External libraries vs libs folder

Question

Hey I'm pretty new to android studio, and relatively new to android development and it recently occurred to me that I'm not sure whether to put libraries in the libs folder or set them up as as an external library - what's the difference?

Most of what I've found online explains how to include jar files in the libs folder and then compile in the app gradle. This is what I've tended to do, but I've seen projects that work differently and I'm wondering what the protocol is for this.

Also how do you make an external library? Do you just place the jar file in it?

Thanks!

Answer 1

There is no way to create an external library directly in Android Studio. You add a library to your libs folder or add a dependency to your build.gradle, then you reimport the project, and it appears as an external library.

In other words, there is no difference - it's the same thing.