Android Studio
Google's official tool for building Android apps, with a proper Linux download from Google.
Our verdict
Android Studio is one of the easy ones. Google list a Linux download next to the Windows one, it is the same version of the same tool, and your existing projects open without any conversion step.
The only awkward part is how you get it. Google hand you a compressed archive rather than an installer, so you extract it and run the program from inside the folder. The Flathub listing in the Linux app store is simpler but it is put together by volunteers, not by Google.
Everything past that is normal. The emulator, the device connection over USB, the plugin marketplace and your keyboard shortcuts all behave as they did. Give it plenty of memory and disk, the same as on Windows.
What's good
- Google publish a Linux build on the same page as the Windows one
- Free, with no account needed to download it
- Your projects, settings and plugins carry over from the Windows version
- Android development on Linux is a well trodden path, so help is easy to find
What to know first
- Google's own download is a large archive you extract yourself rather than an installer
- The Flathub package is community made and not supported by Google
- Big, slow to start, and wants a lot of memory and disk space
The details
- Cost
- Free
- Open source
- No (Proprietary)
- How you install it
- App store (Flatpak)
Windows apps it can replace
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