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What Is the Android SDK and How to Start Using It

Android SDK is a software development kit developed by Google for the Android platform. The Android SDK allows you to create Android apps, and you don’t need to be an expert to use it. In this tutorial, I’ll explain what the Android SDK is and how to get started with it.

Android SDK comes bundled with Android Studio, Google’s official integrated development environment (IDE) for the Android operating system. You can learn about Android Studio and the Android App Development Kit in another of my articles.

In this post, we’ll look at:

• What is the Android SDK?
• How to install the Android SDK
• What is the Android SDK Manager?
• What are the components of the Android SDK?

What Is the Android SDK?

The Android SDK is a collection of software development tools and libraries required to develop Android applications. Every time Google releases a new version of Android or an update, a corresponding SDK is also released which developers must download and install. It is worth noting that you can also download and use the Android SDK independently of Android Studio, but typically you’ll be working through Android Studio for any Android development.

The Android SDK comprises all the tools necessary to code programs from scratch and even test them. These tools provide a smooth flow of the development process from developing and debugging, through to packaging.

The Android SDK is compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux, so you can develop on any of those platforms.

How to Install the Android SDK

The Android SDK is optimized for Android Studio, and hence to effectively reap its benefits, you will need to install Android Studio. Having the Android SDK managed from within Android Studio is easier since support for languages like Java, Kotlin, and C++ is handled automatically. Not only that, but updates to the Android SDK are handled automatically by Android Studio.

To install the Android SDK from within Android Studio, first start Android Studio.

• From the Android Studio start page, select Configure > SDK Manager.

• If you already have Android Studio open, the SDK Manager icon is found on the top right corner, as shown below.

Install the required Android SDK platform packages and developer tools. A good start is to install:

• Android SDK Build-Tools
• Android Emulator
• Android SDK Platform-Tools
• Android SDK Tools
• Documentation for Android SDK

Click Apply, and Android Studio will install the selected tools and packages.

What Is the SDK Manager?

The Android SDK is composed of modular packages that you can download, install, and update separately using the Android SDK Manager. The SDK Manager helps to update new SDK releases and updates whenever a new Android platform is released. The SDK manager can be found in the top-right corner of the Android Studio screen, as shown below.

All that is required to follow the instructions provided, and the updates will be immediately downloaded to your environment.

What Are the Components of the Android SDK?

The Android SDK consists of an emulator, development tools, sample projects with source code, and the required libraries to build Android applications. Let’s look at the key components one by one.

Android SDK Tools

Android SDK Tools is a component of the Android SDK. It includes a complete set of development and debugging tools for Android, and is included with Android Studio. The SDK Tools also consist of testing tools and other utilities required to develop an app.

SDK Build Tools

Build tools are required for building components for building the actual binaries for your Android app. Always ensure your build tools component is up to date by downloading the latest version in the Android SDK Manager.

SDK Platform-Tools

Android Platform-Tools are used to support the features for the current Android platform and are necessary for Android app development. These tools interface with the Android platform on the device you use for testing. They include:

• Android Debug Bridge (adb): This is a handy command-line tool that lets you communicate with a device. The adb command allows you to perform device actions, such as installing and debugging apps. It also provides access to a Unix shell that you can use to run a variety of commands on a device.
• fastboot: This lets you flash a device with a new system image.
• systrace: This tool helps collect and inspect timing information across all processes running on your device at the system level. It’s crucial for debugging app performance.

SDK Platform-Tools are backward compatible, so you need only one version of the SDK Platform-Tools.

SDK Platform

For each version of Android, there’s one SDK Platform available. These are numbered according to the Android version (e.g. Android 7 Nougat) and an API version (e.g. API Level 24). Before you build an Android app, you must specify an SDK Platform as your build target. Newer SDK Platform versions have more features for developers, but older devices may not be compatible with the newer platform versions.

Google APIs

Google provides a number of exclusive Google APIs to make developing your app easier. They also offer a system image for the emulator so you can test your app using the Google APIs.

Android Emulator

The Android Emulator is a QEMU-based device-emulation tool that simulates Android devices on your computer, allowing developers to test applications on different devices and Android API levels, without needing to have physical devices for each. The emulator comes with configurations for various Android phones, tablets, Wear OS, and Android TV devices.

The Android emulator provides almost all of the capabilities of a real Android device. You can perform the following activities:

• simulate phone calls and text messages
• simulate different network speeds
• specify the location of the device
• simulate hardware sensors such as rotation
• access Google Play Store and much more

Often it is faster and easier to test your app with an emulator instead of using a physical device.

Conclusion

In this post, we looked at some of the basics of the Android SDK. The Android SDK is the only way to develop for Android devices. Fortunately, it contains extensive documentation, tutorials, samples, best practice guidance, and an array of tools for many different development tasks.

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Take a look at some of our roundups of the best Android app templates:

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Android environment setup

To build and run for Android, you must install the Unity Android Build Support platform module. You also need to install the Android Software Development Kit (SDK) and the Native Development Kit (NDK) to build and run any code on your Android device. By default, Unity installs a Java Development Kit based on OpenJDK.

Note: Unity supports Android 4.4 “KitKat” and above. See AndroidSdkVersions for details.

1. Install Android Build Support and the Android SDK & NDK tools

Use the Unity Hub to install Android Build Support and the required dependencies
See in Glossary : Android SDK & NDK tools, and OpenJDK.

Add Android modules

You can install Android Build Support, the Android SDK & NDK tools and OpenJDK when you install the Unity Editor, or add them at a later time.

For information on adding the Android modules:

If you are using a 2018 version of Unity, see the Unity 2018.4 documentation for information on manually installing these dependencies.

2. Enable USB debugging on your device

To enable USB debugging, you must enable Developer options on your device. To do this, find the build number in your device’s Settings menu. The location of the build number varies between devices; for stock Android, it’s usually Settings > About phone > Build number. For specific information on your device and Android version, refer to your hardware manufacturer.

After you navigate to the build number using the instructions above, tap on the build number seven times. A pop-up notification saying “You are now X steps away from being a developer” appears, with “X” being a number that counts down with every additional tap. On the seventh tap, Developer options are unlocked.

Note: On Android versions prior to 4.2 (Jelly Bean), the Developer options are enabled by default.

Go to Settings > Developer options (or, if this does not work, on some devices the path is Settings > System > Developer options), and check the USB debugging checkbox. Android now enters debug mode when it is connected to a computer via USB.

Connect your device to your computer using a USB cable. If you are developing on a Windows computer, you might need to install a device-specific USB driver. See the manufacturer website for your device for additional information.

The setup process differs for Windows and macOS and is explained in detail on the Android developer website. For more information on connecting your Android device to the SDK, refer to the Run Your App section of the Android Developer documentation.

ADB debugging for Chrome OS devices

For information on how to set up your development environment for Chrome OS devices, and enable ADB An Android Debug Bridge (ADB). You can use an ADB to deploy an Android package (APK) manually after building. More info
See in Glossary debugging, see Google’s documentation on Chrome OS Developer Environments.

Connecting to your Chrome OS device

Before you can deploy to your device you need to manually connect with ADB via the device’s IP address.

To begin you need the IP address. Open up the Settings app and choose Network in the sidebar. Next click on the active network interface.

If the interface is wireless then next choose the SSID that you are connected to. In the details you will see your IP address. Make a note of it.

If you are using a wired connection your IP address will be shown on the first details page.

Now we are ready to connect. For the sake of this example let’s say that the device’s IP is 192.168.0.100. In a shell or terminal run the following command

adb connect 192.168.0.100

If the connection was successful you will see a message such as connected to 192.168.0.65:5555 . And adb devices should verify that the device is connected. List of devices attached 192.168.0.65:5555 device

From now on you may run ADB commands to target the device just as you would over a USB connection.

Note: If your device or host machine goes to sleep or loses network connectivity you may need to reconnect.

Customizing the Android SDK & NDK Tools and OpenJDK installation

Unity recommends that you use the Unity Hub to install Android SDK & NDK tools, to ensure that you receive the correct versions and configuration. Unity installs Android SDK & NDK Tools and OpenJDK respectively in the SDK, NDK and OpenJDK folders under /Unity/Hub/Editor/[EditorVersion]/Editor/Data/PlaybackEngines/AndroidPlayer/.

If you have multiple versions of Unity with the same required dependencies (be sure to check System requirements for the latest) and you want to avoid duplicating the installation of Android SDK & NDK Tools and OpenJDK, you can specify a shared location in the Unity Preferences window. To do this, go to Preferences > External tools and enter the directory paths in the SDK and NDK fields:

Preferences window showing external tools settings for Android

Warning: Unity does not officially support versions of the OpenJDK, SDK, or NDK other than the ones it supplies.

To change the OpenJDK, SDK Tools, or NDK that Unity uses to build Android apps:

1. Open the Project.
2. Open the Preferences window (Windows and Linux: Edit >Preferences; macOS: Unity >Preferences).
3. In the left navigation column, select External Tools.

Change the OpenJDK path

1. Uncheck JDK Installed with Unity (recommended).
2. In the JDK field, enter the path to the JDK installation folder, or use the Browse button to locate it.

Change the Android SDK Tools path

1. Uncheck Android SDK Tools Installed with Unity (recommended).
2. In the SDK field, enter the path to the SDK installation folder, or use the Browse button to locate it.

Unity works with the most recent version of the Android SDK available at the time of the Unity version release.

Change the Android NDK path

1. Uncheck Android NDK Installed with Unity (recommended).
2. In the NDK field, enter the path to the NDK installation folder, or use the Browse button to locate it.

Each version of Unity requires a specific version of the Android NDK to be installed:

Unity version	NDK version
2018.4 LTS	r16b
2019.4 LTS	r19
2020.3 LTS	r19

See the System requirements page for a complete list of requirements.

Updating the Android SDK Target API

Unity Hub installs the latest version of the Android SDK Target API required by Google Play.

If you need to use a more recent version, you can change the Target API from the Target API Level field in the Player Settings window (menu: Edit > Project Settings > Player, then select the Android platform). You can find the Target API Level option in the Other Settings > Identification section.

Selecting a target API for the Android SDK

After you select an option other than the default, Unity prompts you to update the Android SDK API. You can choose to either:

• Update the Android SDK
• Continue to use the highest installed version of the Android SDK

Note: If you select an older version of the Target API, the Unity Android SDK Updater will not be able to perform the update and will give you this message:

Android SDK does not include your Target SDK of (version). Please use the Android SDK Manager to install your target SDK version. Restart Unity after SDK installation for the changes to take effect.

In this case, to update the Android SDK Target API, you must use the Android sdkmanager from either Android Studio or the command line tool. Regardless of the method you chose, make sure to select the correct Android SDK folder for Unity in the Edit > Preferences > External Tools window.

On Windows, if the Unity Editor is installed in the default folder ( /Program Files/ ), you must run the sdkmanager with elevated privilege (Run as Administrator) to perform the update.

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