Google adds Gemini to developer tools

Google used a September 1 Android Developers Blog post to push AI deeper into its mobile tooling, saying Android Studio Quail 4 is now stable and ready for production use. The release adds Gemma 4 support inside Android Studio and packages the update as part of a broader set of AI-assisted features for building Android apps. (android-developers.googleblog.com) Google had also made Gemini Code Assist available to individual developers at no charge, though its own product pages now say the unpaid IDE extensions were replaced by Antigravity on June 18, 2026. (codeassist.google) The result is a clearer picture of how Google wants developers to work: local and remote AI models inside the IDE, Android-specific tooling around them, and coding assistance embedded in day-to-day workflows. (android-developers.googleblog.com) The company has described Gemma 4 as its most capable local model for agentic coding in Android Studio, and earlier Android posts tied that model to private, local AI coding and app features built with ML Kit GenAI tooling. ### What exactly did Google ship in Android Studio this week? Android Studio Quail 4 was described by Google as the final stable release for the Quail cycle. In the September 1 post, Amman Fasil Asfaw, a product manager for Android Studio, said the release is “stable and ready for you to use in production” and highlighted AI features aimed at helping developers build apps more efficiently. (android-developers.googleblog.com) Google had already been building toward this release through earlier Quail updates. A July 14 post on Android Studio Quail 2 said the IDE added concurrent agentic workflows, memory leak profiling and context-aware crash remediation, showing that the Quail line had been moving toward more native AI assistance before the Quail 4 stable release. (android-developers.googleblog.com) ### Where does Gemma 4 fit into this? Gemma 4 is Google’s local model layer for Android development inside the IDE. In an April 2 Android Developers Blog post, Google called Gemma 4 “our most capable local model for agentic coding,” and said it supports private, local AI coding workflows in Android Studio. (android-developers.googleblog.com) A May Android tools update said developers could choose remote models from Google, Anthropic and OpenAI, or run Gemma 4 locally. A separate April post said Gemma 4 could also be used beyond coding, including shipping app features through ML Kit GenAI Prompt API, with support for text, images and audio. (android-developers.googleblog.com) ### What happened to Gemini Code Assist for individuals? Google’s current Code Assist product pages show a transition rather than a fresh launch. The business product page says the unpaid tier known as Gemini Code Assist for individuals, along with Google One users, had its Gemini CLI and Gemini Code Assist IDE extensions replaced by Antigravity CLI and Antigravity on June 18, 2026. (android-developers.googleblog.com) A March 2026 Google Developers Blog post gave the same date and said the company was helping users migrate. That means the “free for individuals” part was real, but the branded Gemini Code Assist experience for unpaid users has since been folded into Google’s Antigravity tools rather than remaining unchanged. (android-developers.googleblog.com) ### Which developers does this affect most? Android developers are the clearest target because Google is tying local AI coding, Android-specific skills and app-side model integration into the same toolchain. The Android Developers Blog has framed Gemma 4 as useful both for coding assistance in Android Studio and for shipping intelligent features inside apps. (codeassist.google) Google’s March and April developer posts also show a wider pattern across IDEs: agent mode, inline diffs, contextual coding help and model choice have become standard parts of the company’s coding tools. For developers, the practical effect is that Android Studio is no longer just an editor and emulator hub; it is also a front end for AI-assisted coding and model-backed app development. (developers.googleblog.com) That final point is an inference from Google’s product posts and release notes. ### What should readers watch next? Google’s next concrete milestone is adoption of Quail 4 in production projects, which the company says is ready now. Developers tracking the coding-assistant side should also watch Google’s Antigravity migration pages, because those now carry the forward path for users who had relied on the free Gemini Code Assist tooling. (android-developers.googleblog.com 1) (android-developers.googleblog.com 2) (developers.googleblog.com)