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For the ease of testing, Android Studio Bumblebee launches a new Device Manager

Billy Yann
Data Scientist
Deep learning and machine learning specialist, well-versed with experience in Cloud infrastructure, Block-chain technologies, and Big Data solutions.
February 08, 2022


Android Studio is the leading integrated development environment (IDE) for generating Android applications, with a feature-packed code editor, debugging tools, emulators, and considerably more. The conclusive major release was in March of the previous year, nicknamed Android Studio Arctic Fox and after a few months of testing, there’s currently another upgrade available: Android Studio Bumblebee. Google named it after the tiny flying insect, but the concept of quoting it after a Transformer better was appreciated.

Android Studio Bumblebee is a crucial release that encompasses a combination of unique features and advancements. The Android Studio squad has been abuzz with the stable release of Android Studio Bumblebee (2021.1.1) and Android Gradle plugin (AGP) 7.1.0; the recent interpretations of Android official IDE and build network. Google has furthermore spent some time enriching tests in Android Studio for this release. The updated Gradle plugin has a fresh unified tester, which rebuilds the two prevailing testing environments, the one proposed by Android Studio, and the one in Gradle, and should curtail headaches for creators. Android Studio’s profilers are similarly expanded, with modern CPU profiling features on Android 11+ devices and a few other beneficial extensions. Initially introduced in Android Studio 4.2, the AGP Upgrade Assistant encouraged users to revise their projects to the latest edition, and developments in Arctic Fox furnished a modern UI with the potential to review and choose the upgrade version and strides. In Bumblebee, the Upgrade Assistant presently furthermore checks for and demands to update your DSL to support you avoid using deprecated APIs before they are deleted. 

Android Studio Bumblebee 2021.1.1, which is the codename for the release, enhances functionality for installation and deploying, profiling and assessment, and layout. Several striking extensions comprise a unified test execution between Android Studio and your continuous integration (CI) server, Improved Profiler tools to enable you to specify and examine jank in your app, and unique ways to preview animations and UI interchanges without deploying your app to a tool. 

New Device Manager

The Device Manager is a stand-in replacement for the AVD Manager, both from Android Studio’s Welcome Screen or after you open a program and one unique aspect for building and deploying is the new Device Manager, which formulates it manageable to operate virtual and test devices. This modern device has both Virtual and Physical outlines. Virtual features entail developing a new device, examining device details, and canceling a device. In the Virtual tab, develop a new device, inspect device components, delete a device, or anything else you employed to do from the instantly eliminated AVD Manager. Physical characteristics incorporate pairing to a different device using ADB Wi-Fi to identify details and scanning a device’s file system using Device File Explore. 

In addition, the Android Gradle Plugin Upgrade Assistant, which assists developers to keep their projects predominant with the latest version, now checks for and demands to update domain-specific languages (DSLs) to resist developers using deprecated APIs in their apps. 

ADB over Wi-Fi

Additional modern features associated with the build and deploy theme Bumblebee comprise a simplified flow for connecting devices to your Android 11 and higher devices over Wi-Fi for deployment and debugging using ADB. Afterward, you stimulate debugging over Wi-Fi on your device, and securing to the Pair, taking up Wi-Fi action in the Physical tab of the current Device Manager to connect to the pairing medium, and then pursue the steps given to pair to a tool connected over the pertinent operation. The proficiency to run instrumented tests employing Gradle, non-transitive R classes are forthwith turned on by default, the Emulator tool window is facilitated by default, and updated assistance for Apple Silicon. 

You can currently capture snapshots of your app’s configuration hierarchy to save, share, or scan later. Snapshots capture the data you would generally see when using the Layout Inspector, encompassing a detailed 3D rendering of your layout, the component tree of your View, Compose, or hybrid layout, and comprehensive aspects for each element of your UI. The snapshot comes off in a tab in the Editor window so that you can skillfully compare it with your running app. In the profile and inspect category of updates, when a creator profiles a device that is running Android 11 or later, the profiler will exhibit a different track category that exemplifies the phases of each frame. Each frame is titled with a frame number and is color-coded for simpler visualization. 

For those operating macOS on Apple Silicon (arm64) hardware, Android Studio Arctic Fox and the Android Emulator have profited from this established architecture since the previous year. Nevertheless, with this release, the presently updated the Android SDK platform tools v32.0.0 (which comprises ADB and fastboot) and build tools v32.1.0 (which encompasses apt) to be universal binaries so that your Android creator devices no longer require the Rosetta binary translator to run. Based on community response, those developers on this hardware platform have noticed striking performance advancements. For those operating macOS on Apple Silicon (arm64) hardware, Android Studio Arctic Fox and the Android Emulator have benefited from this unique architecture since the previous year. Yet, with this release, the currently updated Android SDK platform devices v32.0.0 which includes ADB and fast boot and build tools v32.1.0 which includes apt to be universal binaries so that your Android developer equipment no longer require the Rosetta binary translator to run. Based on community acknowledgment, those innovators on this hardware outlet have seen significant prosperity growth. 

In addition, there is presently app profiling assistance in Studio Profilers, the Network Profiler has been migrated to the App Inspection tool window, creators can take snapshots of their app’s configuration hierarchy, and backing has been expanded for Compose Semantics in the Layout Inspector. You can immediately capture snapshots of your app’s format structure to save, share, or inspect later. Snapshots capture the data you would generally see when trying the Layout Inspector, containing an illustrated 3D rendering of your layout, the component tree of your View, Compose, or hybrid configuration, and comprehensive characteristics for each element of your UI. The snapshot comes off in a tab in the Editor window so that you can handily correlate it with your running app.  Also, the Background Task Inspector presently can inspect Jobs, Alarms, and Wakelocks, providing data on how those chores are planned and their performance. You can detect live evidence on how these background trials are being planned, and see documented input about their undertaking, identical to how you can analyze workers. Further, when inspecting Workers, you can trace and examine Jobs that your Workers schedule for you. 

Non-Transitive R classes for new projects

Android Studio Arctic Fox initiated contemporary refactoring tools to assist you to use non-transitive R classes to facilitate faster builds for applications with considerable modules. When developing unique projects using Bumblebee, the IDE configures your project to use non-transitive R classes, by default. While this does make performance advancements, you instantly have to cite to R classes by their reasonable package title, and not by the package names of their parent modules, as they will no longer settle transitively. 

To get launched, navigate to a previewable compose process and click Start Interactive Mode in the Design or Split window and the final composition of this release designs. This enables creators to assess attitudes without possessing to build and deploy full applications to a device. In Bumblebee, there is broadened functionality that authorizes you to interact with specific elements of your Compose layouts, to verify behavior without building and deploying the full app to a running device. When choosing a Compose node, use the Attributes window to test whether it asserts semantic data quickly, merges semantics from its children, or both. There is likewise directly a preview window for perceiving vector drawables, which benefits from testing animations before they are employed in an app. The squad also revamped the device picker in design equipment with citation devices for popular types of equipment of numerous magnitudes.

Conclusion

To recap, Android Studio Bumblebee (2021.1.1) includes these new enhancements that build and deploy new device manager, Emulator tool window enabled by default, non-Transitive R classes on for new projects, run Instrumented Tests in Android Studio using Gradle, Android Gradle Plugin Upgrade Assistant now updates API usage, that is even more stable AGP APIs for plugin authors, ADB over Wi-Fi and Apple Silicon Support Update. The new features compose interactive preview, layout inspector snapshots, support for profileable apps and other profiler improvements, cacheable lint task, and unified Gradle test runner for instrumentation tests.