Welcome to Android Things Quick Start Guide. In this introductory chapter, we will look at the big picture of Android Thing, how it compares to other—in principle—similar platforms, such as Arduino, and explore the vision behind the platform. We will check the different developer kits available exploring the pros and cons of each one. We will also look at the other components we will use throughout the book. We will also learn how to install Android Things on a developer kit and how to connect to it from our development computer in order to deploy our code. Finally, we will follow the creation of a basic project for Android Things using Android Studio, see how it is structured, and discuss the differences with a default Android project. The topics covered are as follows:

• What is Android Things?
• Design concepts behind Android Things
• Hardware you will need
• Setting up a developer kit
• Creating an Android Things project

So, let's get started.