Installing Android Studio

Android Studio (official webpage here) is the application that we use to develop apps for the Android platform. There are others as well but this one serves all purposes. Let's see how to install it and use it.

Before Getting Started

Before we get started, it's important that you understand a few things about these tutorials. They are:

• I've assumed that you're using Ubuntu 18.04 (bionic beaver) for this tutorial. You could use Windows or MacOS as well.
• All the codes for these posts will be present on the GitHub repository I've created for this.

Steps to install Android Studio

1. Go to the official page on Android Studio, here and click on "Download Android Studio". In case you're looking for the complete list of supported operating systems and downloads, click here and select the suitable package.
2. Accept the terms and conditions and download the package. After this, the download must have started. Wait for the download to finish.
   • From hereon, I'm assuming that you're installing android studio on Ubuntu 18.04, for any other operating system check Additional > Installing Android Studio on other operating systems. It's quiet straight forward for other operating systems.
3. Unpack the .zip file into the /opt/ directory.
   • If you want to locally install for the specific user only, then extract everything into the /usr/local/ directory instead.
   • If you don't have access to the /opt/ directory, you can do the following:
     • Extract the package contents into the downloads folder (make sure the name of the folder is "android-studio")
     • Move the folder "android-studio" into /opt/ directory using the following command on a terminal:
       • sudo mv ~/Downloads/android-studio /opt/
         • This moves the folder "android-studio" from the downloads folder (where you just extracted the contents) into the /opt/ directory.
   • In the end, check the directory /opt/android-studio/ using the Files application.
4. On the terminal, navigate to the directory where you finally have put the android-studio folder and execute the studio.sh script inside the bin folder. Type the following into the terminal:
   • cd /opt/android-studio/bin/
   • ./studio.sh
5. Select "Do not import settings" and follow the on screen instructions for setup.
6. Choose a standard installation. I'm going to choose the Dracula theme.
7. It might prompt you to install KVM (Kernel mode virtual machine) for better running the android emulator. Run the following command on a terminal:
   • sudo apt install -y qemu-kvm libvirt-daemon-system libvirt-clients bridge-utils
     • This will install a bunch of packages for KVM. You can know more about the command here (ubuntu website) and here (android forum). You can run the command kvm-ok and the output must show "KVM acceleration can be used".
8. Click on Finish and wait for everything to be downloaded.
9. Install a few dependencies for compatibility with 32 bit libraries
   • sudo apt-get install libc6:i386 libncurses5:i386 libstdc++6:i386 lib32z1 libbz2-1.0:i386
10. You can create a desktop entry (icon in the applications menu) by clicking onto Configure > Create Desktop Entry and then close the application, now you can open it from the applications menu itself. Re-launch the application

After everything is done, you must see something like what's shown below

Turning on Developer mode on your android device

In order to run and test android applications on your device, you must enable developer options on your android device. To do this, follow the following procedure:

• Open Settings and navigate to the About Phone section, open it.
• Tap on the Build number seven times.
• It might prompt you to enter password, do so.
• The developer mode has been activated, you can view the options under Settings > System > Developer options to get some insight into what developer mode is.

Additional

Installing Android Studio on other operating systems

For Windows

1. If you downloaded the .exe file (which I'd suggest you do), just launch it (double click) and follow the instructions on screen.
   • If you've downloaded the .zip file, then unzip the package and copy the android-studio folder into the Programs Folder (in your C:\ Drive). Open the folder in the destination after being copied and open the bin folder. Launch studio64.exe (for 64-bit machines) or studio.exe (for 32-bit machines).
2. Download any SDK packages that it suggests.
3. KVM installation instructions here.

For MacOS

1. Launch the DMG file
2. Drag and drop Android Studio into the Applications folder of your Mac. Wait for the copy to finish.
3. Launch the application either from launchpad (if it shows up) or the applications folder.
4. Follow the on screen instructions.
5. KVM installation instructions here.

Installing Android Studio through JetBrains Toolbox

This is for people who use JetBrains products. You can also download and install the JetBrains Toolbox app v1.13 or beyond (link here). It supports Android Studio as an inherit option.