Published: July 2023 (Retrospective & Technical Deep Dive)
It assumes you are using Compose. It assumes you are using Java 17. It assumes you are using a modern emulator. If you meet those criteria, Giraffe is arguably one of the most stable, fastest releases in years.
When your app has multiple modules or third-party libraries, your final AndroidManifest.xml is a Frankenstein stitched together by Gradle. If a permission or activity goes missing, debugging is a nightmare. android studio giraffe
is a feature that allows you to see changes to your composables reflected on an emulator or physical device without a full recompilation and redeployment .
In previous versions, changing a Text composable from "Hello" to "World" required hitting run, watching the build process, and waiting. With Live Edit, you simply save the file (or press the hotkey), and within milliseconds, the UI updates. Published: July 2023 (Retrospective & Technical Deep Dive)
For those still living in the XML/Java 11 world, Giraffe is a warning sign: the migration train is leaving the station.
Happy coding! 🦒
In the summer of 2023, Google released (2023.3.1). Named after the tallest mammal, this release stood tall on the shoulders of its predecessor (Electric Eel) and introduced a slew of features aimed at boosting developer productivity, streamlining the UI, and making the IDE smarter.