Android studio 3.0 is finally ready for download in the stable channel. It brings a range of new features and many improvements that will make developer experience smoother but also some important changes that might require attention.
- Kotlin Language – As announced in Google I/O 2017, the Kotlin language now officially supported on Android, Android studio 3.0 is the first release in which Google added Kotlin support. Kotlin is a fun and expressive language that has grown popular with Android developers. Thanks to hight interoperability with existing Java code, you can now immediately start using in your apps.
- Java 8 Features – Jave 8 language features with their code and libraries also enabled with the newest Android Gradle plugin without Jake compiler (it is now deprecated).
- Improved Build Process – Google says the performance of build process is also improved in the new Android Gradle Plugin version 3. Such as delayed dependency resolution, more incremental dexing and faster sync time.
- Enabled AAPT2 – AAPT2 is enabled by default which enables more incremental and parallelized builds and even some potential size savings in the resources file without any changes required to your projects.
- Fonts Customization – If you target Android Oreo (API Level 26 and higher) for your Android app, you can now add custom fonts & downloadable fonts using XML with Android Studio 3.0.
- Android Things Support – If you’re not building your app for phones, tablets or wearables, there’s now support for Android Things, the OS for IoT devices. Learn more.
- Instant Apps Support – Now you can create Instant Apps using two new module types: Instant App Module and Features Modules.
- Adaptive Icons Wizard – New release allows you to create adaptive launcher icons for Android 8.0 while simultaneously creating traditional icons.
These are just some of the highlights from the new changes that are now available. You can check out the full changelog here.