Here are the 10 must-know shortcuts in Android Studio. Whether you are just starting out as an Android developer (Stop, be a Flutter developer instead), or already a corporate slave like me, I assure you these shortcuts will make your life much easier.

And I am not talking about Copy > Paste > Undo. We are going to learn the good stuff. Every programmer who uses Android Studio / IntelliJ must know these shortcuts by heart.

The following shortcuts work for default key bindings in Android Studio and IntelliJ IDEA. In my machine however, I have changed some key bindings as it is just much easier.

1. Add selection for next occurrence

This feature is one of my favourites in Android Studio. As the name implies, it selects the next word with the same name every time you hit the shortcut button. Once the different occurence of the word have been selected, you can edit them simultaneously.

It is not the same as Find All because with this shortcut, you can control how many words you can select. It also selects the word instantly, without the need of highlighting the word first.

Windows/Linux Next Occurrence: Alt + J All Occurrences: Alt + Shift + J Mac Next Occurrence: Ctrl + G All Occurrences: Ctrl + Shift + G

2. Show recent files

Switching between different files will never be as fast without this shortcut. It shows a popup window containing the recent files you have been viewing or updating.

Windows/Linux Ctrl + E Mac ⌘ + E

3. Go to Class/File

Similar to Show recent files and better than Find all, this shortcut specifically search for Kotlin/Java classes or files.

Never again would you move your mouse over the package file hierarchy just to find that class among the 1024 files you have in that project.

Windows/Linux Go to class: Ctrl + N Go to file: Ctrl + Shift + N Mac Go to class: ⌘ + O Go to file: ⌘ + Shift + O

4. Show usages

This shortcut tells you where a class, function, variable or field is being used across your project. Remember, only people who hate themselves use Find All > “Text” for searching a value.

Windows/Linux Popup window: Ctrl + Alt + F7 List: Alt + F7 Mac Popup window: ⌥ + ⌘ + F7 List: ⌥ + F7

5. Extend selection

Now we’re getting to the good stuff. When I am in the office pretending to work and writing code, I barely use the mouse and this shortcut is one of the reasons why.

Extend selection allows you to extend the current selection in your editor whenever you press the shortcut. Android Studio automagically knows what consists of a word, pair of brackets and a function.

Bonus point: You can select all occurrences first then combine that with extend selection. You will do wonders refactoring!

Windows/Linux Extend: Ctrl + W Shrink: Ctrl + Shift + W Mac Extend: ⌥ + Up Shrink: ⌥ + Down

6. Next error

If you are the type of programmer that always gets compilation or build errors like me, then I feel sorry for you.

But it’s okay

Don’t despair as this shortcut will help you at least find them instantly. When you are at the file where the error is, press this shortcut and it will jump to it faster than you would fix it.

Windows/Linux F2 Mac F2

7. Rename

Avoid using Find All > Replace when renaming variables, functions and class names. The rename shortcut is smart enough to just rename the required items.

Windows/Linux Shift + F6 Mac Shift + F6

8. Optimise imports

If you care about your code, you should remove unused imports. You can delete them one by one or just use the shortcut

Windows/Linux Ctrl + Shift + O Mac Ctrl + ⌥ + O

9. Format file

On top of optimising imports, format file feature should also be used every time when you are refactoring your code. It fixes incorrect spaces, tabs and text alignment.

Windows/Linux Ctrl + Alt + L Mac ⌘ + ⌥ + L

10. Find Action

Last and the best shortcut. Forget all the shortcuts above because you can do everything I said with this feature. If you need any feature, do a Find Action and search for it, and you will find it.

Show actions in action

Windows/Linux Ctrl + Shift + A Mac ⌘ + Shift + A

And that’s it! Shortcuts are meant to be utilised as they help you do your work much easier and more efficiently. If you want to see a list of all the shortcuts, see the official documentation from JetBrains here.