Android Studio 3.4 is available for download today on the stable release channel. The Android Studio team Project Marble released the Android version with over 300 bug & stability enhancements. Project Marble’s aim is to “focus on making the fundamental features and flows of the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) rock-solid.”
There are three significant improvements in Android 3.4. The first is an updated Project Structure Dialog (PSD) which is a revamped user interface to manage dependencies in app project Gradle build files.
In a second improvement, R8 replaces Proguard as the default code shrinker and obfuscator. The last improvement is an updated Android Emulator which uses fewer system resources, and also supports Android Q Beta.
Besides the aforementioned build improvements, the Android Studio team has introduced a new tool, the resource manager “to visualize the drawables, colors, and layouts across your app project in a consolidated view.
In addition to visualization, the panel supports drag and drop bulk asset import, and, by popular request, bulk SVG to VectorDrawable conversion” and dramatically improves asset management and navigation.
Another new feature is the import intentions functionality which makes coding with Jetpack and Firebase libraries easier. Import intentions helps
“recognize common classes in these libraries and suggest, via code intentions, adding the required import statement and library dependency to your Gradle project files.”
Additionally, the the layout editor properties panel has been redone with one single pane, with collapsible sections for properties:
“Additionally, errors and warnings have their own highlight color, we have a resource binding control for each property, and we have an updated color picker.”
Lastly a IntelliJ Platform Update (Intellij 2018.3.4) is introduced and includes a “wide range of improvements from support for multi-line TODOs to an updated search everywhere feature.”
A summary of Android Studio 3.4 includes these new enhancements & features:
Develop
Resource Manager
Import Intentions
Layout Editor Properties Panel
IntelliJ 2018.3.4 Platform Update
Build
Project Structure Dialog
R8 by Default
Test
Emulator Device Skins
Android Q Beta Emulator System Image Support
