This page lists the new features introduced in Android Studio preview releases. The preview builds provide early access to the latest features and improvements in Android Studio. You can download these preview versions. If you encounter any problems using a preview version of Android Studio, let us know. Your bug reports help to make Android Studio better.
Canary releases contain leading edge features under active development, and are lightly tested. While you can use Canary builds for development, be aware that features might be added or changed. Release Candidates (RC) are the next version of Android Studio, and are almost ready for stable release. The feature set for the next version has been stabilized. See Android Studio release names to understand Android Studio version naming.
For the latest news on Android Studio preview releases, including a list of notable fixes in each preview release, see the Release Updates in the Android Studio blog.
Current versions of Android Studio
The following table lists the current versions of Android Studio and their respective channels.
| Version | Channel |
|---|---|
| Android Studio Meerkat Feature Drop | 2024.3.2 | Stable |
| Android Gradle plugin 8.10.0 | Stable |
| Android Studio Narwhal | 2025.1.1 | Canary |
| Android Studio Narwhal Feature Drop | 2025.1.2 | Canary |
Compatibility with Android Gradle plugin previews
Each preview version of Android Studio is published alongside a corresponding version of the Android Gradle plugin (AGP). Preview versions of Studio should work with any compatible stable version of AGP. However, if you're using a preview version of AGP, you must use the corresponding preview version of Studio (for example, Android Studio Chipmunk Canary 7 with AGP 7.2.0-alpha07). Attempts to use divergent versions (for example, Android Studio Chipmunk Beta 1 with AGP 7.2.0-alpha07) will cause a Sync failure, which results in a prompt to update to the corresponding version of AGP.
For a detailed log of Android Gradle plugin API deprecations and removals, see the Android Gradle plugin API updates.
Android Studio Narwhal | 2025.1.1
The following are new features in Android Studio Narwhal | 2025.1.1.
To see what's been fixed in this version of Android Studio, see the closed issues.
Introducing Gemini in Android Studio for businesses
Android Studio Narwhal Canary 5 introduces Gemini in Android Studio for businesses. Gemini for businesses includes the core Gemini in Android Studio features, plus enterprise-grade security and privacy features, and more. To unlock the power of AI for your team or business, learn more.
Gemini in Android Studio support for multimodal image attachments
Now you can attach images directly to your Gemini prompts within Android Studio. Get instant insights on complex technical diagrams or use design mocks to generate corresponding code skeletons. This seamless integration of visual context into your AI-assisted workflow unlocks new levels of efficiency and creativity.
Gemini in Android Studio support for file attachments
You can now attach files as context in chat interactions with Gemini in Android Studio. Type @ in the query bar to bring up a file completion menu and select files to attach. Click the Context drop-down to see which files were automatically attached by Gemini. You can choose to check or un-check the files. Hover over Recent files to see the list of recently attached files.
Partner Device Labs available with Android Device Streaming
Partner Device Labs are device labs operated by Google OEM partners, such as Samsung, Xiaomi, OPPO, OnePlus, vivo, and others, and expand the selection of devices available in Android Device Streaming. This service is in Beta and is available in the latest Canary releases of Android Studio. To learn more, see Connect to Partner Device Labs.
Test and develop with app backup and restore
Ensuring Android Backup and Restore works properly for your app is a critical aspect of ensuring users stay engaged with your app after switching to a new device or restoring from the cloud. However, testing whether data backup and restore is working for your app can be difficult.
Android Studio Narwhal provides ways for you to generate a backup for your app and restore it to another device. This can be useful for testing whether your app behaves as expected when restoring app data from device to device or from a cloud backup, or if you want a faster way to set up a test device with data you need to develop and debug your app.
Generate a backup
To generate a backup file, do the following:
- Deploy a debug version of your app to a connected device
- Use one of the following actions to generate a backup:
- From the Running Device window, click the Backup App Data action from the toolbar
- Select Run > Backup App Data from the main menu bar
- From the Device Explorer > Processes tab, right-click on the app process and select Backup App Data
- In the dialog that appears, do the following:
- Confirm the application ID for the app you want to generate a backup for
- Select whether you want to generate a Device to Device, Cloud, or Cloud (Unencrypted) backup
- Confirm the name and location of the backup you want to save. By
default, the backup is saved to the root directory of the current
Android Studio project.
Generate a backup for your app.
- Confirm the application ID for the app you want to generate a backup for
- Click Ok when Android Studio asks if it can stop the app. To generate the backup, Android Studio must stop the app process.
You can view the backups that you generate in the Project > Android tool window under the Backup Files node.
Restore app data
To restore app data, do the following:
- Deploy your app to the connected device. The app should have the same application ID as the backup file you want to restore onto the device.
- Navigate to and click one of the following actions:
- From the Running Device window, click the Restore App Data action from the toolbar, and either select a backup file from the recent history or click Browse.
- Navigate to Run > Restore App Data from the main menu bar.
- From the Device Explorer > Processes tab, right-click on the app process and select Restore App Data.
- From the Project > Android tool window, right-click on a backup under the Backup Files node and select Restore App Data.
- If applicable, either select a backup from the recent history or click Browse to select a backup file to restore from local storage.
Alternatively, you can include a backup file as part of a run configuration, so that deploying your app also restores the app data from a backup file. To do this, do the following:
- Navigate to Run > Edit Configurations from the main menu bar.
- Select an app run configuration and navigate to Restore options.
Restore options in a run configuration. - To restore an app from a backup, check the box next to Restore app state.
- Either select a backup file from recent history or browse and select the backup file from local storage.
- If you only want to restore app data on a fresh app installation, check the box next to Only restore on fresh apk installation. This option can be helpful if you are deploying to a new test device and want to restore data to aid in debugging and app development.
- Click OK to save the run configuration.
- Deploy your app using the run configuration to test restoring your app data to a connected device.
Android Studio XR support available
Android Studio Narwhal includes support for developers building immersive experiences with Jetpack XR! This release introduces tools to help you experiment, deploy, and debug XR applications with greater efficiency.
Generate previews of composables using Gemini
Composable previews help you visualize your composables during design time in Android Studio. To make it easier for you to include mock data as preview parameters, Android Studio now supports an experimental feature: Compose preview generation with Gemini.
To access this tool, right-click any composable and navigate to Gemini > Generate "<Composable Name>" Preview. If the current file doesn't have any previews, right-click and navigate to Gemini > Generate Compose Preview.
While Gemini's generated code may not be perfect every time, it helps provide a valuable starting point to accelerate your development workflow.
Your feedback is crucial in helping us enhance accuracy and make this integration an even more powerful asset for Android developers.
Compose Preview Screenshot Testing tool
Use the Compose Preview Screenshot Testing tool to test your Compose UIs and prevent regressions. The new tool helps you generate HTML reports that let you visually detect any changes to your app's UI. Learn more at Compose Preview Screenshot Testing.
Embedded Layout Inspector component tree enhancement
Interacting with the component tree in the Embedded Layout Inspector is now more intuitive and efficient thanks to several key improvements. These updates are designed to streamline your workflow and provide clearer insights into your Compose UI structures.
- Horizontal Scrolling: You can now scroll horizontally within the component tree, making it easier to navigate and inspect wide or deeply nested layouts without losing context.
- Automatic Scrolling on Selection: Selecting an item in the component tree will now automatically scroll the view, both horizontally and vertically, to bring the selected item neatly into focus. This ensures the element you're interested in is always front and center.
- Improved Relationship Visualization: We've refined the support lines within the component tree to offer more explicit visual cues for understanding node relationships. Dotted lines now clearly indicate a call stack relationship between a parent and its child node, helping you trace programmatic connections more effectively. Solid lines continue to represent all other standard parent-child relationships within the tree.
These enhancements aim to provide a smoother, more efficient debugging experience, allowing you to quickly understand and refine your UI.
Android Studio Narwhal Feature Drop | 2025.1.2
The following are new features in Android Studio Narwhal Feature Drop | 2025.1.2.
To see what's been fixed in this version of Android Studio, see the closed issues.
Journeys for Android Studio
Journeys for Android Studio helps make end-to-end tests easy to write and maintain by letting you use natural language to describe the steps and assertions for each test—called a journey. By leveraging Gemini's vision and reasoning capabilities, steps written in natural language are converted into actions that Gemini performs on your app, making it both easy to write and understand your journeys. Additionally, you can write and describe more complex assertions, which Gemini evaluates based on what it sees on the device in order to determine whether your journeys pass or fail.
And because Gemini reasons about which actions to perform to satisfy the goals, journeys are more resilient to subtle changes to your app's layout or behavior, resulting in fewer flaky tests when running against different versions of your app and different device configurations.
Write and run journeys right from Android Studio against any local or remote Android device. The IDE provides a new editor experience for crafting journeys as well as rich results that help you better follow Gemini's reasoning and execution of your journey.
Backup and Sync
You can now back up Android Studio settings to cloud storage using either your Google or JetBrains account. This helps sync your settings, such as keymaps, Code Editor settings, system settings, and more. To get started, do one of the following:
After opening a project in Android Studio, sign into your Google account by clicking the avatar in the top-right corner of the IDE, and clicking Sign in.
- Follow the prompts in the dialog that appears and make sure to check the box to authorize Android Studio to access your Google Account Storage.
- Follow the prompts to authorize Android Studio.
Navigate to Settings > Backup and Sync.
- Select Google to use your Google Account Storage to sync your app data across Android Studio installs. Alternatively, you can use a JetBrains account to sync your app data across IntelliJ and Android Studio installs.
- After you follow the prompts to authorize Android Studio to access your preferred account's storage, return to Android Studio.
- On the Settings > Backup and Sync page, you can review the categories of app data that you want to sync to your account.
- To disable Backup and Sync, uncheck the box that enables the feature.
If you already have data synced to your selected device, Android Studio gives you the option to either download settings from your remote storage (this is the default option) or upload your local settings and overwrite settings synced to your remote storage.
Suggested fixes for crashes
In Android Studio Meerkat Feature Drop, we launched Gemini insights for crashes reported in the App Quality Insights tool window. Now, Android Studio can use Gemini to analyze the crash data along with your source code to suggest potential fixes. After selecting a crash in the App Quality Insights tool window, navigate to the Insights tab and click Suggest a fix after Gemini generates an insight for the crash. Gemini then generates suggested code changes that you can review and accept in an editor diff tab.
Embedded XR Emulator
The XR Emulator now launches by default in the embedded state. You can now deploy your application, navigate the 3D space and use the Layout Inspector directly inside Android Studio.
Compose preview improvements
Android Studio Narwhal Feature Drop introduces several improvements to Compose previews.
Navigation improvements
Compose preview interaction is now more efficient with the latest navigation improvements. Click on the preview name to jump to the preview definition or click the individual component to jump to the function where it's defined. Hover states provide immediate visual feedback as you mouse over a preview frame. Improved keyboard arrow navigation eases movement through multiple previews, enabling faster UI iteration and refinement.
Preview picker
The Compose preview picker is now available. To try it out, click any @Preview
annotation in your Compose code.
Resizable previews
While in Compose Preview's focus mode in Android Studio, you can now resize the preview window by dragging its edges.
16 KB page size support
Android Studio Narwhal Feature Drop adds improved support for transitioning to 16 KB page sizes. To help you navigate this transition smoothly, Android Studio now offers proactive warnings when building APKs or Android App Bundles that are incompatible with 16 KB devices. Using the APK Analyzer, you can also find out which libraries are incompatible with 16 KB devices. To test your apps in this new environment, a dedicated 16 KB emulator target is also available in Android Studio alongside existing 4 KB images.
