Run an optimized vision-language model from the Arm AI Portal on Android
Introduction
Prepare the Android command-line tools for Vision Chat
Connect an Arm-based Android phone and run Vision Chat
Import and run an Arm AI Portal vision-language model on Android
Understand the Vision Chat Android application
Next Steps

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Arm AI Portal

The Arm AI Portal is a catalog of AI models across different runtimes, use cases, and profiles that are optimized for different Arm-based targets. The AI Portal provides benchmarking and compatibility data, code examples, and deployment methods.

You’ll use an example application called Vision Chat to run a Qwen3-VL vision-language model from the Arm AI Portal on an Arm-based Android device.

Check the host development tools

You’ll use a terminal and a physical Arm-based Android phone. The setup commands install the Android SDK and help you verify the development environment before you build the application.

Before you run the commands, ensure your development computer has the prerequisite tools installed.

Open a terminal. On Windows, use PowerShell.

Check the installed tool versions:

    

        
        

git --version
java -version
javac -version
python3 --version
python3 -m pip --version
curl --version
unzip -v
  

    

    

        
        

git --version
java -version
javac -version
python --version
python -m pip --version
$PSVersionTable.PSVersion

Install any missing host tools before continuing. Ensure that the Java compiler version is 17 or later.

Note

You can open the cloned project in Android Studio and run it on a connected phone or an Android Virtual Device (AVD). If you use an AVD, select a recent system image that supports the application’s arm64-v8a native libraries.

An emulator is useful for functional testing, but its performance isn’t representative of a physical Arm-based phone.

Install the Android command-line tools

The following commands download Google’s Android SDK Command-Line Tools , verify the pinned archive checksum, and place the tools under ANDROID_HOME:

    

        
        

if [ -z "${ANDROID_HOME:-}" ]; then
    case "$(uname -s)" in
        Darwin) export ANDROID_HOME="$HOME/Library/Android/sdk" ;;
        Linux) export ANDROID_HOME="$HOME/Android/Sdk" ;;
        *) printf 'Unsupported operating system.\n' >&2; false ;;
    esac
fi

case "$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" in
    Darwin-arm64)
        android_cli_archive="commandlinetools-mac_arm64-15859902_latest.zip"
        android_cli_sha256="835b62a26162b229b441d1f6d4680383815a270809eb33522c0d480fa5002c4e"
        ;;
    Darwin-x86_64)
        android_cli_archive="commandlinetools-mac_x86_64-15859902_latest.zip"
        android_cli_sha256="c5a6378ab5cf7e0d5701921405115befff13e9ff7417fb588389338f8bd050f3"
        ;;
    Linux-*)
        android_cli_archive="commandlinetools-linux-15859902_latest.zip"
        android_cli_sha256="4e4c464f145a7512b57d088ac6c278c03c9eea610886b35a5e0804e74eedf583"
        ;;
    *) printf 'No Android command-line archive is configured for this computer.\n' >&2; false ;;
esac

android_cli_temp="$(mktemp -d)"
curl --fail --location \
    "https://dl.google.com/android/repository/$android_cli_archive" \
    --output "$android_cli_temp/$android_cli_archive"

if command -v sha256sum >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    printf '%s  %s\n' "$android_cli_sha256" "$android_cli_temp/$android_cli_archive" |
        sha256sum --check
else
    printf '%s  %s\n' "$android_cli_sha256" "$android_cli_temp/$android_cli_archive" |
        shasum -a 256 -c
fi

unzip -q "$android_cli_temp/$android_cli_archive" -d "$android_cli_temp"
mkdir -p "$ANDROID_HOME/cmdline-tools/latest"
cp -R "$android_cli_temp/cmdline-tools/." "$ANDROID_HOME/cmdline-tools/latest/"

export PATH="$ANDROID_HOME/cmdline-tools/latest/bin:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools:$PATH"
  

    

    

        
        

if (-not $env:ANDROID_HOME) {
    $env:ANDROID_HOME = "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Android\Sdk"
}

$androidCliArchive = "commandlinetools-win-15859902_latest.zip"
$androidCliSha256 = "90ae805d20434428bffcb699c290860f19bb5f66a67e6b330067e3de801fb04a"
$androidCliTemp = Join-Path $env:TEMP "android-cli-$([guid]::NewGuid())"
$androidCliZip = Join-Path $androidCliTemp $androidCliArchive

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $androidCliTemp | Out-Null
Invoke-WebRequest `
    -Uri "https://dl.google.com/android/repository/$androidCliArchive" `
    -OutFile $androidCliZip

$downloadedSha256 = (Get-FileHash $androidCliZip -Algorithm SHA256).Hash
if ($downloadedSha256 -ne $androidCliSha256) {
    throw "Android command-line tools checksum verification failed."
}

Expand-Archive -Path $androidCliZip -DestinationPath $androidCliTemp
$latestTools = Join-Path $env:ANDROID_HOME "cmdline-tools\latest"
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path $latestTools | Out-Null
Copy-Item -Path "$androidCliTemp\cmdline-tools\*" `
    -Destination $latestTools -Recurse -Force

$env:Path = "$latestTools\bin;$env:ANDROID_HOME\platform-tools;$env:Path"

If you already have an SDK in ANDROID_HOME, the commands reuse that location.

The export commands and PowerShell environment assignments apply to the current terminal. Continue in the same terminal. If you use a new terminal, you’ll need to set ANDROID_HOME to the same directory and add cmdline-tools/latest/bin and platform-tools to PATH again.

Install and verify the required SDK packages

Review and accept the Android SDK licenses when prompted.

After accepting the licenses, install the following SDK packages:

  • Platform-Tools
  • Android SDK Platform 35
  • Build-Tools 35.0.0
  • NDK 27.2.12479018
  • CMake 3.22.1
    

        
        

sdkmanager --sdk_root="$ANDROID_HOME" --licenses
sdkmanager --sdk_root="$ANDROID_HOME" \
    "platform-tools" \
    "platforms;android-35" \
    "build-tools;35.0.0" \
    "ndk;27.2.12479018" \
    "cmake;3.22.1"

sdkmanager --version
adb version
test -d "$ANDROID_HOME/platforms/android-35"
test -d "$ANDROID_HOME/build-tools/35.0.0"
test -d "$ANDROID_HOME/ndk/27.2.12479018"
test -d "$ANDROID_HOME/cmake/3.22.1"
  

    

    

        
        

sdkmanager.bat "--sdk_root=$env:ANDROID_HOME" --licenses
sdkmanager.bat "--sdk_root=$env:ANDROID_HOME" `
    "platform-tools" `
    "platforms;android-35" `
    "build-tools;35.0.0" `
    "ndk;27.2.12479018" `
    "cmake;3.22.1"

sdkmanager.bat --version
adb version
Test-Path "$env:ANDROID_HOME\platforms\android-35"
Test-Path "$env:ANDROID_HOME\build-tools\35.0.0"
Test-Path "$env:ANDROID_HOME\ndk\27.2.12479018"
Test-Path "$env:ANDROID_HOME\cmake\3.22.1"

The final four checks return no output on macOS or Linux when the directories exist. On Windows, all four checks should return True.

What you’ve accomplished and what’s next

You’ve now installed the Android command-line tools and verified the required SDK packages.

Next, you’ll connect an Arm-based Android phone and build Vision Chat.

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