Also, consider not using Android when playing around and studying Smack. Instead use a standard java project. The Android specific code of Smack is only a few LOCs compared to the rest, so it's best to get rid of that layer. It also has the advantage that you can debug/study using a standard JVM and don't have to use an real Android device or Emulator.
You may want to try Flowdalic/smack-examples · GitHub , setting the project up in eclipse is as easy as "gradle eclipse" + "eclipse: import project". From there you can use an debugger to set breakpoints and step through the code.