Claude Code in Android Studio: A Guide for Android Devs

8/11/2025

Getting Started with Claude Code in Android Studio: A Developer's Experience

What’s up, fellow devs? Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: AI. It’s everywhere, right? From generating cat pictures to writing entire novels, it seems like AI is worming its way into every nook & cranny of our lives. & for us Android developers, the world of AI coding assistants is getting seriously crowded & interesting. We’ve got Google’s own Gemini baked right into Android Studio, the ever-present GitHub Copilot, & a whole bunch of other tools all promising to make our lives easier.

But today, I want to talk about one specific player that’s been making some serious waves: Anthropic’s Claude Code. I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about its powerful ability to understand massive codebases & perform some pretty complex tasks. So, I decided to dive in headfirst & see what the experience of using Claude Code with Android Studio is REALLY like. Is it a game-changer, or just another tool to juggle? Let’s get into it.

The Big Question: Why Bother With Another AI Tool?

Honestly, this was my first thought. Android Studio already has Gemini, which is designed from the ground up for Android development. It can help with everything from Compose UI mockups to fixing those dreaded Gradle build errors. So why would I even look elsewhere?

Well, the thing about the AI world is that different models have different strengths. Claude has built a reputation for its massive context window & its ability to reason through complex problems. I’ve seen some pretty wild examples of it taking a simple prompt & turning it into a full-fledged, multi-file application. The promise of an AI that can deeply understand my entire project structure, not just the file I have open, is SUPER tempting. Think about onboarding to a new, complex project. Imagine an AI that could explain the entire codebase to you in a few seconds. That’s the kind of power Claude Code is supposed to bring to the table.

So, with that in mind, I set out to see how I could get this supposedly magical tool working within my daily Android Studio workflow.

The Two Paths to Claude: Plugin vs. Terminal

Turns out, there are two main ways to get started with Claude Code in the Android Studio environment. There’s the “official” way, using the JetBrains plugin, & then there’s the more "hardcore" way, running it in a separate terminal. I tried both, & they offer pretty different experiences.

Path 1: The JetBrains Plugin Experience

My first stop was the JetBrains Marketplace, where I found the "Claude Code [Beta]" plugin. Since Android Studio is built on the IntelliJ platform, this seemed like the most logical place to start. Installation was a breeze – just like any other plugin. Search, install, restart the IDE, & you’re good to go. The plugin page promised features like interactive diff viewing & sharing my editor context with Claude, which sounded pretty good.

After restarting Android Studio, I started poking around. The plugin essentially gives you a way to launch & interact with Claude Code from within the IDE. The BIGGEST advantage here, & I can’t stress this enough, is the diff viewer integration. When you ask Claude to make a change, instead of just spitting out a block of code in a chat window, it shows you the proposed changes in Android Studio's familiar side-by-side diff view. You see your original code on one side & Claude’s suggestions on the other, with all the additions & deletions clearly highlighted.

This is a HUGE deal. As developers, we live in the diff viewer. It’s how we review pull requests, check our own commits, & understand changes. Seeing the AI's suggestions in this format feels natural & makes it SO much easier to review & accept or reject the changes. You can go line by line, ensuring the AI isn’t doing anything funky. It’s a massive improvement over copying & pasting from a separate chat window.

However, here’s the catch. Some developers on Reddit have pointed out that the plugin can feel a bit like a wrapper for the command-line tool rather than a deeply integrated part of the IDE. It doesn't have a dedicated window like Gemini or Copilot, & some have reported issues when working with multiple projects open at once. So, while the diff view is a killer feature, the overall integration isn’t as seamless as some of the competition. It feels like a good first step, but it's still in beta, & it shows.

Path 2: The Terminal Warrior Workflow

The second approach, & the one that a lot of developers seem to be using, is running Claude Code directly in the terminal, right alongside Android Studio. This might sound a bit old-school, but it has its own set of advantages.

The setup is pretty straightforward. You install Claude Code (usually via npm) & then, from your project's root directory in the terminal, you just type

claude

. This kicks off an interactive session where Claude already has the context of your entire project. It can read your files, understand your project structure, & even run commands.

The workflow looks something like this:

You have Android Studio open on one monitor (or one side of the screen).
You have your terminal with the active Claude Code session on the other.
You give Claude a prompt in the terminal, like "Refactor my
1AuthRepository
to use Kotlin Flows instead of LiveData."
Claude will think, maybe ask some clarifying questions, & then propose changes, often showing you diffs right in the terminal.
You then apply those changes in your Android Studio editor.

The real power of this approach is the raw, unfiltered access to Claude's capabilities. It's incredibly good at understanding the whole codebase. You can ask it to do things like "add a new feature to handle user profile images, including the necessary changes to the API service, the repository, the ViewModel, & the Composable UI." It will actually go through & figure out all the files it needs to modify. It's pretty amazing to watch.

Of course, the downside is the context switching. You're constantly moving back & forth between your IDE & the terminal. You lose the convenience of the integrated diff viewer, & you have to manually apply the changes. It’s a more hands-on, less integrated experience. But for complex, multi-file tasks, the power you get might just be worth the tradeoff.

So, What's the Verdict on the Experience?

After spending some time with both methods, my takeaway is this: using Claude Code in Android Studio is a bit of a "choose your own adventure" situation.

If you want a more integrated feel & your primary goal is to get help with single-file refactors, bug fixes, or generating boilerplate, the JetBrains plugin is the way to go. That integrated diff view is just too good to pass up.

If you're tackling larger, more architectural changes or you want to leverage Claude's full power to reason across your entire project, the terminal-based workflow is probably more effective right now. It's clunkier, for sure, but the results can be seriously impressive.

It’s also important to remember that this isn't an either/or situation with tools like Gemini. I found myself using Gemini for quick code completions & Android-specific questions ("How do I implement this Material 3 component?") while turning to Claude for bigger, more conceptual tasks.

The Broader World of AI-Assisted Development

This whole experience got me thinking about the state of AI in software development in general. The productivity gains are undeniable. Studies have shown that a huge percentage of developers are already using AI tools. One report mentioned that 92% of U.S.-based developers are using AI coding assistants. That's not a small number. These tools are great at automating repetitive tasks, generating boilerplate code, & even helping with debugging, which frees us up to focus on the more creative, problem-solving parts of our jobs.

But it’s not all sunshine & roses. There are real concerns about security & privacy. When you let an AI tool access your codebase, you're placing a lot of trust in it. There's also the risk of the AI generating code with subtle bugs or introducing code from open-source projects with restrictive licenses. This is where the developer's role is shifting. We’re becoming less of just "coders" & more like "validators" or "AI wranglers." Our job is to guide the AI, craft good prompts, & most importantly, carefully review & validate every single line of code it produces.

A Quick Detour: Thinking Beyond the Code

As I was working with Claude & thinking about how it could automate developer tasks, it got me thinking about other business processes that are being transformed by AI. Take customer service, for example. For years, businesses have struggled to provide instant, 24/7 support. This is an area where AI is making a HUGE impact.

This is where a platform like Arsturn comes into the picture. It helps businesses create their own custom AI chatbots. Think of it like this: just as Claude Code is trained on a codebase to help developers, Arsturn lets you train an AI on your own business data—your product docs, your FAQs, your knowledge base. The result is a chatbot that can provide instant, accurate answers to customer questions, engage with website visitors, & even help with lead generation. It’s all about using AI to create personalized, efficient experiences. For a business looking to improve its customer engagement, building a no-code AI chatbot with Arsturn can be a total game-changer, freeing up human agents to handle the more complex issues, much like how AI coding assistants free up developers. It's a pretty cool parallel.

Practical Tips for Getting the Most Out of Claude

Whether you’re using the plugin or the terminal, here are a few tips I picked up along the way that might help you out:

Be a Good Prompter: The quality of your output depends almost entirely on the quality of your input. Be specific. Instead of "fix this bug," try "My app crashes when I click the submit button without filling out the email field. I think it's a null pointer exception in the
1onSubmit
function. Can you find it & add the proper validation?"
Start with "I need to think": One really interesting tip I saw was to start your prompts with the phrase "I need to think." This apparently encourages Claude to go into a more deliberate, step-by-step reasoning mode, which can lead to better, more well-structured output.
Use it for More Than Just Code: Don't forget that Claude is a language model. You can ask it to write documentation, generate test cases, or even draft commit messages.
Embrace the Iterative Process: Don't expect the AI to get it perfect on the first try. Often, the best results come from a back-&-forth conversation. If it gives you something that's not quite right, tell it what's wrong & ask it to try again.

Final Thoughts

So, is Claude Code ready to take over as the go-to AI assistant for Android developers? Honestly, not yet. The lack of deep, native integration like what Google is doing with Gemini is a significant hurdle.

But is it a powerful tool that can absolutely supercharge your workflow if you're willing to work with it? ABSOLUTELY. Its ability to understand & work with an entire codebase is a superpower that, once you get used to it, is hard to live without.

My journey with Claude Code in Android Studio has been a fascinating one. It’s shown me that the future of development is likely not about a single, all-powerful AI, but about a toolkit of specialized AI assistants that we can deploy for different tasks. It's a future where our primary skill might not be just writing code, but effectively collaborating with our AI partners.

It’s an exciting, slightly chaotic, & rapidly evolving space. I'm definitely going to keep the Claude plugin installed & my terminal window open.

Hope this was helpful! I'd love to hear about your own experiences with AI in Android development. Let me know what you think.