Android SDK Manager, what to install?

Question

In the Android SDK Manager, if you expand any API, you see packages saying things like 'SDK Platform, Google APIs' and also many other packages like 'Real3D, Bionic' etc. Screenshot:

My question is, what's the difference between all these packages, and which packages do I need to install if I want to create virtual devices for some of the most common android configurations? Do I need to install SDK platforms, Google APIs, or any of the other packages in order to create emulations?

And what's the difference between SDK platform and google APIs?

Answer 1

You need following

1)SDK Platform (2.2,2.3 or 4.0.. depending on your need)

2)SDK Tools/SDK Platform tools ( to build, test and debug apps)

Google API's acts as an interface to Google Map , While SDK Platform will provide access to platform(2.2, 2.3 etc) specific API's.

Answer 2

Basically you'll only need SDK Platform. The other packages are only needed, if you want to use APIs from them. For example if you want to integrate Maps-Functionality into your App. See here for more info.

Answer 3

1. SDK Tools

   Required. Your new SDK installation installs the latest version. Be sure to respond to the Android Studio update prompts to keep your SDK Tools up-to-date.

2. SDK Platform-tools

   Required. Your new SDK installation installs the latest stable version. Be sure to respond to the Android Studio update prompts to keep your SDK Platform-tools up-to-date.

3. SDK Platform

   Required. At least one platform is required in your environment so you're able to compile your application. In order to provide the best user experience on the latest devices, we recommend that you use the latest platform version as your build target. You'll still be able to run your app on older versions, but you must build against the latest version in order to use new features when running on devices with the latest version of Android.

http://developer.android.com/tools/help/sdk-manager.html