Android Studio

Google’s development environment for Android apps. Its emulator runs virtual Android phones and tablets on an ordinary computer, which makes it useful for testing web work, not only for building apps.

At UW-Milwaukee, I use the emulator in Android Studio to test code against virtual Android devices, and I wrote about the technique on JWS News.

Used at

UW-Milwaukee

Official website

developer.android.com/studio

Age

13 years (since 2013)

Experience highlights

• Start virtual Pixel phones from the Virtual Device Manager, without writing any Android code.
• Check a web app on Android without buying test phones, while treating the emulator as a supplement to a physical device rather than a replacement.