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The Android Studio Otter 2 Feature Drop is here to supercharge your productivity.

This final stable release for '25 powers up Agent Mode, equipping it with the new Android Knowledge Base for improved accuracy, and giving you the option to try out the new Gemini 3 model. You'll also be able to take advantage of new settings such as the ability to keep your personalized IDE environment consistent across all of your machines. We've also incorporated all of the latest stability and performance improvements from the IntelliJ IDEA 2025.2 platform, including Kotlin compiler and terminal improvements, making this a significant enhancement for your development workflow.

Updates to Agent Mode

We recently introduced the ability to use our latest model, Gemini 3 Pro Preview, within Android Studio. This is our best model for coding and agentic capabilities. It'll give you superior performance in Agent Mode and advanced problem-solving capabilities so you can focus on what you do best: creating high quality apps for your users.

We are beginning to roll out limited Gemini 3 access (with a 1 million token size window) to developers who are using the no-cost default model. For higher usage rate limits and longer sessions with Agent Mode, you can add a paid Gemini API Key or use a Gemini Code Assist Enterprise plan. Learn more about how to get started with Gemini 3.

While the training of large language models provides deep knowledge that is excellent for common tasks-like creating Compose UIs-training concludes on a fixed date, resulting in gaps for new libraries and updated best practices. They are also less effective with niche APIs because the necessary training data is scarce. To fix this, Android Studio's Agent Mode is now equipped with the Android Knowledge Base, a new feature designed to significantly improve accuracy and reduce hallucinations by grounding responses with authoritative documentation. This means that instead of just relying on its training data, the agent can actively consult fresh documentation from official sources like the Android developer docs, Firebase, Google Developers, and Kotlin docs before it answers you.

The information in the Android Knowledge Base is stored in Android Studio and its content is automatically updated in the background on a periodic basis, so this feature is available regardless of which LLM you're using for AI assistance.

Gemini searching documentation before it answers you

This feature will be invoked automatically when Agent Mode detects a need for additional context, and you'll see additional explanatory text. However, if you'd like Agent Mode to reference documentation more frequently, you can include a line such as "Refer to Android documentation for guidance" in your Rules configuration.

Requested settings updates

Backup and Sync

Backup and Sync is a new way to keep your personalized Android Studio environment consistent across all your installations. You can now back up your settings-including your preferred keymaps, Code Editor settings, system settings, and more-to cloud storage using your Google Account, giving you a seamless experience wherever you code. We also support Backup and Sync using JetBrains accounts for developers using both IntelliJ and Android Studio installs simultaneously.

Backup and Sync

Getting started is simple. Just sign into your Google Account by clicking the avatar in the top-right corner of the IDE, or navigate to Settings > Backup and Sync. Once you authorize Android Studio to access your account's storage, you have full control over which categories of app data you want to sync. If you're syncing for the first time on a new machine, Android Studio will give you the option to either download your existing remote settings or upload your current local settings to the cloud. Of course, if you change your mind, you can easily disable Backup and Sync at any time from the settings menu. This feature has been available since the first Android Studio Otter release.

You can now opt in to receive communications directly from the Android Studio team. This enables you to get emails and notifications about important product updates, new features, and new libraries as soon as they're available.

You'll see this option when you sign in, and you can change your preference at any time by going to Settings > Tools > Google Accounts > Communications.

Your option to receive emails and notifications

• Kotlin K2 Mode: Following its rapid adoption after being enabled by default, the K2 Kotlin mode is now more stable and performant. This version improves Kotlin code analysis stability, adds new inspections, and enhances the reliability of Kotlin script execution.

• Terminal Performance: The integrated terminal is significantly faster, with major improvements in rendering. For Bash and Zsh, this update also introduces minor visual refinements without compromising or altering core shell behavior.

Today, the Jetpack Compose December '25 release is stable. This contains version 1.10 of the core Compose modules and version 1.4 of Material 3 (see the full BOM mapping), adding new features and major performance improvements.

To use today's release, upgrade your Compose BOM version to 2025.12.00:

Performance improvements

We know that the runtime performance of your app is hugely important to you and your users, so performance has been a major priority for the Compose team. This release brings a number of improvements-and you get them all by just upgrading to the latest version. Our internal scroll benchmarks show that Compose now matches the performance you would see if using Views:

Scroll performance benchmark comparing Views and Jetpack Compose across different versions of Compose

Pausable composition in lazy prefetch

Pausable composition in lazy prefetch is now enabled by default. This is a fundamental change to how the Compose runtime schedules work, designed to significantly reduce jank during heavy UI workloads.

Previously, once a composition started, it had to run to completion. If a composition was complex, this could block the main thread for longer than a single frame, causing the UI to freeze. With pausable composition, the runtime can now "pause" its work if it's running out of time and resume the work in the next frame. This is particularly effective when used with lazy layout prefetch to prepare frames ahead of time. The Lazy layout CacheWindow APIs introduced in Compose 1.9 are a great way to prefetch more content and benefit from pausable composition to produce much smoother UI performance.

Pausable composition combined with Lazy prefetch help reduce jank

We've also optimized performance elsewhere, with improvements to Modifier.onPlaced, Modifier.onVisibilityChanged, and other modifier implementations. We'll continue to invest in improving the performance of Compose.

New features

Retain

Compose offers a number of APIs to hold and manage state across different lifecycles; for example, remember persists state across compositions, and rememberSavable/rememberSerializable to persist across activity or process recreation. retain is a new API that sits between these APIs, enabling you to persist values across configuration changes without being serialized, but not across process death. As retain does not serialize your state, you can persist objects like lambda expressions, flows, and large objects like bitmaps, which cannot be easily serialized. For example, you may use retain to manage a media player (such as ExoPlayer) to ensure that media playback doesn't get interrupted by a configuration change.

We want to extend our thanks to the AndroidDev community (especially the Circuit team), who have influenced and contributed to the design of this feature.

Material 1.4

Version 1.4.0 of the material3 library adds a number of new components and enhancements:

• TextField now offers an experimental TextFieldState based version, which provides a more robust method for managing text's state. In addition, new SecureTextField and OutlinedSecureTextField variants are now offered. The material Text composable now supports autoSize behaviour.

• The carousel component now offers a new HorizontalCenteredHeroCarousel variant.

• TimePicker now supports switching between the picker and input modes.

• A vertical drag handle helps users to change an adaptive pane's size and/or position.

Horizontal centered hero carousel

Note that Material 3 Expressive APIs continue to be developed in the alpha releases of the material3 library. To learn more, see this recent talk:

New animation features

We continue to expand on our animation APIs, including updates for customizing shared element animations.

Dynamic shared elements

By default, sharedElement() and sharedBounds() animations attempt to animate

layout changes whenever a matching key is found in the target state. However, you may want to disable this animation dynamically based on certain conditions, such as the direction of navigation or the current UI state.

To control whether the shared element transition occurs, you can now customize the

SharedContentConfig passed to rememberSharedContentState(). The isEnabled

property determines if the shared element is active.

See the documentation for more.

Modifier.skipToLookaheadPosition()

A new modifier, Modifier.skipToLookaheadPosition(), has been added in this release, which keeps the final position of a composable when performing shared element animations. This allows for performing transitions like "reveal" type animation, as can be seen in the Androidify sample with the progressive reveal of the camera. See the video tip here for more information:

Initial velocity in shared element transitions

This release adds a new shared element transition API, prepareTransitionWithInitialVelocity, which lets you pass an initial velocity (e.g. from a gesture) to a shared element transition:

A shared element transition that starts with an initial velocity from a gesture

Veiled transitions

EnterTransition and ExitTransition define how an AnimatedVisibility/AnimatedContent composable appears or disappears. A new experimental veil option allows you to specify a color to veil or scrim content; e.g., fading in/out a semi-opaque black layer over content:

Veiled animated content - note the semi-opaque veil (or scrim) over the grid content during the animation

Upcoming changes

Deprecation of Modifier.onFirstVisible

Compose 1.9 introduced Modifier.onVisibilityChanged and Modifier.onFirstVisible. After reviewing your feedback, it became apparent that the contract of Modifier.onFirstVisible was not possible to honor deterministically; specifically, when an item first becomes visible. For example, a Lazy layout may dispose of items that scroll out of the viewport, and then compose them again if they scroll back into view. In this circumstance, the onFirstVisible callback would fire again, as it is a newly composed item. Similar behavior would also occur when navigating back to a previously visited screen containing onFirstVisible. As such, we have decided to deprecate this modifier in the next Compose release (1.11) and recommend migrating to onVisibilityChanged. See the documentation for more information.

Coroutine dispatch in tests

We plan to change coroutine dispatch in tests to improve test flakiness and catch more issues. Currently, tests use the UnconfinedTestDispatcher, which differs from production behavior; e.g., effects may run immediately rather than being enqueued. In a future release, we plan to introduce a new API that uses StandardTestDispatcher by default to match production behaviours. You can try the new behavior now in 1.10:

Using the StandardTestDispatcher will queue tasks, so you must use synchronization mechanisms like composeTestRule.waitForIdle() or composeTestRule.runOnIdle(). If your test uses runTest, you must ensure that runTest and your Compose rule share the same StandardTestDispatcher instance for synchronization.

Tools

Great APIs deserve great tools, and Android Studio has a number of recent additions for Compose developers:

• Transform UI: Iterate on your designs by right clicking on the @Preview, selecting Transform UI, and then describing the change in natural language.

• Generate @Preview: Right-click on a composable and select Gemini > Generate [Composable name] Preview.

• Customize Material Symbols with new support for icon variations in the Vector Asset wizard.

• Generate code from a screenshot or ask Gemini to match your existing UI to a target image. This can be combined with remote MCP support e.g. to connect to a Figma file and generate Compose UI from designs.

• Fix UI quality issues audits your UI for common problems, such as accessibility issues, and then proposes fixes.

To see these tools in action, watch this recent demonstration:

Happy Composing

We continue to invest in Jetpack Compose to provide you with the APIs and tools you need to create beautiful, rich UIs. We value your input, so please share your feedback on these changes or what you'd like to see next in our issue tracker.

Faster Innovation with Android's first Minor SDK Release

A Milestone for Platform Evolution: The Minor SDK Release

To support this, we have introduced new fields to the Build class as of Android 16, allowing your app to check for these new APIs using SDK_INT_FULL and VERSION_CODES_FULL.

if ((Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.BAKLAVA) && (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT_FULL >= Build.VERSION_CODES_FULL.BAKLAVA_1)) {
    // Call new APIs from the Android 16 QPR2 release
}

Enhanced User Experience and Customization

The old Fitbit app showing the impact of expanded dark theme; the new Fitbit app directly supports a dark theme

When the expanded dark theme setting is enabled by a user, the system uses your app's isLightTheme theme attribute to determine whether to apply inversion. If your app inherits from one of the standard DayNight themes, this is done automatically for you. If it does not, make sure to declare isLightTheme="false" in your dark theme to ensure your app is not inadvertently inverted. Standard Android Views, Composables, and WebViews will be inverted, while custom rendering engines like Flutter will not.

This is largely intended as an accessibility feature. We strongly recommend implementing a native dark theme, which gives you full control over your app's appearance; you can protect your brand's identity, ensure text is readable, and prevent visual glitches from happening when your UI is automatically inverted, guaranteeing a polished, reliable experience for your users.

Custom Icon Shapes & Auto-Theming

In QPR2, users can select specific shapes for their app icons, which apply to all icons and folder previews. Additionally, if your app does not provide a dedicated themed icon, the system can now automatically generate one by applying a color filtering algorithm to your existing launcher icon.

Linux Development Environment with GUI Applications

Wilber, the GIMP mascot, designed by Aryeom Han, is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. The screenshot of the GIMP interface is used with courtesy.

Generational Garbage Collection

The Android Runtime (ART) now includes a Generational Concurrent Mark-Compact (CMC) Garbage Collector. This focuses collection on newly allocated objects, resulting in reduced CPU usage and improved battery efficiency.

Widget Engagement Metrics

You can now query user interaction events-such as clicks, scrolls, and impressions-to better understand how users engage with your widgets.

16KB Page Size Readiness

To help prepare for future architecture requirements, we have added early warning dialogs for debuggable apps that are not 16KB page-aligned.

Media, Connectivity, and Health

QPR2 brings robust updates to media standards and device connectivity.

IAMF and Audio Sharing

We have added software decoding support for Immersive Audio Model and Formats (IAMF), an open-source spatial audio format. Additionally, Personal Audio Sharing for Bluetooth LE Audio is now integrated directly into the system Output Switcher.

Health Connect Updates

Health Connect now automatically tracks steps using the device's sensors. If your app has the READ_STEPS permission, this data will be available from the "android" package. Not only does this simplify the code needed to do step tracking, it's also more power efficient. It also can now track weight, set index, and Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) in exercise segments.

Smoother Migrations

A new 3rd-party Data Transfer API enables more reliable data migration between Android and iOS devices.

Strengthening Privacy and Security

Security remains a top priority with new features designed to protect user data and device integrity.

Developer Verification

We introduced APIs to support developer verification during app installation along with new ADB commands to simulate verification outcomes. As a developer, you are free to install apps without verification by using ADB, so you can continue to test apps that are not intended or not yet ready to distribute to the wider consumer population.

SMS OTP Protection

The delivery of messages containing an SMS retriever hash will be delayed for most apps for three hours to help prevent OTP hijacking. The RECEIVE_SMS broadcast will be withheld and sms provider database queries will be filtered. The SMS will be available to these apps after the three hour delay.

Secure Lock Device

A new system-level security state, Secure Lock Device, is being introduced. When enabled (e.g., remotely via "Find My Device"), the device locks immediately and requires the primary PIN, pattern, or password to unlock, heightening security. When active, notifications and quick affordances on the lock screen will be hidden, and biometric unlock may be temporarily disabled.

Get Started

If you're not in the Beta or Canary programs, your Pixel device should get the Android 16 QPR2 release shortly. If you don't have a Pixel device, you can use the 64-bit system images with the Android Emulator in Android Studio. If you are currently on the Android 16 QPR2 Beta and have not yet installed the Android 16 QPR3 beta, you can opt out of the program and you will then be offered the release version of Android 16 QPR2 over the air.
For the best development experience with Android 16 QPR2, we recommend that you use the latest Canary build of Android Studio Otter.
Thank you again to everyone who participated in our Android beta program. We're looking forward to seeing how your apps take advantage of the updates in Android 16 QPR2.