The Android Device Monitor is a standalone debugging and analysis tool that provides a graphical interface for tools like DDMS, Tracer for OpenGL ES, Hierarchy Viewer, Systrace, and Traceview. It is included in the Android SDK and can be run from the command line to monitor apps on emulators or connected devices. The tool allows viewing app activity trees, system process snapshots, and more to help debug and optimize Android applications.

1. Android Device
Monitor

2. Android Device Monitor
Android Device Monitor is a stand-alone tool
that provides a graphical user interface for
several Android application debugging and
analysis tools.
The Monitor tool does not require installation of
an integrated development environment, such
as Eclipse.

3. History & Availability
The Device Monitor is included in the standard
Android SDK.
It was recently updated to incorporate a more
Eclipse-like visual format.

4. Other Monitoring Tools
There aren’t any other tools advertised
specifically as Android monitoring tools.
Though some other tools included with the
Android SDK are used for monitoring.

5. Sustainability and Performance
Because the Monitor tool is included as part of
the Android SDK, it is kept updated by Google.

6. Benefit / Cost
Since it’s free, and already installed on your
computer, there is no cost to using it for
Android debugging.

7. Running the Tool
The tool can be run from the /tools directory in
the android sdk folder.
Just type ‘monitor’ from the command line to
run the ‘monitor.bat’ file.

8. Running the Tool

9. Practical Use
The tool can be used to monitor apps on any
running emulators, or connected debuggable
device.

10. Practical Use
The Monitor tool encapsulates 5 main tools:
● DDMS
● Tracer for OpenGL ES
● Hierarchy Viewer
● Systrace
● Traceview

11. Practical Use - DDMS
● DDMS is integrated
into Eclipse, and if
you’ve done any
Android develop-
ment before,
you’ve probably
used this tool.

12. Practical Use -
Tracer for OpenGL ES
The Tracer tool taps
into the rendering back-
end of the device, when
you start a selected
app, it takes a series
of screenshots.

13. Practical Use -
Hierarchy Viewer
The Hierarchy tool is perhaps the most useful
part of the Monitor program:
it allows you to view a tree-based diagram of
any selected activity from your
emulator/connected device.

14. Practical Use -
Hierarchy Viewer

15. Practical Use -
Systrace/Traceview
The Systrace tool can take a ‘snapshot’ of your
device’s running processes and execution
times, as well as disk activity and application
threads.
The Traceview tool can be used to graphically
view the execution logs after they are recorded.

16. Practical Use -
Systrace/Traceview
The results of the
trace are formatted
into an HTML
report. Which can
be read by Traceview

17. Thoughts
The Android SDK ships with many powerful
tools, and I don’t think that many developers
are aware of the many applications of said
tools.
That being said, I haven’t personally used them
much, so I can’t tell for sure if they’re worth the
trouble.