Google has announced the availability of Android Studio 3.1, the Android development app. It is available to download for Windows (32-bit and 64-bit), Mac and Linux. The release comes with a lot of new features as well as underlying performance improvements.
First, there is a new C++ performance profiler to help developers find bottlenecks in their app code. There are also improvements to the Kotlin Lint checks that add on to the support of Kotlin in the studio. Editing SQL/Room database code in projects are now easier too. Android Studio 3.1 has a SQL code completion in the @query declarations and better SQL statement refactoring.
When it comes to actually building an app, D8 Dex Compiler is now the default compiler in Android Studio, replacing the older DX compiler. D8 has “APK compilation step that makes your app size smaller, enables accurate step debugging, and many times leads to faster builds. ”
When it comes to testing your build, the new release has a Quick Boot feature which allows you to start up an Android emulator in less than 6 seconds. This solves a major pain point for developers in the previous versions of Android Studio where starting an emulator took several minutes. In this new Quick Boot Mode, a cold start of the emulator is required still but once it is going, subsequent starts will be much faster.
For developers who want to update, you can go to the Android Developer site and download the new 3.1 versions.
