The Android SDK separates tools, platforms, and other components into packages you can download using the Android SDK Manager. The original SDK package you've downloaded includes only the SDK Tools. To develop an Android app, you also need to download at least one Android platform and the latest SDK Platform-tools.
- Launch the SDK Manager.
If you've used the Windows installer to install the SDK tools, you should already have the Android SDK Manager open. Otherwise, you can launch the Android SDK Manager in one of the following ways:
- On Windows, double-click the
SDK Manager.exefile at the root of the Android SDK directory. - On Mac or Linux, open a terminal and navigate to the
tools/directory in the Android SDK, then executeandroid sdk.
- On Windows, double-click the
- When the Android SDK Manager opens, it automatically selects a set of recommended packages, as shown in figure 1. Simply click Install to install the recommended packages. The Android SDK Manager installs the selected packages into your Android SDK environment.
If you install the recommended packages, you're now ready to start developing apps! To start developing, read Building Your First App.
Figure 1. The Android SDK Manager shows the SDK packages that are available, already installed, or for which an update is available.
Additional information
For more information about using the SDK Manager and some of the available packages, see the SDK Manager document.
Everything you need to develop Android apps is on this web site, including design guidelines, developer training, API reference, and information about how you can distribute your app. For additional resources about developing and distributing your app, see the Developer Support Resources.