Start building your Android app with the Android Platform APIs. They are available in Kotlin and Java.
Note: Many Kotlin reference topics are derived from Java-based source code. This means that some Kotlin reference topics might contain Java code snippets.
These additional libraries make it easy to add additional functionality and features to your app.
Jetpack
- AndroidX
- Refactored versions of the Android APIs that are not bundled with the
operating system.
Reference User Guide - Jetpack Compose
- Jetpack Compose is a modern toolkit for building native Android UI.
Jetpack Compose simplifies and accelerates UI development on Android with
less code, powerful tools, and intuitive Kotlin APIs.
Reference User Guide - AndroidX Test
- Includes APIs for testing your Android app, including
Espresso, JUnit Runner, JUnit4 rules, and UI Automator.
Reference User Guide - AndroidX Constraint Layout
- Includes
ConstraintLayoutand related APIs for building constraint-based layouts.
Reference User Guide - Databinding Library
- Includes APIs to help you write declarative layouts and minimize the glue
code necessary to bind your application logic and layouts.
Reference User Guide - Android Automotive Library
- Provides APIs for building Android Automotive apps.
Reference User Guide - Android Wearable Library
- Provides APIs to build apps for wearable devices running Wear OS by Google.
Reference User Guide - Material Components
- Material Components for Android (MDC-Android) help developers
execute Material Design to build beautiful and functional Android
apps.
Reference User Guide - Android NDK
- The Android NDK is a toolset that lets you implement parts of your app in native code, using
languages such as C and C++.
Reference User Guide - Android Game Development Kit libraries
- The Android Game Development Kit C/C++ game libraries make it easier to build,
debug, optimize, and maintain your games.
Overview - Android Gradle Plugin
- The Android Gradle Plugin (AGP) is the supported build system for Android applications and
includes support for compiling many different types of sources and linking them together into an
application that you can run on a physical Android device or an emulator.
Reference User Guide
Device Libraries
Other Libraries
Google Play
- Play In-app Billing Library
- Provides APIs to help you implement Google Play's in-app
billing and subscription features.
Reference User Guide - Play Core Library
- Provides APIs to help you request, monitor, and manage on demand downloads for Play Feature Delivery, Play Asset Delivery, and offers additional APIs such as in-app updates and in-app reviews. This library is available in Java, Native code, and Unity.
- Play Install Referrer library
- Provides APIs to securely retrieve referral content from Google Play.
Reference
Deprecated Libraries
These libraries are superseded by the AndroidX libraries and are no longer maintened. They are still shipped in the SDK to support legacy apps. For more information see the androidx migration guide.- Android Support Library
- Provided a variety of Android feature and utility APIs that are compatible with a wide range of platform versions. The original library is superseded by the AndroidX libraries.
- Android Test Support Library
- Includes APIs for testing your Android app, including Espresso, JUnit Runner, JUnit4 rules, and UI Automator. The original library is superseded by the AndroidX Test library.
- Architecture Components
- Includes APIs for a variety of core app components, such as APIs that manage your UI component lifecycle, data persistence, view model, and more. The original library is superseded by the AndroidX libraries.
- Constraint Layout Library
- Legacy Support Library
ConstraintLayoutand related APIs for building constraint-based layouts. The original library is superseded by the AndroidX constraintlayout library. - Android Things Library
- Provided APIs to build connected devices running the Android Things platform. The original library is no longer maintained.