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Android Studio vs Visual Studio: What are the differences?

Android Studio and Visual Studio are integrated development environments (IDEs) used for application development. Let's explore the key differences between Android Studio and Visual Studio:

  1. Platform and Target Audience: Android Studio is specifically designed for developing Android applications. It provides a rich set of tools, emulators, and libraries tailored for Android development. Visual Studio, on the other hand, is a versatile IDE that supports multiple programming languages and platforms, including Windows, web, cloud, and mobile app development.

  2. Language Support: Android Studio is optimized for Java and Kotlin. It provides features like code completion, linting, and debugging specific to these languages. Visual Studio, on the other hand, supports a wide range of programming languages, including C#, VB.NET, F#, JavaScript, TypeScript, and many others. It offers language-specific tools, frameworks, and extensions to enhance productivity for each supported language.

  3. Integrated Tools and Services: Android Studio integrates with various Android-specific tools and services, such as the Android SDK, Android Virtual Device (AVD) Manager for emulators, and Google Play Services. It also offers built-in support for Google Cloud services, Firebase, and the Android Profiler for performance analysis. Visual Studio provides a comprehensive suite of tools and services, including version control integration (e.g., Git), testing frameworks, debugging tools, code refactoring, and extensive support for Azure cloud services.

  4. UI Design and Layout: Android Studio includes a powerful visual editor called the Layout Editor, which allows developers to create, modify, and preview the user interface (UI) of their Android apps. It offers drag-and-drop functionality, XML editing, and device-specific UI previews. Visual Studio, on the other hand, provides XAML-based designers for building UI in platforms such as WPF, UWP, and Xamarin.Forms. It also supports HTML and CSS editing for web development.

  5. Extensions and Plugin Ecosystem: Android Studio supports a wide range of plugins and extensions through the Android Studio Plugin Marketplace. Visual Studio also has a vast ecosystem of extensions, with the Visual Studio Marketplace offering a wide variety of plugins for different programming languages, frameworks, and integrations.

In summary, Android Studio and Visual Studio are powerful IDEs with different focuses and target audiences. Android Studio is tailored for Android app development with extensive support for Java and Kotlin, while Visual Studio is a versatile IDE supporting multiple languages and platforms.

Advice on Android Studio and Visual Studio

Hey, So I'm new to coding in Java and I'm planning to code an app, for both iOS and Android, and I'm not sure what IDE should I use. I want something that is free, easy to use, and beginner-friendly, but at the same time, I want all the features to be available in it since I want to try and code a social media app. Any help is appreciated!

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Great for starting to write simple cross platform applications without worrying about writing back-end code from scratch.

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FlutterFlutter

GIve a minute to see what Flutter + Dart could offer to you. Dart is modern null safe typed language, has lots of similarities to known languages, so it's pretty simple to learn. Flutter offers way to create multi platform UI's using composition. And result is performant on mobile devices.

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The problem I have is whether to choose Android Studio or Visual Studio? I have to develop a simple app for a school project that can work on both iPhone and Android.

The most important factors for me are Android and iOS compatibility. Although note that i would like to become a Software Engineer when i finish my course. (I'd like to work for Apple, just saying!)

After that id like easy integration for Google Ads and such if i do develop another app that people actually use to support development. (I'd also like to stick with one easy programming language that's compatible with a wide variety of platforms since i'm a beginner and have only ever used Pascal)

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FlutterFlutter

First of all - Android Studio and Visual Studio are IDE's. Tools to create code. What you are asking is programming framework. I assume that when you are talking about Android Studio you mean Native Android Development and by Visual Studio you mean Xamarin.

If you want to create crossplatform app then Native Android Development is NOT a way to go. Xamarin might work for you, BUT - you'd rather recommend you to go with Flutter. It's much more performant than Xamarin, programming model is friendlier for developer and technology seems just more refined. It's also officially supported by google, so no worries about support.

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Decisions about Android Studio and Visual Studio
Lucas Litton
Founder & CEO at Macombey · | 7 upvotes · 205.3K views

Expo was a tool Macombey really wanted to utilize from the beginning. I have been working with React Native since 2016 and originally I had to use simulators in Xcode, install pods on top of node packages, configure certificates, and more abundant objectives that take time away from actual development. As a development studio, we have to move quick and get projects to our clients and partners in a matter of months.

Expo made this easy for us. We now have a mobile app for clients to download and test their project on, there is no need to install pods or configure Xcode, and development is super fast and reliable now.

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Pros of Android Studio
Pros of Visual Studio
  • 176
    Android studio is a great tool, getting better and bet
  • 103
    Google's official android ide
  • 37
    Intelligent code editor with lots of auto-completion
  • 25
    Its powerful and robust
  • 5
    Easy creating android app
  • 3
    Amazing Layout Designer
  • 3
    Great Code Tips
  • 3
    Great tool & very helpful
  • 2
    Easy to use
  • 2
    Built in Emulator
  • 2
    Keyboard Shortcuts are Amazing Out of the box
  • 305
    Intellisense, ui
  • 244
    Complete ide and debugger
  • 165
    Plug-ins
  • 104
    Integrated
  • 93
    Documentation
  • 37
    Fast
  • 35
    Node tools for visual studio (ntvs)
  • 33
    Free Community edition
  • 24
    Simple
  • 17
    Bug free
  • 8
    Made by Microsoft
  • 6
    Full free community version
  • 5
    JetBrains plugins (ReSharper etc.) work sufficiently OK
  • 3
    Productivity Power Tools
  • 2
    Vim mode
  • 2
    VIM integration
  • 1
    I develop UWP apps and Intellisense is super useful
  • 1
    Cross platform development
  • 1
    The Power and Easiness to Do anything in any.. language
  • 1
    Available for Mac and Windows

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Cons of Android Studio
Cons of Visual Studio
  • 4
    Slow emulator
  • 4
    Huge memory usage
  • 2
    Using Intellij IDEA, while Intellij IDEA have too
  • 2
    Complex for begginers
  • 2
    No checking incompatibilities
  • 1
    Lags behind IntelliJ IDEA
  • 1
    Slow release process
  • 16
    Bulky
  • 14
    Made by Microsoft
  • 6
    Sometimes you need to restart to finish an update
  • 3
    Too much size for disk
  • 3
    Only avalible on Windows

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What is Android Studio?

Android Studio is a new Android development environment based on IntelliJ IDEA. It provides new features and improvements over Eclipse ADT and will be the official Android IDE once it's ready.

What is Visual Studio?

Visual Studio is a suite of component-based software development tools and other technologies for building powerful, high-performance applications.

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What are some alternatives to Android Studio and Visual Studio?
IntelliJ IDEA
Out of the box, IntelliJ IDEA provides a comprehensive feature set including tools and integrations with the most important modern technologies and frameworks for enterprise and web development with Java, Scala, Groovy and other languages.
Eclipse
Standard Eclipse package suited for Java and plug-in development plus adding new plugins; already includes Git, Marketplace Client, source code and developer documentation. Click here to file a bug against Eclipse Platform.
Xamarin
Xamarin’s Mono-based products enable .NET developers to use their existing code, libraries and tools (including Visual Studio*), as well as skills in .NET and the C# programming language, to create mobile applications for the industry’s most widely-used mobile devices, including Android-based smartphones and tablets, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.
Xcode
The Xcode IDE is at the center of the Apple development experience. Tightly integrated with the Cocoa and Cocoa Touch frameworks, Xcode is an incredibly productive environment for building amazing apps for Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
Flutter
Flutter is a mobile app SDK to help developers and designers build modern mobile apps for iOS and Android.
See all alternatives