Google has released the stable build of Android Studio 4.0, its newest official integrated development environment (IDE) for building Android apps on Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome OS.
The three main additions to Android Studio 4.0 include a Motion Editor to speed up the creation of complex animations, a Build Analyzer that helps understand the cause of build-time bottlenecks, and Java 8 language application protocol interfaces (APIs).
Besides new features, Android Studio 4.0 includes an overhauled CPU Profiler user interface to make it easier for developers to analyze thread activity, and an improved Layout Inspector that provides live data of an app's UI to debug what's being shown on the device.
Google has also brought in tools to help developers identify vulnerable library dependencies in an app. Developers building an app with Android Gradle plugin 4.0.0 and higher gain a view into dependencies metadata, which describes the library dependencies that are compiled into an app.
When uploading an app, the Play Console inspects the metadata to provides alerts for known issues with SDKs and dependencies in an app. In some cases, it also provides actionable feedback to resolve issues.
There's now an R8 smart editor for developers who are creating rules files for R8, Google's tool to help shrink the size of an app. Android Studio now provides syntax highlighting, code completion, and error checking.