It's important that we begin the discussion with Android Studio and the Android SDK. Android Studio is a fully-fledged Integrated Development Environment (IDE), and contains everything needed to build a full app from the ground up. The Android Software Development Kit (SDK) is a subset of Android Studio, including only the tools needed to communicate with a device via the command line. It includes software libraries, APIs, emulator, reference material, and many other tools that not only help to create Android applications but also provide documentation and utilities that help significantly in forensic analysis of Android devices. Having sound knowledge of the Android SDK can help you understand the particulars of a device that, in turn, aid during investigation.

During examination, the SDK helps us to connect to the device and access the data. The SDK is supported in Windows, Linux, and OS X and can be downloaded for free at https://developer.android.com/studio.