The Android Support Library is not actually a single library, but rather a collection of libraries that can roughly be divided into two groups: compatibility and component libraries. For details, please see Understanding the Android Support Library.

provides the base Activity subclass and the relevant hooks to build a composable structure on top.

library that contains the annotations for Android Jetpack.

support newer Android features on older Android versions.

authenticate with biometrics or device credentials, and perform cryptographic operations.

display webpages in the user's default browser.

library to reduce the number of nested views needed.

AndroidX library to position top-level application widgets, such as AppBarLayout and FloatingActionButton.

a static library that you can add to your Android application in order to use APIs that are either not available for older platform versions or utility APIs that aren't a part of the framework APIs.

core library to enable emoji compatibility in Kitkat and newer devices to avoid the empty emoji characters.

AndroidX library to encapsulate part of the user interface or behavior into reusable components.

perform actions in response to a change in the lifecycle status of another component, such as activities and fragments.

a framework for navigating between 'destinations' within an Android application that provides a consistent API whether destinations are implemented as Fragments, Activities, or other components.

a library to build interactive settings screens without needing to interact with device storage or manage the UI.

AndroidX library that enables libraries to prepopulate ahead of time compilation traces to be read by ART.

a persistence library that provides an abstraction layer over SQLite to allow for more robust database access while harnessing the full power of SQLite.

display large sets of data in your UI while minimizing memory usage.

provides the base Activity subclass and the relevant hooks to build a composable structure on top.

AndroidX library to implement a sliding pane UI pattern.

AndroidX library to implement a straightforward, performant way to initialize components at app startup.

Provides a stable but relatively compact binary serialization format that can be passed across processes or persisted safely.

replaces AndroidX ViewPager, addressing most of its predecessor’s pain-points, including right-to-left layout support, vertical orientation, modifiable Fragment collections, etc.

enables application developers to support new device form factors and multi-window environments. The library provides a common API surface for API versions 14 and later. Especially provides additional functionality on foldable devices.

scans the AAR and JAR dependencies in the project at compile time and provides a list of found licenses to present to the user.

Google Mobile Services in terms of the Android library refers to Google Play Services, a proprietary background service and API package for Android devices which is not part of the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). The library does not contain those services (i.e. it usually requires the Google Framework, often referred to as „GApps“, being installed on the device), but allows an app to communicate with them. Be aware this usually goes along with transferring at least parts of your personal data to the Google network.

library to help with material design guidelines.

A Java serialization/deserialization library to convert Java Objects into JSON and back.

library that deals with Protocol Buffers (a.k.a., protobuf) – Google's language-neutral, platform-neutral, extensible mechanism for serializing structured data.

abstraction for various logging frameworks (e.g. java.util.logging, logback, log4j) allowing to plug in the desired logging framework at deployment time.

abstraction for various logging frameworks (e.g. java.util.logging, logback, log4j) allowing to plug in the desired logging framework at deployment time.

abstraction for various logging frameworks (e.g. java.util.logging, logback, log4j) allowing to plug in the desired logging framework at deployment time.