Is it possible to do android development effectively on vim?

Huge vim user myself, I faced the same question when moving in to Android Development a few years back.

Originally I used Eclipse while Android Studio was still in development. Once Android Studio hit full release, the switch from Eclipse to Android Studio was another pain, but now Android Studio feels "good" to use.

All I can say is download Android Studio and spend the time needed to use and learn the IDE. Android Studio is made for, and developed to make Android Apps.

If you are expanding from HTML / Javascript / CSS / PHP / "Something else" to Android, do not waste your time trying to set-up anything else. You will have nothing but issues and hand made scripts and other stuff to remember and manage. With Android Studio instead of that layer of complexity you will be using a menu option or even a shortcut key.

Personally I still use vim for everything except Android Apps. Android Studio is simply another tool that needs to be learned to do the job.

The only pain in the butt now is the constant updates, but the medium is still moving pretty quick and that is just how things go in App development. Without Android Studio you will need to update those scripts or need remember to download something else because something changed.

Keep it simple and use the correct tool for the job.

You can take a look at Eclim. It gives you Eclipse IDE code/project support inside vim.

As you i was a vim user but i needed to do Java development. I now use vim / eclim for two years and i'm really happy with.

I do not Android dev but Eclim seems to support it: See Create a Android project with Eclim.