Author Archives: Android Developers

Make the passkey endpoints well-known URL part of your passkey implementation

Posted by Amy Zeppenfeld – Developer Relations Engineer

Passkeys are leading the charge towards a more secure future without passwords. Passkeys are a new type of cryptographic credential that leverages FIDO2 and WebAuthn to provide an authentication mechanism that is phishing-resistant, user friendly, simple to implement, and more secure than password-based authentication. Most major operating systems and browsers now feature full passkey support. Passkeys are expected to replace passwords as the predominant authentication mechanism in the not-too-distant future, and developers are advised to begin implementing passkey-enabled authentication solutions today.

As you implement passkeys in your app or web service, take a moment to implement a passkey endpoints well-known URL.

This is a standardized way to advertise your support for passkeys and optimize user experience. This well-known URL will allow third party services like password managers, passkey providers, and other security tools to direct users to enroll and manage their passkeys for any site that supports them. You can use app-links or deep linking with the passkey-endpoints well-known URL to allow these pages to open directly in your app.

Password management tool usage has been steadily rising, and we expect most providers will integrate passkey management as well. You can allow third party tools and services to direct your users to your dedicated passkey management page by implementing the passkey-endpoints well-known URL.

The best part is that in most cases you can implement this feature in two hours or less! All you need to do is host a simple schema on your site. Check out the example below:

  1. For a web service at https://example.com, the well-known URLwould be https://example.com/.well-known/passkey-endpoints
  2. When the URL is queried, the response should use the following schema:
{ "enroll": "https://example.com/account/manage/passkeys/create", "manage": "https://example.com/account/manage/passkeys" }

Note: You can decide the exact value of the URLs for both enroll and manage based on your website’s own configuration.

If you have a mobile app, we strongly recommend utilizing deep linking to have these URLs open the corresponding screen for each activity directly in your app to “enroll” or “manage” passkeys. This will keep your users focused and on track to enroll into passkeys.

And that’s it!

Further details and examples can be found in the passkey endpoints well-known URL explainer.

Updates to Google Identity Services (GIS) and migration to the Credential Manager API

Posted by Kateryna Semenova – Developer Relations Engineer, Diego Zavala and Gina Biernacki – Product Managers

Introducing Credential Manager

At Google, we are dedicated to improving the sign in experience across platforms for developers and users. For Android developers, we recently announced the public availability of Credential Manager as the future of authentication on Android. Credential Manager is a new Jetpack library designed to consolidate authentication types for Android developers into a single UI, reducing complexity for your applications while increasing usability. Credential Manager also supports passkeys, creating a unified interface for users and a single API for developers.

Instead of having to integrate with multiple identity providers, developers can now use Credential Manager as a single, unified authentication API. Credential Manager simplifies integration and makes it easier to develop authentication solutions that can work with all password managers, identity providers, and authentication methods.

Implementing Credential Manager with your Android applications will provide a single authentication experience for all Android users, integrated directly with the operating system and aligned with high-trust surfaces such as system login. We encourage all developers to migrate to Credential Manager.

Authentication APIs moving from Google Identity Services to Credential Manager on Android

The authentication APIs from Google Identity Services on Android—which include One Tap sign-in, Credential Saving, Sign in with Google button and Sign-In for Android(GSI) — can all now be implemented using Credential Manager. This enables developers to integrate with a single API for their authentication journeys.

Since these APIs are now generally available in Credential Manager, these individual APIs will be deprecated in Google Identity Services.

Removal of Smart Lock for Passwords

Smart Lock for Passwords, which was deprecated in 2022, will be removed from the Google Play Services SDK in November 2023. To minimize breaking changes that may impact existing integrations, all existing apps in the Play Store will continue to work. New app versions compiled with the new SDK will not be able to access the Smart Lock for Password API, so we encourage all developers to migrate to Credential Manager as soon as possible.

Get started with your migration to Credential Manager

All Android developers should plan their migration to the new Credential Manager API. To assist you in this process, read the following guides and resources:

Share your feedback

We are excited to improve Android authentication with the launch of Credential Manager API, delivering a simple and streamlined UX for secure sign-in methods such as Sign in with Google.

We value your feedback and invite you to share your experience integrating with Credential Manager or any other feedback you might have:

Simple and secure sign-in on Android with Credential Manager and passkeys

Posted by Diego Zavala, Product Manager

We are excited to announce that the public release of Credential Manager will be available starting on November 1st. Credential Manager brings the future of authentication to Android, simplifying how users sign in to their apps and websites, and at the same time, making it more secure.

Signing in can be challenging - passwords are widely used, and often forgotten. They are reused, phished, and washed, making them less secure. Furthermore, there is a proliferation of ways to log in to apps; passwords, email links, OTP, ‘Sign in with…’, and users carry the burden of remembering what to use where. And for developers, this adds complexity - they need to support multiple sign-in methods, increasing integration and maintenance costs.

To address this, Android is rolling out Credential Manager, which brings support for passkeys, a new passwordless authentication, together with traditional sign-in methods, such as passwords and federated identity, in a unified interface.

Let’s take a look at how it can help make users’ and developers’ lives easier.

1.    Passkeys enable passwordless authentication

Passkeys are the future of online authentication - they are more secure and convenient than passwords. With a passkey, signing in is as simple as selecting the right account and confirming with a device face scan, fingerprint or PIN - that’s it. No need to manually type username or passwords, copy-paste a one-time code from SMS, or tap a link in an email inbox. This has resulted in apps reducing the sign-in time by 50% when they implemented passkeys. Logging in with passkeys is also more secure, as they provide phishing-resistant protection.

Image showing step-by-step passwordless authentication experience to sign in to Shrine app from an Android device

Several apps are already integrated with Credential Manager and support passkeys, including Uber and Whatsapp.

“Passkeys add an additional layer of security for WhatsApp users. Simplifying the way users can securely get into their account will help our users, which is why the Credential Manager API is so important.” – Nitin Gupta, Head of Engineering, WhatsApp

“At Uber, we are relentless in our push to create magical experiences without compromising user safety. Passkeys simplify the user experience and promote accessibility, while enhancing the security that comes from reducing the dependency on traditional passwords. Ultimately this is a win-win for Uber and Uber’s customers.

The Credential Manager offers a developer-friendly suite of APIs that enable seamless integration with our apps, eliminating concerns about device fragmentation. We’ve seen great results from launching passkeys across our apps and encourage all users to adopt passkeys.”– Ramsin Betyousef, Sr. Director of Engineering at Uber

2.    All accounts available in a single tap, in a simplified interface

Users often end up with different sign-in methods for the same account - they may use a password on their phone, and a “Sign in with…” on a browser, and then be offered a passkey on their desktop. To simplify users’ lives, Credential Manager lets them choose the account they want, and use smart defaults to pick the best technology to do it (e.g. a passkey, password, or federated identity). That way, users don’t need to think whether they want to sign-in with a password or a passkey; they just choose the account, and they are in.

Let’s take a look at how it works. Imagine that Elisa has 2 accounts on the Shrine app

  • a personal account for which she had a password and just created a new passkey
  • a shared family account with just a password.

To facilitate her experience, Credential Manager shows her 2 accounts and that’s it. Credential Manager uses a password for her family account and a passkey for her personal account (because it’s simpler and safer). Elisa doesn’t need to think about it.

Image showing Credential Manager on an Android device allowing user to choose a saved sign in from list of two accounts

3.    Open to the ecosystem

One of the reasons why users prefer Android is because they are able to customize their experience. In the case of authentication, some users prefer to use the password manager that’s shipped with their device, and others prefer to use a different one. Credential Manager gives users the ability to do so, by being open to any credential provider and allowing multiple enabled at the same time.

Image showing Credential Manager in app allowing user to choose a saved sign in from list of two accounts

Several leading credential providers already integrated with Credential Manager.

"We're at an inflection point in the history of authentication as passkeys represent the perfect balance between ease and security. Since 1Password launched support for passkeys earlier this year, we’ve had over 230,000 passkeys created and see thousands added each day. The data indicates strong user demand but we must continue to prioritize support for apps and services, making it simpler for developers to integrate passkey authentication." – Anna Pobletts, Head of Passwordless at 1Password

“At Enpass, we quickly recognized the potential of passkeys. Thanks to the Android Credential Manager framework, Enpass is fully prepared to serve as a passkey provider for Android 14. This integration empowers our customers to embrace a secure alternative to traditional passwords wherever it's available.” – Vinod Kumar, Chief Technology Officer at Enpass.

How to integrate with Credential Manager?

To get started, take a look at the resources below:

Announcing Policy Updates To Support App Quality on Google Play

Posted by Karina Newton, Senior Director, Global Product Policy, Developer Policies

The Android community expects safe and high-quality experiences, which directly influences the long-term success of your app or game in terms of installs, user rating, and reviews. An app’s design, privacy protections, information quality, and security standards all play an important role. Today, we’re announcing updates to our developer policies to further elevate the quality of apps on Play and continue delivering the best experiences.

Enabling Safe Generative AI Apps

As generative AI models become more widely available, you may be integrating them into your apps. In line with Google’s commitment to responsible AI practices, we want to help ensure AI-generated content is safe for people and that their feedback is incorporated. Early next year, we'll be requiring developers to provide the ability to report or flag offensive AI-generated content without needing to exit the app. You should utilize these reports to inform content filtering and moderation in your apps – similar to the in-app reporting system required today under our User Generated Content policies. More information can be found here.
Moving image of AI Art Generator app UI experience on an Android mobile device
Note: Images are examples and subject to change

As a reminder, apps that generate content using AI must also continue to comply with all other developer policies. This includes prohibiting and preventing the generation of restricted content, such as content that facilitates the exploitation or abuse of children, and content that enables deceptive behavior. This is a fast-evolving app category and we appreciate your partnership in helping to maintain a safe experience.

Expanding Privacy Protections

To safeguard privacy, some app permissions require an additional review by the Google Play team and have additional guardrails. We’ve found this has been an effective strategy to protect people’s privacy and are expanding these requirements further, including a new policy to reduce the types of apps allowed to request broad photo and video permissions.

Under our new policy, apps will only be able to access photos and videos for purposes directly related to app functionality. Apps that have a one-time or infrequent need to access these files are requested to use a system picker, such as the Android photo picker. As a developer, you play a vital role in helping people who use your app feel safe and informed about how their data is handled and we appreciate your support of this new policy. For additional information, please visit our help center article.
Moving image of Photo picker UI experience on an Android mobile device
Note: Images are examples and subject to change

Limiting Disruptive Notifications

Today’s policy update also sets stronger boundaries around the use of full screen intent notifications that share high-priority messages and require the user’s immediate attention. There are certain scenarios where people would reasonably expect full screen intent notification, like waking up to their alarm or receiving phone and video calls. To ensure that this permission is limited to these high-priority use cases, we’re introducing new limitations and changing it to a special app access permission.

For apps targeting Android 14 and above, only apps whose core functionality requires a full screen notification will be granted Full Screen Intent permission by default and all others will need to request consent for use of this permission. Limiting notifications in this way helps ensure a better user experience. More information on this policy change can be found here.

Additional Resources

Today’s policy updates play an important role in our efforts to offer the world's most trusted source for apps and games. We appreciate your partnership in delivering safe and high-quality apps to the Android community. For more information:

Grow your game on Google Play with the Indie Games Accelerator – submissions now open

Posted by Leticia Lago, Developer Marketing

At Google Play, we’re committed to helping app and game businesses of all sizes reach their full potential. That’s why we’re excited to announce we have opened submissions for the Indie Games Accelerator 2024.

If you’re an indie developer who is early in their journey - either close to launching a new game or have recently launched a title - this high-impact program is designed for you.

Selected game studios will be invited to take part in the 10-week accelerator program starting in March 2024. This is a highly-tailored program for small game developers from across 70+ eligible countries. It includes a series of online masterclasses, talks and gaming workshops, hosted by some of the best in the industry.

You’ll also get the chance to meet and connect with other passionate founders from around the world who are looking to take their games to the next level.

Learn how founder of Gambir Studio, Shafiq Hussein, and team grew their revenue by 20% with the advice from mentors at the Indie Games Accelerator.

All submissions must be completed by December 12, 2023 @ 1 pm CET and meet all eligibility requirements. Apply now to supercharge your growth on Google Play.

Upcoming Android Events

Posted by Anirudh Dewani, Director of Android Developer Relations

One of our favorite things to do is connect with Android developers–like you–around the world, and it’s even more fun when we’re able to do so in person. Earlier this year, we had the opportunity to meet thousands of you at Google I/O and through global Google I/O Connect events in Miami, Amsterdam, Bengaluru and China, and we’re constantly inspired by your energy, your passion to build for Android, and your dedication to improve app quality.

But there are still more opportunity for us to connect at events unfolding later this year, as we bring the Android team and our Android Google Developer Expert friends to events around the world.

Here’s a snapshot:

droidcon London

Next week, on October 26 & 27, the Android team is bringing the excitement to droidcon London with tech talk topics including app performance, screenshot testing, Compose, and more. We’ll also have a full lineup of subject matter experts to host a fireside chat and office hours, happy to answer all your development and product questions. Learn more about the content and get your tickets on droidcon's website.

DevFest Season

DevFest 2023 has just kicked off, with nearly 500 DevFests already scheduled. DevFest is a community-led technology conference series, and is proud to embrace developers from all corners of the globe and diverse backgrounds. Conference agendas are tailored to suit the needs and interests of local developer communities and include talks, hands-on demos, workshops, and codelabs on the latest Google technologies.

This year, many Android GDE will be speaking at hundreds of DevFest events around the world, with special appearances from the Android team at DevFests in New York, the Bay Area, London, and Singapore among others.

Want to join us? Just navigate to any location on the interactive DevFest map and RSVP. It's that simple!

Stay in Touch

This was just a small peek of some of the events through the end of 2023. Don’t forget to check out our YouTube channel for all the latest news, technical talks, tutorials, tips and tricks, and follow and engage with us on X (formerly known as Twitter) and LinkedIn. We can’t wait to connect with thousands of you in person!

With 2X higher user engagement on tablets, Zoom optimized for large screens on Android

Posted by Maru Ahues Bouza, Director, Android Developer Relations

Zoom is an all-in-one collaboration platform. Whether supporting work streams through video, chat, or the platform’s smart recordings and whiteboard tools, the team at Zoom aims to simplify personal and professional communications.

For Zoom engineers, creating the best experience for users means meeting them where they are across a variety of devices with unique form factors. Currently, there are more than 270 million large screens and foldables in use across the Android ecosystem. With this in mind, the Zoom team saw an opportunity to boost the app’s support across the Android ecosystem, helping to ensure a seamless user experience on any supported device.

Zoom users spend more time on large screens

In the last few years, the Zoom team has seen increased tablet usage among its user base. The Zoom team has seen increased tablet usage among its user base, and people who use Zoom on both their phone and tablet spend about 62% more time on their tablet. In addition, Zoom tablet users engaged about 2X more via Zoom than phone users.

Zoom engineers wanted to give users on large screens the same experience on their preferred devices as those using the app on a smartphone or computer.

“We wanted to make sure large screen users have the best experience possible when using Zoom,” said Will Chan, a product manager at Zoom. “Ensuring we could scale our mobile UI to address our user needs — regardless of their device size — was important, whether it's phones, foldables, or tablets.”

Zoom tablet users engage about 2X more than phone users, so we decided we would scale the app’s UI to large screens and foldables.” — Will Chan, product manager at Zoom

Improving multi-window support on foldables

Zoom engineers started by using the Jetpack WindowManager library, which provides developers all the resources they need to start optimizing across form factors. Using the library, Zoom engineers made the app’s tabletop UI for foldables more efficient by placing videos on the top screen and moving any controls to the bottom screen. This gave users a more hands-free experience, making it easier for them to use the app with their foldable devices.

For foldables, Zoom engineers also optimized the app’s Team Chat. After overhauling this feature, Zoom’s Team Chat worked seamlessly in split-screen mode. When in portrait mode, the app would now show a chat preview on the left side of the screen and the chat details on the right. Small changes like this make better use of on-screen space so that users can more easily manage the tasks at hand.

Adding more features can lead to greater complexity. To avoid complicating the app’s UI on foldables, Zoom engineers used ConstraintLayouts. These help simplify the app’s interface, reducing a lot of the complexity that comes with creating multiple layouts on a device. As a bonus, ConstraintLayouts also improve the app’s performance while switching between layouts, improving useability overall for users.

Making the most of larger screens

Large screen devices give users considerably more onscreen real estate to work with. And with so much available space on these form factors, Zoom engineers wanted to up the app’s multi-window support by allowing users to go into picture-in-picture mode. Just as with optimizing for split-screen modes on foldables, picture-in-picture allows users to better multitask while they’re in meetings or taking a phone call.

Zoom engineers also tweaked the app’s UI to scale accordingly when large screen users resized their windows. To do this, the Zoom team used the resizeable emulator in Android studios. Together, these tools let the engineering team preview how the new experiences would look across many different devices, allowing developers to test their optimization before putting it into production.

“Resizable emulators and Android Studios made testing and developing a lot easier, ensuring the user experience is great on multiple large screen devices,” said Will.

Larger screens provide the opportunity for an even more enhanced video experience. We want our users to have the option to engage on their phone, tablet, TV and more.” — Will Chan, product manager at Zoom

Easy optimization across Android

The suite of tools and resources provided by Android made it easier than ever for Zoom engineers to improve its app across form factors. Considering there are so many users on large screens and foldable devices today, Zoom developers were glad that they could create a more cohesive UX without having to exhaust all their resources.

The Zoom team is excited by the global reach of the Android platform and looks forward to seeing what Android will add to its already-large pool of developer resources and tools.

“Our engineering team appreciates all the investments being made in the Jetpack libraries. It’s made their lives much easier while developing for Android,” said Will.

Get started

Learn how you can optimize your app for large screens and foldables.

#TheAndroidShow: Faster and easier to build excellent apps, across devices.

Posted by Anirudh Dewani, Director of Android Developer Relations

We just wrapped another episode of #TheAndroidShow; in the show, we covered the latest in Android development, including a look at the new Pixel watch and the world of wearables, gathered the team to demo tools and libraries to build for foldables, large screen devices, with Compose, Android 14, Studio Bot, and more. Take a look, and here’s a recap of some of the ways we’re helping make it faster and easier to build excellent apps, across devices:

Studio Bot: improving your productivity, through Generative AI

At Google I/O we gave you a preview of Studio Bot, an AI powered coding assistant that is tightly integrated into Android Studio, designed to make Android development faster and easier. Last month, Studio Bot expanded into over 170 countries, and today we’re adding even more functionality in the latest canary release to help you be more productive. AI code completion enables you to receive suggestions for more complex code completions, such as multiline code or even entire functions. You can also now add comments to your code, and document code with just a click using Studio Bot. We caught up with Jamal Eason to learn about the investments the team is working on, including our improvements in quality.

Faster and easier to build, with Jetpack Compose

Jetpack Compose gives you powerful and intuitive APIs, which make it faster and easier to build UIs. Since Google I/O, we’ve been working on improving performance across Compose to make it even more helpful. Developers around the world are taking advantage of Compose to help them rewrite screens, build new screens, or create new apps. For example, The Reddit team adopted Compose for their design system, which improved their code flexibility and reduced code duplication. They rewrote several features in Compose and their new tech stack, one of them being Reddit Recap, with beautiful animations. They were able to achieve feature parity with 44% less code when they rewrote it using Compose, saving engineering resources and time.

Build across devices, with large screens

Foldables and tablets are an important space - and the market for large screens is growing with Samsung announcing that half of their users are thinking of making a foldable their next phone. We’re continuing to build tools and libraries to make it easier to build for different device types, including device streaming and new drag and drop APIs in Compose. See how Zoom saw 2x higher user engagement and optimized their app for large screens, and get started with making your app work better across screen sizes and form factors.

The latest in wearables, with Wear OS 4 and Pixel Watch 2

Earlier this month, we saw the launch of Google Pixel Watch 2 - the first Google watch with all the capabilities of Wear OS 4! The latest version of Wear OS offers several capabilities that make it easier to develop exceptional wearable experiences, from Watch Face Format to enhanced tiles and more. Read more to discover the latest updates to Wear OS and how you can get started!

Making excellent, premium apps

Earlier this month, Android 14 started rolling out to users around the world. So there’s no better time to start optimizing your apps for the release and taking advantage of new features in Android 14 to help you build excellent experiences for your users using the best of Android, such as improved camera functionality with UltraHDR, seamless authentication with Credential Manager and enhanced widget development with Jetpack Glance. In the show, we saw how Snapchat used Camera2 Extension API to build camera features such as night mode, zoom, and tap-to-focus, enhancing their user’s experience capturing high-quality Snaps on Android devices, and also had a conversation with Dave Burke about Android 14 and more. Take a look!

Connecting with you at events around the world

This year, we're excited to bring the Android team and our Android Google Developer Expert friends to events around the world, you can learn more about it here. Later this month, the Android team will be at Droidcon London (October 26-27), bringing talks and hosting office hours around many exciting topics, and a panel of subject matter experts. Android GDEs will be speaking at 100+ DevFest events around the world, with special appearances from the Android team at DevFests in New York, the Bay Area, London, and Singapore among others. We look forward to connecting with thousands of you in person!


Missed the show? You can watch it here, or check out the full playlist here. This is your conversation with the broader Android community, and if you’ve got an idea for the next show, we’d love to hear it - send us a Tweet, or share a message in the comments. We can’t wait to hear from you!

Join us online from 23-27 October for Passkeys Week

Posted by Milica Mihajlija, Technical Writer

Passkeys are a safer and simpler alternative to passwords that works on all modern browsers and platforms. They enable signing into online accounts by using a device screen lock–with a fingerprint, facial recognition, PIN or a pattern.

More and more online services are adding passkey support every day. On 10 October, 2023, Google accounts made passkeys the default sign in method for all devices that support it.

To accelerate our way into a passwordless future, from 23-27 October we are hosting Passkeys Week–an online event where you can learn everything you need to know to successfully implement passkeys. Use #PasskeysWeek to participate in the conversation and spread the word about your products that support passkeys.

Keep an eye on @ChromiumDev and @AndroidDev, where we'll share new learning materials, including blog posts, case studies and pathways to earn passkeys badges on your Google Developer Profile.

On 25 October at 10 AM PDT, we’ll host a live Q&A session on Google for Developers YouTube channel where you can get all your questions about passkeys answered by passkeys engineers from Google. Bookmark this link or click "Notify me" to get alerted when the livestream is about to start:

The recording will also be available on the channel after the event — we hope you will tune in.

Google’s Contacts app created a new widget 25% faster using Jetpack Glance

Posted by Andre Labonte, the Glance API.

With over a billion downloads on Google Play, Google’s Contacts app is many Android users’ primary tool for viewing and organizing their personal contact information. Contacts developers aim to make the app an easy way for users to connect with the people who matter most to them. To make connecting even simpler, the Contacts engineering team built an entirely new widget from scratch using Jetpack Glance, Android’s latest framework for designing and developing widgets.

Contacts users enjoy connecting through widgets

Widgets make it easy for users to quickly access their favorite app features. Instead of having to navigate to and through an application, widgets can be added directly to a device’s home screen to create a shortcut to the information users need. With this in mind, Contacts engineers developed a new widget for users’ favorite contacts that allows them to reach friends and family faster.

Contacts widget is moved and placed in position on the home screen

“With the increasing popularity of home screen widgets,” said Phil Groman, product manager at Contacts, “we wanted to make our widget as useful as possible so that users can more easily connect with their most important contacts.”

A Google Opinion Rewards survey of Contacts widget users showed that about 80% of users with the Favorites widget on their home screen found it helpful for finding and connecting with their contacts. The survey used a 5-point scale, with 1 signifying “Not at all helpful” and 5 signifying “Extremely helpful.” Roughly 80% of the polled users selected options 4 or 5.

Faster development using Jetpack Glance

Previously, the Contacts team built the app’s widgets using RemoteViews, but the team switched to Jetpack Glance for its familiar APIs, concise Compose syntax, and out-of-the-box support of Material You dynamic theming. Jetpack Glance is also built on top of the Jetpack Compose Runtime, which makes development simple thanks to its modern declarative approach to UI and Kotlin APIs.

Contacts engineers also liked Jetpack Glance because the toolkit is backward compatible with RemoteViews code. Using Jetpack Glance, they could create the new Favorites widget with support as far back as API 23 of RemoteViews. Currently, the Favorites widget supports back to API 31. Jetpack Glance also offers a WorkManager-backed update mechanism, making it easier for developers to load a widget’s display data.

Android has additional documentation available on the Jetpack Glance landing page to help guide the development and implementation of widgets, which Contacts engineers used to build the Favorites widget. These resources helped Contacts engineers learn how to build responsive dynamic layouts for resizing, incorporate material themes, add UIs for empty and error states, and verify accessibility features like content descriptions.

After the Contacts team built the new Favorites widget, engineers estimated end-to-end development using Jetpack Glance to be 25% faster compared to another Contacts widget built using RemoteViews.

Google’s Contacts engineers estimated a 25% increase in end-to-end development speed of building a widget using Jetpack Glance compared to RemoteViews.

Doing more with Jetpack Glance

Thanks to Jetpack Glance, the Contacts team greatly reduced the time it took to produce a widget. Jetpack Glance’s Compose-based framework and intuitive Kotlin APIs made development easier, allowing engineers to quickly get a new widget off the ground and out to users.

“Jetpack Glance helped a lot during development,” said Zhen Fan, a software engineer at Contacts. “It increased development speed and made developers happier overall.”

Right now, the Contacts team is beginning to migrate another one of its widgets from RemoteViews to Jetpack Glance. The team hopes to incorporate more complex UI versions by making the switch, allowing engineers to develop richer features for users to enjoy.

Get started

Learn more about developing engaging widgets with Jetpack Glance.