Google has announced that the latest 'feature drop' version of Android Studio, Ladybug is now stable. The new version includes ways to interact with Gemini in Android Studio, Animation Preview support for Wear Tiles, and an App Links Assistant.

Android Studio is the official IDE for Android. It is based on Jetbrain's IntelliJ IDEA, and supports the same programming languages as IntelliJ with extensions for Android.

The majority of the improvements in this release revolve around making Gemini available in Studio. The first element of this is Gemini Code Transforms, which can be used to modify, optimize, or add code to apps with AI assistance. The developer describes the changes they want to make to their code, and Gemini will suggest a code diff. The Studio team says the code transforms can be used to simplify complex code, perform specific code transformations, or even generate new functions.

There is also assistance for specific tasks, starting with a rename tool that uses Gemini to suggest contextually appropriate names. For larger renaming jobs, Gemini can "Rethink variable names" across a whole file. This feature analyzes the code and suggests more intuitive and descriptive names for variables and methods, improving readability and maintainability.

Gemini also assists with commit messages. When committing changes to version control, it analyzes your code modifications and suggests a detailed commit message. Gemini will also generate documentation from a code snippet.

Another improvement is the addition of animation preview support for Wear OS tiles. The tool provides a real-time view of animations so the developer can preview them, control playback with options like play, pause, and speed adjustment, and inspect key properties such as initial/end states and animation curves.

A new Wear Health Services feature in Android Studio simplifies the process of testing health and fitness apps by enabling Wear Health Services within the emulator. Developers can customize various parameters for a given exercise such as heart rate, distance, and speed without needing a physical device or performing the activity itself.

Finally, a new App Links Assistant has been added to overcome problems of incorrect app links. It serves valid JSON syntax that resolves broken deep links for your app. You can review the JSON file and then upload it to your website.

Android Studio Ladybug also includes the IntelliJ 2024.2 platform release, which has new features such as more intuitive full line code completion suggestions, a preview in the Search Everywhere dialog and improved log management for Java and Kotlin.

Nice as all this sounds, feedback from Android Developers regarding the video on YouTube complain about how buggy Andriod Studio is. 

The first two comments:

Ladybug has had the buggiest build toolchain in recent memory. I don't care about Gemini until basic things work.

Gotta restart AS twice a day due to memory leaks...
Find References often gets stuck.

attracted 61 and 21 upvotes respectively. Another one lower down the list gained 10 upvotes:

Ladybug has the biggest amount of bugs I've encountered, working with XML layout, importing, autocomplete are broken.

Meanwhile none of the comments that are positive about Gemini or make constructive suggestions attract more than 4 upvotes.

For many the sarcastic comment sums it is neatly:

They gave it the correct name

More Information

Android Studio Website

Related Articles

Android Studio Jellyfish Ready To Use

Android Studio Hedgehog Is Now Stable

Android Studio Flamingo Improves UI Tools

Android Studio Electric Eel Released

Android Studio Chipmunk - Cute But Increasingly Unfit For Purpose

To be informed about new articles on I Programmer, sign up for our weekly newsletter, subscribe to the RSS feed and follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin.

Comments

Make a Comment or View Existing Comments Using Disqus

or email your comment to: comments@i-programmer.info