Introduction to Android Studio

In this Demo, you’ll take a look at where to find the different versions of Android Studio, how to download and install Android Studio, and how to create a basic project.

The first link I’ll show you is the link to download the canary version of Android Studio. This is the place to go if you want to use the most cutting-edge experimental tools of the IDE, and don’t mind the occasional issues that may arise. It’s still being tested and refined at this stage, so don’t be alarmed if you experience issues with these versions. You can come back and install the canary versions later, but for now, I’m going to take you to the stable version of Android Studio.

You can install Android Studio on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chrome OS. For this Demo, you’ll see the installation on MacOS. Installation on other platforms may look a bit different, but the process is similar. Download the latest stable build to your system. After it has finished downloading, you can launch the .dmg file and drag Android Studio to the Applications folder.

When you launch Android Studio for the first time on a Mac, it may prompt you to confirm it’s from a trusted source, and perhaps ask if you want to send usage statistics to Google. Once you get through those initial screens, you may be prompted to import settings from a previous installation.

Now, you should see the Android Studio Setup Wizard. Click Next to continue with the setup. The next screen will allow you to select the type of installation. For now, use a standard installation. In the future, if you install a canary version along with a stable version you may want to look at a custom installation. Select standard and click Next to proceed.

You’ll now see a summary of what will be installed. If you scroll down the list, you’ll see the directory, download size, and components that will be installed. Click Next to continue with the installation.

Android Studio is free to use, but there are still some terms and conditions with licensing that you need to read through. Go through each license on the left panel and once you have read the license agreement, check the Accept radio button. You won’t be able to proceed until you accept the license agreement for each of the licenses listed. After you have accepted each of the licenses, click the Finish button to complete the setup.

Android Studio will then start to download the components needed. Click the Show Details button to see the download and installation progress.

When the download and installation are complete, you’re done with the setup wizard. Click Finish and you’ll be brought to the welcome screen. This is the screen that will first appear when you launch Android Studio. Take note of the version in the top left side, and get familiar with the layout of this screen because you’ll see it often. There’s a left panel that allows you to see projects, customize the IDE, install plugins, and view help resources. As you select an option on the left panel, the right panel will show you the details to choose from.

Now, you’re ready to create your first Android app. The next steps will use the project creation wizard to create an Android phone app with a basic screen using Kotlin and Jetpack Compose. The app will display the text “Hello World” on the screen. You’ll name the project Bullseye. The name Bullseye is a reference to an older Kodeco app that has helped many Android developers find their way.

To get started with a new project, click Projects in the left panel, then click New Project on the right panel. This will open the project creation wizard.

The project creation wizard will help you bootstrap an Android app with boilerplate code and configuration. You’ll see different templates available for phone and tablet, Wear OS, television, and automotive. To get started with your first phone app, click Phone and Tablet.

The wizard will allow you to add some features to your app — for example, a bottom navigation view or a navigation drawer. You can also code this in later as you need it. For now, to proceed with creating your basic app, click Empty Activity.

Next, Android Studio is going to need some information about your application.

Enter Bullseye in the Name field. This is the name of your application that will appear when the app is installed.

Enter com.yourcompany.android.bullseye in the package name field. The package name should be unique to your company and application. It’ll be used to organize and identify your files, folders and source code.

You can set the Save Location to any location you wish, or use the default path. This is the location where all the files related to the app will be stored.

In some cases you might want to restrict your app to only specific Android versions. The project creation wizard allows you to declare this in the Minimum SDK setting. For now, leave the default SDK. There is a “help me choose” feature that will give you information if you want to know more about each SDK. You can also change this after the app is created by modifying the minSdk value in the app Gradle file.

Leave the build configuration language selection as the recommended Kotlin DSL. The alternative is to use a Groovy DSL, but Android Studio is slowly moving away from that so it’s best to start with the current standard language for your build files.

When it’s done, click Finish and Android Studio will create your new project and display it in the Project screen.

That ends this demo. Continue with the lesson for a summary.