Hey there, I totally get your frustration with this—let me clear things up for you.

Yes, the Android SDK tooling structure has definitely changed in recent versions, which is why all those old "launch AVD Manager without Android Studio" guides aren't working anymore.

What happened to the standalone AVD Manager GUI? #

Google has phased out the standalone AVD Manager executable that used to live in the tools directory of the SDK. They've either integrated its GUI functionality directly into Android Studio, or shifted focus to the command-line tool you found: avdmanager.

Your options moving forward: #

• Launch AVD Manager GUI without full Android Studio
  If you have Android Studio installed but don't want to open the entire IDE, you can launch just the AVD Manager GUI directly. Head to your Android Studio's bin directory (usually something like ~/Android/android-studio/bin) and run:

  ./studio.sh --avd-manager
  

  This will skip the main IDE window and open only the AVD Manager GUI.

• Stick with the command-line avdmanager
  The avdmanager script you found can handle every AVD management task you'd do in the GUI. Here are some common commands to get you started:

  • List all existing AVDs:

    /home/lz/Android/Sdk/tools/bin/avdmanager list avd
    

  • Create a new AVD (replace the system image details with what you need):

    /home/lz/Android/Sdk/tools/bin/avdmanager create avd -n MyNewAVD -k "system-images;android-34;google_apis;x86_64"
    

  • Delete an existing AVD:

    /home/lz/Android/Sdk/tools/bin/avdmanager delete avd -n MyNewAVD
    

Why old guides don't work #

Most older tutorials reference the standalone avd-manager executable or a separate GUI launcher in the SDK's tools folder—these have been removed in modern SDK releases to streamline the toolchain and push users toward either Android Studio's integrated tools or command-line workflows.

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者Poperton