Google Reveals Android Studio Suite, More Features for App Developers
Among Google’s many exciting announcements for consumers at its I/O conference today—such as a beautiful revamp of Google Maps, a new streaming music service, and the ability to ask your desktop a question and have Google find you answers—there was also some happy news for developers.
Google revealed a new suite of tools for Android developers called Android Studio, which is intended to replace the Eclipse environment. (Many programmers working with Java are not fans of Eclipse, and developers in the crowd at the San Francisco keynote presentation greeted the announcement with applause and exclamations.) The comprehensive IDE is based on IntelliJ IDEA and should make developers faster and more productive.
Developers can use the studio to build new apps or to tweak existing ones. The suite functions like a WYSIWYG editor and includes a “live layout” that renders an app in real time, so you can see what a change will look like right after you’ve adjusted the code. The live layout even extends to multiple devices, a function especially useful for Android developers, as you can see at once how your app will display on many different sizes of phones and tablets.
Google also announced new features for developers in its Google Play Developer Console to help grow and improve apps once they’re built. These include Optimization Tips, which will suggest things you should do to make your app more popular on Google Play, such as designing your app for tablets.
Google product manager Ellie Powers presented this part of the keynote, and the example she used was the console indicating that your app has been getting lots of downloads in Russia. That ties in to the next feature, the new App Translation Service. If you want to translate your app into Russian to try to drive more downloads, use this service to search for a professional translator right within the console. Google will display a list of available translators and their costs, and when you select one, Google will set up a transaction, and the translator will get to work.
The next features, Usage Metrics & Referral Tracking and Revenue Graphs, help you figure out how and where your app is making money. This integrates with Google Analytics and shows you who is installing your app, what happens in the app the first time it’s opened on a device, and which ads are the most effective in promoting the app.
The last new feature in the Developer Console—Beta Testing & Staged Rollouts—also got a big audience reaction. Third-party developers have long wanted a way to roll out test versions of an app before its public release, and this tool lets you coordinate alpha and beta testers within the console. It also manages testers’ feedback without making it public, an important addition.
Do you think Android Studio and the Google Play Developer Console will make developing easier or more interesting? If you don't already develop apps for Android, will these new features make you more likely to?
