information helps you discover and address these issues during app development so you can follow best practices.

Mock sensor capabilities and values

Android Studio now includes a new sensor panel, which lets you simulate a device having or not having specific sensor capabilities, such as a heart rate sensor, as well as set specific test values for these sensors. Use this panel to test how your app handles devices that have different sensor capabilities. This panel is useful for testing health and fitness apps, especially on Wear OS devices.

To open and use the panel, do the following:

1. Create or open an Android Virtual Device (AVD) and run your app on the emulator.
2. In the emulator panel, select Wear Health Services. The Wear Health Services panel opens, showing a list of sensors that are available on different Android-powered devices.

After the panel opens, you can do the following:

• Toggle among Standard capabilities, All capabilities (default), or Custom. Select Apply to send the current list of capabilities to the emulated device, and select Reset to restore the list of capabilities to their default on-off values.
• Trigger different user events after you select the Trigger events drop-down button. From here, you can Trigger auto pause/resume of fitness activities, Trigger sleep events by the user, and Trigger golf shots that the user takes on a golf course or mini-golf course.
• Override sensor values, after you begin an exercise in an app that's installed on the emulator. After you enter new values for different exercise metrics, select Apply to sync these values with the emulator. This is useful for testing how your app handles different exercise conditions and users' fitness tendencies.

App Links Assistant: JSON generation and web issue fixes

To implement App Links, developers need to publish a Digital Asset Links JSON file on their websites to verify ownership of the domain. When the App Links Assistant identifies failed web checks, it now creates a JSON file which can fix those failures. This JSON file can be downloaded by the user and subsequently uploaded to the respective website to resolve the web check failures.

In cases where a JSON file already exists, users have the ability to compare the existing and newly-generated JSON files to identify differences.

To open the App Links Assistant navigate to Tools > App Link Assistant from the main menu bar.