🔥 Make Android Studio Awesome
Tags: android, vscode
Published: 2021-03-19 20:43:31

[Caleb Porzio](https://twitter.com/calebporzio) did an amazing job with his [Make VS Code Awesome](https://makevscodeawesome.com/) course. There were a lot of good tips on being more productive with VS Code, and one thing that particularly resonated with me was what he referred to as  "silencing the noise". Essentially he covered how to reduce/remove all the visual clutter in VS Code that is there by default. 

It's amazing how much cleaning up your editor / IDE can really impact your productivity. As an Android Developer I spend most of my time in Android Studio, and I noticed that there was **a lot** of clutter. Buttons, windows, tabs, all things I don't use or information I don't need. So I decided to silence the noise, let's see what we can do.

### The Starting Point
![Default Android Studio](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/07x8g7de8w4vdwvhdny1.png)

This is what Android Studio looks like by default. There are **so many** buttons, widgets, etc that are displayed that we don't need. Let's start by getting rid of the tool window buttons on the perimeter, updating the navigation toolbar actions, and removing a bunch of the bottom status bar widgets:

#### Remove Tool Window bars
`Preferences -> Appearance & Behavior -> Appearance`
Toggle off `Show tool window bars`

#### Remove actions from Navigation Toolbar
`Preferences -> Appearance & Behavior -> Menus and Toolbars`
Go to Navigation Bar Toolbar and delete a lot of that, this is what mine looks like now (still deciding if I need even these)
![Screenshot of Toolbar Settings](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/ju5mpvxbpr7ng0do2tm5.png)

#### Remove widgets from Status bar
Left click on the bottom status bar and uncheck everything (I like to keep memory indicator, but feel free to remove that too).
![Screenshot of Status bar Settings](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/d0lg6zjkvxs3eu77ba68.png)

### Slightly Better
![Slightly Better Android Studio](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/7qvcsrc3d3n51k6eem03.png)

It's already looking much better! We now only have relevant information showing for the navigation toolbar and status bar. Next we can get rid of editor tabs and line numbers:

#### Remove Editor Tabs
`Preferences -> Editor -> General -> Editor Tabs`
Set Tab placement to `None`

#### Remove Line Numbers
For Line numbers you can just left click on the line number side bar, and uncheck `Show Line Numbers`
![Screenshot of Line Number Settings](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/ui30r3rkq870kvzca3ni.png)

### Even Better
![Even Better Android Studio](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/z25qhbxwc7cyx9lntfb6.png)

Lastly, let's update the aesthetic a little but. The stock font and Darcula theme are _okay_, but with a custom font and the [Material Theme Plugin](https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/8006-material-theme-ui) you can go a long way.

My preferences:
[Recursive Duotone Mono](https://www.recursive.design/)
Material Theme - Github Dark

### Final Product 🔥
![Beautiful Android Studio](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/6el7zbjfwfjuc2nisy1o.png)

To me the differences are night and day. Not only does it _feel_ better working with this configuration, I am more productive and focus on what I need to (the current file I am editing). Give it a shot and let me know what you think!