Each Android Studio release goes through the following stages of development:
- Canary - Leading edge features under active development, lightly tested. While you can use Canary builds for development, be aware that features might be added or changed.
- Release Candidate (RC) - The next version of Android Studio that's almost ready for stable release. The feature set for the next version has been stabilized.
- Stable - The final version of Android Studio.
- Patch n - Updates to a version of Android Studio, typically for bug fixes. Might contain new minor features.
There are two types of Android Studio releases:
Merge - Contains the latest updates from the corresponding IntelliJ version. Merge releases might contain limited new Android-Studio-specific features, minor improvements, and bug fixes.
The first version in each animal cycle (for example, Android Studio Panda 1) is a merge release. Merge releases always begin a new animal cycle.
Feature Drop - Contains new Android Studio features and bug fixes.
Every version after the first one in each animal cycle is a feature drop release (for example, Android Studio Panda 2).