Google launches Android Studio 2.0 with Instant Run, faster Android emulator, and Cloud Test Lab

In 2013, Google launched an official integrated development environment (IDE) called Android Studio to make app development for its mobile platform faster and more visual. That must have worked, as the Play Store is now bulging with nearly 1.6 million apps, the most of any store.

As developers any time spent waiting for our IDE to do something is time wasted. Time we could be writing code, time that pushes out the end of our day, or a break that risks dropping us out of the zone. Android Studio 2.0 includes Instant Run to reduce incremental build and deploy times to seconds, improved full build times, a faster and more intuitive emulator, and a new GPU profiler to help make your games and graphics apps performant and error free. 

This newest version, 2.0 is a significant update from the previous version and includes the following new features:

An “InstantRun” that quickly implements your change and runs it, allowing you to minimize the time it takes to build and test changes. It is also enabled by default. Instant Run works with any Android Device or emulator running API 14 (Ice Cream Sandwich) or higher.

Android Emulator that will, in most situations, be “faster than a real device” with 3x faster CPU, RAM and I/O compared to the previous version. ADB push speeds were improved to 10 times the previous version! The emulator now includes built-in Play Services and several other features.

Integration with Cloud Test Lab

App Indexing Code Generation/Testing

GPU Debugger Preview (OpenGL ES). While still in an experimental phase this introduces features a GPU profiler that desktop graphics debugging has had for some time.

Updated IntelliJ

Download Android Studio 2.0 here.

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