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Android Studio

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Android Studio vs Xcode: What are the differences?

What is Android Studio? Android development environment based on IntelliJ IDEA. 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 Xcode? The complete toolset for building great apps. 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.

Android Studio and Xcode can be categorized as "Integrated Development Environment" tools.

Some of the features offered by Android Studio are:

  • Flexible Gradle-based build system.
  • Build variants and multiple APK generation.
  • Expanded template support for Google Services and various device types.

On the other hand, Xcode provides the following key features:

  • Source Editor
  • Assistant Editor
  • Asset Catalog

"Android studio is a great tool, getting better and bet " is the top reason why over 164 developers like Android Studio, while over 127 developers mention "IOS Development" as the leading cause for choosing Xcode.

According to the StackShare community, Xcode has a broader approval, being mentioned in 1051 company stacks & 603 developers stacks; compared to Android Studio, which is listed in 928 company stacks and 690 developer stacks.

Advice on Android Studio and Xcode

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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Replies (2)

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

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Recommends
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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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Replies (1)
Recommends
on
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 Xcode
Lucas Litton
Founder & CEO at Macombey · | 7 upvotes · 164.6K 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 Xcode
  • 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
  • 130
    IOS Development
  • 33
    Personal assistant on steroids
  • 29
    Easy setup
  • 17
    Excellent integration with Clang
  • 3
    Beautiful
  • 1
    Built-in everything

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Cons of Android Studio
Cons of Xcode
  • 4
    Huge memory usage
  • 4
    Slow emulator
  • 2
    Complex for begginers
  • 2
    No checking incompatibilities
  • 1
    Lags behind IntelliJ IDEA
  • 1
    Using Intellij IDEA, while Intellij IDEA have too
  • 1
    Slow release process
  • 6
    Massively bloated and complicated for smaller projects
  • 3
    Horrible auto completiting and text editing
  • 1
    Slow startup
  • 1
    Very slow emulator

Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

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 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.

Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

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What tools integrate with Android Studio?
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What are some alternatives to Android Studio and Xcode?
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.
Visual Studio
Visual Studio is a suite of component-based software development tools and other technologies for building powerful, high-performance applications.
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.
Flutter
Flutter is a mobile app SDK to help developers and designers build modern mobile apps for iOS and Android.
See all alternatives