As an Android developer, you may use Android Studio, Eclipse, Visual Studio for Android App Development, etc. Among all of them, Android Studio is the most famous and recommended IDE. Why? Android Studio has a lot of functions and features to write code faster.
But sometimes, you can feel that you need to speed up this development process even more, or you may require productivity techniques to boost development speed. Also, Android Studio has some functions you probably do not know.
So, I am sharing the top 10 Android Studio Tips and Tricks (probably can also help in the appraisals).
1. Disable Unused Plugins (IDE Performance Enhancement)
During Android app development, plugins are beneficial but can slow down Android Studio. So, it's an excellent idea to disable plugins that are not being used. I recommend checking out every plugin on your Android Studio and disabling any plugins that are not being used.
Go to: Settings → Plugins.
It is the best performance-enhancing trick among the best Android Studio Tips and tricks.
2. Increase IDE heap size to Max ( IDE performance enhancement)
As an Android developer, you already know that Android Studio requires a lot of RAM to run; if you haven't, the whole Android Studio/editor will lag. But if you already have enough RAM and are still facing a laggy editor issue, you can reduce the default heap size to max.
Go to: Settings → Appearance & Behavior → System Settings → Memory Settings → Select IDE max heap size.
I recommend choosing max heap size according to your RAM range from 2048MB to 4096MB.
3. Colorful Logs (Logcat)
In Android Studio, the default colors are red, and others are white. That probably looks boring and sometimes decreases productivity, too, over time. But Android Studio has settings that can help you to change those colors.
Go to: Settings → Editor → Color Scheme → Android Logcat
Well, you can choose any color you want. I have added some color codes you can choose from.
4. Show Only Headers you care about (Logcat)
The logs are pretty noisy because every line in logcat, by default, has a header containing the timestamp, process ID, package name, and tag. But you can change this setting to show only the headers you want to see.
Go to: Logcat left panel > Settings icon.
5. Setting up a Custom Filter (Logcat)
Setting up a custom filter helps not lose the filter's settings. If a crash happens, then logs disappear right after. Also, using no filters will make a lot of noise filled with unnecessary logs.
So, adding a custom filter can help to get focused. You can create a new logcat filter under "Edit filter configuration" and select only the app package name that you want to see. Well, doing this can increase the development speed for sure.
6. Split Vertically (Keyboard shortcut)
Android Studio has decent keyboard shortcuts, but Vertical Splitting is not available. You can create a keyboard shortcut using Android Studio's "keymap." You can add a keyboard shortcut of your preference.
Like, on Mac, you can use "Command+options+S" to split vertically, and you can see unsplit all by "Command+shift+option+s." You can get faster at Android App Development quickly by doing this and adding other keyboard shortcuts too.
7. Setting up a default XML editor
When you open an XML file in Android Studio, the Design editor mode will open as default. But you can change it to a different one too.
Go to: Settings > Editor > layout Editor
This one trick of Android Studio saves time on Android App Development and increases productivity.
8. Reformatting code
Reformatting code is a big headache, and manually fixing it eats a lot of time during Android App Development. But here, Android Studio helps to improve this to write properly formatted code.
Bad Formatted code:
Press Ctrl + Alt + L, > A reformatted code:
9. Auto import on the fly
Here in Android studio, Automatically, new imports are added, and Android Studio will remove any unused imports for you by the below settings.
Go to: Settings > Editor > General > Auto Import > Select "Add unambiguous imports on the fly" and "Optimize imports on the fly".
10. Putting Debugger later
You can run your program generally at first; when you reach the section you wish to debug, click "Attach debugger to process." As a result, the app launches considerably more quickly, and you avoid mistakenly hitting breakpoints that you don't care about. Overall, it shortens the time during Android App Development.
Extra: Changing Color Scheme
In Android Studio, the error color code is so dull that you can't even notice when a single color is shown as an error. It isn't easy to catch. So, you can easily change it by the below setting.
Go to: Settings → Editor → Color Scheme → General.
There are also themes you can import or use an Android Studio plugin to change Color Scheme.
Final Words
There is a sea of Android Studio Tips and Tricks, but the ones above are the best to use and increase the speed of Android App Development.
That's it for now. I hope you got some beneficial information about speeding up development on Android Studio.