Accelerating development with monthly releases for Android Studio - releasing 2X more often than before

Posted by Xavier Ducrohet – Tech Lead, Android Studio and Adarsh Fernando – Group Product Manager, Android Studio

Last year, we doubled our release frequency for Android Studio with the introduction of Feature Drops, a change designed to bring you new features and improvements more quickly. Today, we're excited to announce the next evolution in our release schedule: we're moving to monthly stable releases of Android Studio.

This new cadence means you’ll be able to get your hands on the latest features and critical improvements, faster than ever before. Here's what you can expect: every few months, we’ll introduce a version that contains the latest IntelliJ platform version, such as Android Studio Narwhal based on IntelliJ 2025.1. You’ll then see Feature Drops each month that include important bug fixes and new functionality you’ll want to try out, until it’s time to release Android Studio with the next platform version of IntelliJ.

You’ve actually already experienced this new release cadence with Android Studio Narwhal! In the last Feature Drop release we were able to take features such as Agent Mode from Canary to the Stable channel faster than ever before, making it possible for you to try out new features, faster!

Why Monthly Releases?

You told us waiting for the next major release to get a critical bug fix or a quality-of-life improvement can be frustrating. With the move to monthly releases, we can deliver these updates to you without the long delays. This means you'll have access to the features you want and the fixes you need, right when you need them. It's important to note that the Android Emulator and the Android Gradle Plugin will continue to be updated separately from Android Studio at a pace of every two months. And, as always, you don't need to update these components to download and use the latest stable version of the IDE each month.

Our Commitment to Quality

A faster release cadence doesn't mean a compromise on quality. In fact, our ability to release more frequently is a direct result of our long-term investment in our testing infrastructure. This effort began with Project Marble, a concerted effort to improve the quality and testing of Android Studio. Since then, we've been continuously improving and tooling our testing strategy to be more reliable, and to get feedback from those tests faster. Last year, we reached a point where we could confidently double our releases, and now, we're ready to take the next step with monthly updates. This means you’ll see releases 2X more often than before!

We're also continuing to provide early access to stable-ready releases. Previously, we’ve provided these opportunities first through Beta releases. With our investments in detecting and addressing issues earlier, we’re able to take a release from Canary directly into our Release Candidate (RC) channel with a stable-ready level of quality and polish. This gives you a chance to try out the latest features and improvements before they're released to the stable channel and to provide us with valuable feedback.

Update Monthly and Help Us Improve

We encourage you to update to the latest stable version of Android Studio each month to take advantage of the latest features and improvements. Your feedback is essential to helping us make Android Studio the best it can be.

Here's how you can get involved:

• Download Android Studio Narwhal 3 Feature Drop: It’s currently available in the Canary channel and is the best way to get early access to new features and to provide us with feedback before a release is finalized. If you want a more stable build, download this version as soon as the Release Candidate becomes available.
• Report a bug: If you encounter an issue, please let us know by reporting a bug. This helps us to identify and fix issues more quickly.

We're excited about this new chapter for Android Studio and we're confident that it will help you to build better apps, faster. As always, you can be part of our vibrant Android developer community on LinkedIn, Medium, YouTube, or X.