Step 1 - Download the tools packageįirst, you need to download the tools package. You can read the documentation here for more details. These are some quite simple CLI’s used to manage the Android SDK. In order to install the SDK we will use the Command Line Tools. build-tools: These are necessary to build your Android apps.

system-images: These are the android images used in the emulator.

platforms: The platform packages are required to compile your app for the specified API level.

The folders bellow contain sub-folders with the packages for each Android API level. I didn’t find what exactly this is for, so just leave it as it is

patcher: This package is automatically downloaded by the SDK.

platform-tools: Some tools to communicate with Android devices when you plug then in your computer.

emulator: As the name suggest, this is the Android emulator.

tools: This package is mainly used to manage the other packages and to create AVD’s.

Here is a brief explanation of each package: The picture below is my Android SDK folder, these are the basic packages you will need in order to get everything working properly. You do not need to know how these packages really work, just what they do. These packages stays in subfolders of a folder called “sdk” (or “android-sdk” sometimes).

How to open, navigate and execute files in your OS terminal īasically, the Android SDK is a bunch of packages necessary to develop for Android.

Android API levels Read about on Vanderbilt University.

CLI (Command Line Interface) Read about on Wikipedia.

AVD (Android Virtual Device) Read about on docs.

SDK (Standard Development Kit) Read about on Wikipedia.I had a hard time figuring out how to properly do this setup due the lack of documentation about it, so i hope this article helps you. If you are trying to develop to Android, you probably will end up installing the Android Studio to get the Android SDK and the AVD Emulator working properly.īut if you are using another code editor, like Sublime Text or VSCode, installing the Android Studio will just mess up with your setup and consume your precious RAM for no good reason.

How to install Android SDK and setup AVD Emulator without Android Studio

Android studio install an sdk