Android Studio Narwhal 3 Feature Drop: What’s New
The following are new features in Android Studio Narwhal 3 Feature Drop.
Android Studio Narwhal 3 Feature Drop (version 2025.1.3) was released with a number of improvements aimed at making UI development faster, increasing project organisation, improving policy-compliance, and giving you stronger tools to test backup/restore and use AI more effectively.
1. Resizable Compose Previews
Jetpack Compose developers now have more flexibility when testing their UI. The Compose Preview window is resizable, allowing you to drag and adjust the dimensions to see how your layouts respond across different screen sizes. You can also save custom preview sizes as new @Preview annotations for quick reuse. This makes designing adaptive UIs much smoother.2. Improved Project Organization
In the Android view of your project, build files are now displayed directly under their corresponding modules. This small but important change makes navigation easier, especially in large multi-module projects, since you no longer need to jump around to find related Gradle scripts.3. Play Policy Insights in Lint
Google Play policy guidance is now built directly into the IDE. You’ll see policy insights as lint warnings in your code, including what the rule means and links to official documentation. This helps catch compliance issues early so you can avoid last-minute Play Store rejections.4. App Backup & Restore Testing
A major addition is the ability to generate and restore app backups directly from Android Studio. You can test both cloud and device-to-device backups, encrypted or unencrypted, right from the Running Device window or Device Explorer. This ensures that your users’ data migration works smoothly when they switch devices or reset their phones.5. Smarter AI with Gemini
The AI integration continues to improve. You can now add an AGENTS.md file to your project to define rules, styles, and preferences that Gemini will follow consistently across the team. Image and file attachments are now stable (no longer experimental), so you can share screenshots, mockups, or project files with Gemini for more precise assistance.6. Manual Gradle Sync Control
Developers working on large projects will appreciate the new option to disable automatic Gradle sync. Instead of unexpected syncs interrupting your workflow, you’ll get reminders and can choose when to sync manually. This provides more control and less disruption during development.Final Thoughts
Android Studio Narwhal 3 Feature Drop makes the IDE not just a coding tool, but a smarter assistant for modern Android development. With stronger Compose previews, policy checks, backup testing, and smarter AI, this release is all about saving time and improving app quality before launch.Read More
To dive deeper into all the changes and improvements, you can check out the official Android Studio Narwhal 3 Feature Drop release notes on Google’s website:Android Studio Release Notes – Narwhal 3 Feature Drop
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