The android studio build system is based on gradle, and the android gradle plugin adds several features that are specific to building android apps. although the android plugin is typically updated in lock-step with android studio, the plugin (and the rest of the gradle system) can run independent of android studio and be updated separately.. Installing plugins on android studio this post: best plugin for android studio: how to download a video from facebook - duration: gradle project sync failed (android studio 3.1) - duration. I encountered this problem when i tried to import an gradle project from github. there was no gradle wrapper in the project. i created a new android project in android studio and copied gradle folder to the project that i get from github..
As far as installing a custom plugin there is a good walkthrough on github for the rest2mobile library that could be used for any plugin. basically the steps are as follows: run android studio. from the menu bar, select android studio > preferences. under ide settings, click plugins and then click install plugin from disk.. Another key advantage of gradle over the pre android studio build system(s) is dependency management. previously to use an android library in a project, one would have to download the source code, add it to your project and compile it with your project..