Attention: Here be dragons

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Using the Android editor¶

In 2023, we added an Android port of the editor that can be used to create, develop, and export 2D and 3D projects on Android devices.

The app can be downloaded from the Redot download page or from the Google Play Store.

Note

The Android editor is in early access, while we continue to refine the experience. See Limitations & known issues below.

Android devices support¶

The Android editor requires devices running Android 5 Lollipop or higher, with at least OpenGL 3 support. This includes (not exhaustive):

Android tablets, foldables and large phones
Android-powered netbooks
Chromebooks supporting Android apps

Runtime Permissions¶

All files access permission: Enables the editor to create, import, and read project files from any file locations on the device. Without this permission, the editor is still functional, but has limited access to the device's files and directories.
REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES: Enables the editor to install exported project APKs.
RECORD_AUDIO: Requested when the audio/driver/enable_input project setting is enabled.

Tips & Tricks¶

Input

For the best experience and high level of productivity, connecting a bluetooth keyboard & mouse is recommended to interact with the Android editor. The Android editor supports all of the usual shortcuts and key mappings.
When interacting with keyboard & mouse, you can decrease the size of the scrollbar using the interface/touchscreen/increase_scrollbar_touch_area editor setting.
For 2D projects, the block coding plugin can provide a block-based visual alternative to composing scripts when lacking a connected hardware keyboard.

Multi-tasking

On smaller devices, enabling and using picture-in-picture (PiP) mode provides the ability to easily transition between the Editor and the Play window.
- PiP can be enabled via the run/window_placement/play_window_pip_mode editor setting.
- The run/window_placement/android_window editor setting can be used to specify whether the Play window should always launch in PiP mode.
- Note: In PiP mode, the Play window does not have input access.

Projects sync

Syncing projects via Git can be done by downloading an Android Git client. We recommend the Termux terminal, an Android terminal emulator which provides access to common terminal utilities such Git and SSH.
- Note: To use Git with the Termux terminal, you'll need to grant WRITE permission to the terminal. This can be done by running the following command from within the terminal: termux-setup-storage

Plugins

GDExtension plugins work as expected, but require the plugin developer to provide native Android binaries.

Limitations & known issues¶

Here are the known limitations and issues of the Android editor:

No gradle build support.
No support for Android plugins as they require gradle build support. GDExtensions plugins are supported.
No C#/Mono support.
No support for external script editors.
While available, the Vulkan Forward+ renderer is not recommended due to severe performance issues.
UX not optimized for Android phones form-factor.
Android Go devices lacks the All files access permission required for device read/write access. As a workaround, when using an Android Go device, it's recommended to create new projects only in the Android Documents or Downloads directories.
The editor doesn't properly resume when Don't keep activities is enabled in the Developer Options.
There is a bug with the Samsung keyboard that causes random input to be inserted when writing scripts. It's recommended to use the Google keyboard (Gboard) instead.