Author Archives: Google Developers

Google at KotlinConf ‘23

Posted by Márton Braun, Developer Relations Engineer

As part of Google’s ongoing commitment to supporting the Kotlin language, we are really excited to be a gold level sponsor for KotlinConf again this year. Grace Kloba shared the story of Google’s investments in Kotlin within the keynote, which is recapped in this post. You’ll also find the list of talks by Google from the event’s schedule below, make sure you catch these on the live stream.

For a summary of all KotlinConf keynote announcements, read the blog post by JetBrains.

Kotlin for Android

Kotlin started gaining popularity in the Android community around 2016. We were also impressed with Kotlin’s concise syntax, modern features, and safety. In 2017, we announced official support for Kotlin on Android, and committed to its future by creating the Kotlin Foundation with JetBrains.

Since then we invested in Kotlin by adding support in Android Studio, teaching the language to developers, and going Kotlin-first with our libraries, documentation, and samples. We also built Kotlin Symbol Processing, an API that enables annotation processors to run up to twice as fast as previous solutions.

Today, Kotlin is the most popular language for Android development. Over 95% of the top 1000 Android apps use Kotlin, and over 50% of professional Android developers use Kotlin as their primary language (compared with 25% choosing the Java programming language).

Among professional Android developers using Kotlin, we saw a 96.9% positive satisfaction rate in our latest annual survey, which is 9-points higher than their Java counterparts.

As our final step in making Kotlin the single language for Android development, we’re excited to announce today that the Gradle Kotlin DSL is becoming the default build language for Android apps, starting in Android Studio Giraffe. Read the blog post to learn more.

Jetpack Compose

Since going Kotlin-first, all new Jetpack libraries are written in Kotlin. Jetpack Compose, our modern toolkit for building Android apps, is Kotlin-only. It makes extensive use of Kotlin’s language features, and its implementation is made possible by Kotlin’s rich compiler API, which allows us to generate state management logic for you.

Jetpack Compose is changing the way developers build apps. The team from Clue shared with us that their development speed increased up to 3x after rewriting their app in Compose. Over 23% of the top 1000 Android apps ship with Compose, more than double year over year.

There are many resources available to learn Compose. For existing Android developers looking to expand their knowledge, we’ve published the Jetpack Compose for Android Developers course. For beginners to programming, we recommend taking the Android Basics with Compose course to learn Kotlin, Android, and Compose.

Kotlin at Google

Kotlin became generally available for Android development within Google in 2019. Since then, most of our Android apps are being built with Kotlin. As an example of the benefits, when the Google Home team migrated to Kotlin they saw a 33% decrease in NullPointerExceptions, which greatly improved the end user experience.

However, Google’s interest in Kotlin does not stop at Android apps. More than 45% of our engineers who write Kotlin use it for server development. We have over 15 million lines of Kotlin code in Google’s source control system, and this has been doubling year over year.

To support this, we have a dedicated team building tools to integrate Kotlin into Google’s ecosystem. You can catch the Adopting Kotlin at Google scale session for more details.

We’re looking forward to the new compiler in Kotlin 2.0, which will be a major improvement for developer productivity. We have a dedicated team working with JetBrains on the compiler, and we’re working to incorporate it into our tooling, including Android Studio, KSP, and the Compose compiler. We’re also leveraging our large internal codebase of Kotlin code to verify the compatibility of the new compiler.

Multiplatform

Looking forward, we are experimenting with Kotlin Multiplatform. This includes the Google Workspace team, who have a prototype with the business logic of Google Docs running on iOS using Kotlin Multiplatform and Kotlin/Native. Check out the Kotlin Multiplatform in Google Workspace lightning talk to learn more.

As part of our explorations into Kotlin Multiplatform, we’ve also made contributions that will benefit the community:

We’ve ported a set of Jetpack libraries to multiplatform. This allows you to use tools and APIs you know and love from Android and apply them to multiplatform.

We’ve contributed to the Kotlin/Native toolchain, improving its performance.

We’ve been helping out with the Gradle plugin for Kotlin Multiplatform, to give you more control over each target platform while still sharing as much code as possible.

Kotlin Foundation

As a founding member of the Kotlin Foundation, we’re excited about the Foundation’s expansions announced at KotlinConf:

Inviting more companies to collaborate on the development and promotion of Kotlin through a membership program.

Offering funding for individual authors of actively maintained, open source Kotlin Multiplatform libraries.

With these steps, we continue to foster a healthy ecosystem for the language, and ensure its future advancement.

Catch us at KotlinConf

We look forward to sharing more in our sessions at KotlinConf, which you can tune in to on the live stream. If you’re attending in person, you can also visit us at our booth to have a chat about Kotlin.

April 13 schedule
Adopting Kotlin at Google scale

Jeffrey van Gogh, John Pampuch

Spring + Kotlin = Modern + Reactive + Productive

Josh Long, James Ward

Kotlin Multiplatform in Google Workspace

Jason Parachoniak

Kotlin Multiplatform Conversions at Android Jetpack Scale

Dustin Lam, James Ward

Untangling Coroutine Testing

Márton Braun

Adventures building a Kotlin Multiplatform Benchmarking Library

Rahul Ravikumar

April 14 schedule
Tracing coroutines in the JVM

Tyson Henning

Preventing Data Races in Async Coroutines

Kevin Bierhoff

Avoiding common coroutines mistakes in Compose

Márton Braun

*Java is a trademark or registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Source: Google Developers Blog

Google Dev Library Newsletter: 20th Edition

Posted by the Dev Library team

In this newsletter, we’re highlighting the best projects developed with Google technologies that have been contributed to the Google Dev Library platform. We hope this will spark some inspiration for your next project!

Highlights of the Month - Cloud Champions

Google Anthos in a nutshell by Navveen Balani

GCP Anthos Config Management Architecture

Dive into the overview on Anthos Service Mesh (ASM) and go through the topology supported by ASM and high level steps to implement multi cluster service mesh on a single and multiple VPC network.

Google Cloud Contact Center Artificial Intelligence (CCAI) by Rubens Zimbres

Explore the concept of CCAI and how it can be used to improve customer service, along with tools that can be integrated with existing contact center infrastructure to automate and optimize various processes.

Build a chat server with Cloud Run by Jaeyeon Baek

Explore how to build a chat server with Cloud Run using Python as the development language with the FastAPI framework.

Android

DocuBox by Vaibhav Jaiswal

Learn to build an app like DocuBox, which is designed to manage and organize documents on an Android device.

WebRTC Android by Jaewoong Eum

Understand how the WebRTC pre-compiled library for Android reflects the recent WebRTC updates to facilitate real-time video chat for Android.

WebRTC in Jetpack Compose by Jaewoong Eum

Discover how the project demonstrates WebRTC protocol to facilitate real-time video communications with Jetpack Compose.

TabSync, a lightweight synchronizer between Android's Tabs and Lists by Ahmad Hamwi

Learn how to add a synchronizer between Android’s RecyclerView and TabLayout, and what are the use cases of such on mobile devices.

Angular

Directives in practice: user role-based element control by Paweł Kubiak

Explore the concept of structural and attribute directives in Angular, which can be added to HTML elements to modify behavior or appearance.

Flutter

Ultimate guide to becoming a Flutter expert by Isaac Adariku

Become an Expert Flutter developer by mastering these concepts.

Handling complex HTML in Flutter by Tanmoy Karmakar

Discover how to handle complex HTML content like tables, images, and links in a Flutter app using the flutter_html package.

Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) with Flutter by Ayesha Iftikhar

Learn how to use FCM in Flutter apps. FCM is a cloud messaging service that allows you to send notifications and messages to devices on different platforms, including Android, iOS, and the web.

Understanding app localization in Flutter by Caleb Jesusegun

Take a deep dive into app localization and learn how to implement it in Flutter using the intl package.

Machine Learning

Visualizing custom TFX artifacts with InteractiveContext by Suzen Fylke

Learn how you can use InteractiveContext to visualize custom TFX artifacts.

How is generative machine learning transforming finance? By Hannes Hapke

Follow these detailed steps to adopt large generative models for domain-specific, fine-tuned generative models using the TensorFlow ecosystem.

Browse Dev Library | Newsletter archive

Source: Google Developers Blog

Yonatan Levin, Android GDE, uses his developer superpowers to help refugees in Ukraine

Posted by Kevin Hernandez, Developer Relations Community Manager

Yonatan Levin, R&D Tech Lead, Monday.com

Initial reaction to the news

At the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Android GDE Yonatan Levin was confused. He started his day just like any other - with exercise and a book - but on the day of the invasion, his phone was bombarded with text messages from friends, relatives, and coworkers. Normally a hard worker, Yonatan tried to go into work but as he sat at his desk, he had a distracting thought in the front of his mind. He recounts, “I was staring at my monitor and in my head, all I kept repeating was, ‘I have to do something, I have to do something.’” He messaged coworkers about the situation to see what they could do and eventually, the leadership of his or gave Yonatan their blessing to go to the Ukraine / Poland border and help the refugees. Yonatan and his friends immediately packed their bags and set out to Poland.

Arriving at the border

Yonatan and his friends landed and immediately drove 6 hours from Warsaw to the border where camps organized by volunteers were located. When he got there, he and his friends felt immediate shock. They saw thousands of refugees crammed in a small space with their whole lives packed into bags. His feeling of shock quickly wore off as he saw the unorganized volunteer efforts; he started focusing on ways to support relief efforts as a developer.

Yonatan noticed that there were volunteers arriving from all over Europe to offer free rides, accommodation, or even work opportunities. However, there was little technology being used - volunteers held up signs with locations they were driving to. The current matchmaking process was inefficient, so he decided to build an Android app and a solution on top of monday.com (an all-in-one work management software) where volunteers with cars and refugees registered online and were matched based on where they needed to go.

Using technology to turn chaos into order

Just like any new idea or a startup, Yonatan’s group went through iterations before they had a solution that truly worked. To replace the cardboard signs that volunteer drivers held up, Yonatan and his friends bought laptops and a TV so they could display a list of drivers and their destinations. Then, they matched refugees with volunteer drivers - but this proved to be a manual solution. They offered this solution to other camps but when they came back to the original site, they found that the laptops were closed and volunteers reverted back to the old system of holding up cardboard signs. This was a sign to go back to the drawing board to create something that would stick.

While the laptops and TV screens helped, there were still large queues at the camps as busloads of refugees came in every few minutes. With monday.com, they created a registration form for the refugees and a completely new process. Once refugees arrived at the camp, they received a wristband with a QR code, registered their names, and selected what they needed: food, sim cards, a bed, a ride to a different city, etc. This new process took just 10 minutes and they built a dashboard to keep track of data in order to dedicate resources where they were needed. For example, if the most in-demand destination was Warsaw, volunteers knew to recruit more drivers heading there.

Yonatan and his friends were able to pull off the impressive feat of developing an entire Android app with 3rd party APIs integrations for driver verification and a core database with monday.com in just one night. “To build an app in one night is amazing. You can not easily do this with other platforms,” he observed. This was a turning point for the camps and volunteer organizers embraced this system.

Reflecting a year later

Yonatan hopes to inspire others through his experience. “This is something that happened very close to me. If I did something about it, I hope others know they can help too,” he urges. He expanded the system to other camps and remembers one of the organizers beaming that it was the best software they have ever used. Yonatan and his colleagues used their expertise to help refugees get to safety and he reflects on being a developer by saying, “It is a power that we developers have - to identify a huge pain and solve it with relatively minimal effort, sometimes in a matter of hours. This is a super power.”

Yonatan’s motto is to help in any way you can. He encourages other developers, “Things happen everywhere, all the time. Do not distance yourself from the struggles of others. Instead, search for ways you can help them.” Due to the changing environment, the app is not being used today but countless refugees were driven to safety thanks to Yonatan's developer superpowers.

You can find Yonatan on LinkedIn or Twitter.

The Google Developer Experts (GDE) program is a global network of highly experienced technology experts, influencers, and thought leaders who actively support developers, companies, and tech communities by speaking at events and publishing content.

Source: Google Developers Blog

Developer Journey: April 2023

Posted by Lyanne Alfaro, DevRel Program Manager, Google Developer Studio

Developer Journey is a monthly series to spotlight diverse and global developers sharing relatable challenges, opportunities, and wins in their journey. Every month, we will spotlight developers around the world, the Google tools they leverage, and the kind of products they are building.

This month, it’s our pleasure to feature three members from the Google Developer Experts community. Enjoy reading through their entries below and be on the lookout on Google Developer communities’ social media platforms, where we will also showcase their work.

Ruqiya Bin Safi

Google Developer Expert, Machine Learning

Women Techmakers Ambassador

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Data Scientist

Twitter

What Google tools have you used to build?

I used TensorFlow, one of the most widely used tools for building machine learning models. It is employed in a variety of applications including image recognition, speech recognition, and natural language processing.

Besides TensorFlow, I have used several cloud-based products for ML/AI development, such as Google's Vertex AI. This powerful platform enables developers to accelerate machine learning development and deployment by providing a unified platform for data, AI, and tooling for both pre-trained and custom models. With Vertex AI, developers can implement MLOps practices to efficiently manage, monitor, and govern their ML workloads. This includes features like automated model tuning, model management, and model serving.

Another useful Google tool that I often use is Google Colab, a cloud-based notebook that enables users to run and share Jupyter notebooks with Python code, including TensorFlow code.

Which tool has been your favorite to use? Why?

One of my favorite tools to use is Google Vertex AI. This platform provides an end-to-end solution for building, deploying, and managing machine learning models. It offers a user-friendly interface for data processing, model training, and model deployment without requiring extensive knowledge of machine learning.

Google Vertex AI also has a wide range of pre-built models, such as image and speech recognition, text classification, and more - which can be used to jumpstart machine learning projects. The platform also allows for customization of these pre-built models or the ability to create your own models. Additionally, it provides automatic hyperparameter tuning, which helps to optimize model performance.

Another great feature of Google Vertex AI is its scalability. It can handle large datasets and can automatically scale resources up or down based on demand, making it ideal for organizations with varying machine learning needs.

Overall, Google Vertex AI is a powerful and user-friendly tool that makes machine learning accessible to a wider audience. Its combination of pre-built models, customization options, automatic hyperparameter tuning, and scalability make it an excellent choice for both beginners and advanced machine learning practitioners.

Tell us about something you've built in the past using Google tools.

I collaborated with my team in the Smartathon competition to develop an object detection model utilizing two distinct methods: YOLOv3 Tensorflow, pre-trained on ImageNet dataset, and Google AutoML. Our primary goal was to accurately identify and locate various objects within images. The Smartathon competition specifically targets visual pollution on street imagery taken from a moving vehicle. The objective is to introduce a new field of automated visual pollution classification for environmental management using advanced technology.

Meanwhile, participants simulate human learning experience by training and testing convolutional neural networks for picture identification and visual pollutant classification. The competition aims to create a "visual pollution index" for urban areas, which could become a new metric in urban environmental management. The competition dataset consists of raw sensor camera inputs captured by a fleet of multiple vehicles in a specific geographic area in KSA. We were motivated to participate and to have an impact on further development in city planning and to empower communities worldwide.

What advice would you give someone starting in their developer journey?

Choose a specific field or technology that you are interested in and focus on it. There are so many areas of development to explore, so it's important to identify your interests and invest your time and energy in developing expertise in that area.
Practice coding regularly. The more you practice, the better you will become.

Join a developer community or attend developer meetups. This can help you learn from other developers, get feedback on your work, and stay up-to-date on the latest trends and technologies.

Read documentation and tutorials regularly. This will help you stay up-to-date on the latest trends and technologies and keep your skills sharp.

Don't be afraid to ask for help. Developers are a helpful community, and there are many resources available online to help you with any questions or issues you may encounter.

Develop good coding habits early on. This includes writing clean and readable code, commenting on your code, and using version control.

Always be willing to learn and adapt. Technology is constantly evolving, so it's important to stay open to new ideas and be willing to learn new technologies and programming languages.

Remember that becoming a successful developer takes time and effort, but with persistence, dedication, and a passion for coding, you can achieve your goals.

Antonio Leiva

Google Developer Expert, Kotlin and Android

Madrid, Spain

CEO @ DevExpert

YouTube

Twitter

What Google tools have you used to build?

Android and all the AndroidX libraries. In particular, I use Jetpack Compose a lot nowadays.

Which tool has been your favorite to use? Why?

Jetpack Compose is one of the tools that I'm dedicating most of my time to. As a trainer, I believe it's the right time to learn this technology, and as a developer, I see it as a game-changer in terms of interface creation.

The development speed is significantly increased, and in my opinion, it's a much more natural way to create UI code. Additionally, being cross-platform opens up a world of possibilities that were previously unimaginable.

Tell us about something you've built in the past using Google tools.

I have built many amazing applications while working on projects for other companies. The most challenging one was Plex, where we worked on a multimedia playback and personal catalog product. There, we faced many complexities that are hard to find in typical applications.

Perhaps the project I am most proud of has been the creation of my own teaching academy, DevExpert, where I help other programmers become experts in Android technologies and the Kotlin language.

What advice would you give someone starting in their developer journey?

One thing that truly ignited my passion for my work and software development was participating in community events hosted by the likes of Google Developer Groups, where I discovered many talented individuals who genuinely enjoyed their daily tasks.

This energy inspired me to improve in my profession and to create content that would assist others in similar situations.

So my advice is to become involved in communities, attend events, and dedicate time to helping others follow the same path.

Aurélie Vache

Google Developer Expert, Cloud technologies

Toulouse, France

DevRel, OVHCloud

Twitter

GitHub

Notist

What Google tools have you used to build?

As a developer and data lover, I use several Google products and I have been a Cloud enthusiast for many years.

I’ve used:

Google Cloud Platform: BigQuery, GKE, Cloud Run, Cloud Functions, Anthos, Pub/Sub, Cloud Code, Cloud Build, Container Registry

Android Studio

Google Maps API

GWT

When it comes to building, accessibility and AI also matter to me so I used Cloud Vision API, Cloud Text to Speech API, Cloud Speech to Text API & Cloud Translation API.

I am working for OVHcloud, a European Cloud provider, so I’m not using Google Cloud technologies at the moment, but I continue to use a language that I love: Golang. It is one of the languages used within OVHcloud to create new cloud provider services.

Moreover, for several years, I have been using and sharing a lot about Kubernetes and Isio - two projects created and open-sourced by Google.

Which tool has been your favorite to use? Why?

I have two tools in my mind when I am thinking about Google.

The first one is Google BigQuery. In my first company, we needed to analyze data for our internal teams and our customers, and the first technical architecture that we had put in place was based on the Hadoop ecosystem with a cluster under Cloudera of ten hosted servers. The performance was there, but the time spent on maintenance and operations was high.

When BigQuery was mature enough and met our needs on paper, we decided to test this new Google technology and migrate our products. We’ve spent years creating tools related to BigQuery, customizing and fine-tuning queries, monitoring developments, and maintaining products.

Another tool that I love is Kubernetes. It is a container orchestrator created and open-sourced by Google that I discovered and used a lot at a previous job. Since then, I have used this tool often in production. I gave several talks at conferences on it, published many blog posts, and used sketchnotes to explain this technology in a visual way.

Now, I work with the OVHcloud teams who create and maintain managed Kubernetes clusters. It's a pleasure to test, give feedback, help on the UX and DX of the solutions, write articles, tutorials, talk to users, and just keep working daily with Kubernetes.

Tell us about something you've built in the past using Google tools.

In my first company, I co-created moderation and community management tools. First, there was an application that centralizes all conversational content flows in real time, regardless of the social network, website, or blog. This application, made in Java and Google Web Toolkit, is still used by teams of moderators, community managers, watchers, and supervisors who can moderate, classify, and apply a tone to the content of the messages.

After linking this tool to Google BigQuery to store data in real time, it was possible to do so much more. We could moderate content in post, generate customer reports, and dashboards for teams.

What advice would you give someone starting in their developer journey?

Learn every day. We are lucky to do a job that allows us to learn every day. You have the right to make mistakes and to learn from those mistakes properly.

There are plenty of great communities through which you could attend presentations. Talk to other developers and then feel free to share from your end as well.

One more thing: Trust yourself. Don't try to copy others. Be yourself. Stay yourself. Have confidence in yourself, in your ideas, and in your abilities.

Source: Google Developers Blog

Become a Google Developer Student Club lead

Posted by Rachel Francois, Program Manager

Do you love programming and Google technologies? Interested in using your tech skills to help your community? Excited to teach other students to code? If the answer to these three questions is yes, we encourage you to apply to be a Lead of Google Developer Student Clubs https://developers.google.com/community/gdsc/leads!

The application for 2023-2024 Leads is OPEN. Get started at goo.gle/gdsc-leads.

Here are a few more details about the program:

What are Google Developer Student Clubs?

Google Developer Student Clubs (GDSC) are university-based community groups for students interested in Google technologies and programming. There are Google Developer Student Clubs in over 110 countries around the world that include undergraduate and graduate students. GDSC members teach each other about Machine Learning, Android app development, Google Cloud, Flutter, and other exciting technologies.

Clubs host events, guest speakers, and hackathons. Many participate in the GDSC Solution Challenge. Students who participate in GDSC have the opportunity to build new skills and learn with their peers and often have the chance to create technical solutions for their communities.

For example, COMSATS Wah University GDSC lead Ahsan Aman built an Android app to detect currency counterfeiting, a problem in his community in Northern Pakistan.

“Through leading my university’s Google Developer Student Club in Islamabad, I came across Machine Learning and other products like Google Teachable Machine,” he says. “With the resources and guidance available from Google, I applied my new skills in across tools like Google Teachable Machine and Android development to build 5Hazar, an application that aims to scan and detect fake currency notes using Machine Learning.”

How will I improve my skills as a GDSC Lead?

As a Google Developer Student Club Lead, you’ll:

Receive mentorship from Google.

Join a global community of leaders.

Share your skills with peers.

Teach other students to code and use Google technologies.

Build solutions for real-world problems.

Not only will you learn technical skills, you’ll grow your leadership skills, by organizing a student organization and establishing a vision for your community.

“GDSC helped me with personal skills, soft skills, such as public speaking and leadership,” says 2019 GDSC Vancouver Island University lead Lenz Paul. “The highlight was that I learned a lot about Google Cloud technologies, by holding workshops and delivering content.”

How can I find a Google Developer Student Club near me?

There are over 1900 Google Developer Student Clubs in over 110 around the world. Find a club near you here, or learn how to start your own, here.

When do I need to submit the application?

We encourage students to submit your application as soon as possible. Learn more about your region’s application deadlines here, and learn more about GDSC’s program criteria.

Make a difference in your community

From working to solve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to combating climate issues, Google Developer Student Club leads are learning valuable coding skills while making a true difference.

“Being a GDSC Lead has brought me tremendous opportunities,” says Rose Niousha, founder of GDSC Waseda University and Women Techmakers ambassador. “Since one of my biggest objectives was to tackle the gender barrier in the tech industry through my GDSC community, I actively hosted events during International Women's Day (IWD) month.”

We look forward to seeing what our next group of Google Developer Student Club Leads can accomplish. Join the fun here.

Note: Google Developer Student Clubs are student-led independent organizations, and their presence does not indicate a relationship between Google and the students' universities.

Source: Google Developers Blog

GDE Women’s History Month Feature: Jigyasa Grover, Machine Learning

Posted by Kevin Hernandez, Developer Relations Community Manager

For Women’s History Month, we are celebrating Jigyasa Grover, ML GDE.

Photo of Jigyasa Grover, holding a cup of coffee, smiling

Jigyasa Grover, ML GDE, Senior ML Engineer, Twitter

Jigyasa Grover is a 10x award winner in AI and open source, a published book author in machine learning, and was most recently named one of the 50 most powerful women in technology to follow for 2023. Jigyasa has always been inspired by technology – with her father being a computer scientist for the government of India and playing with a toy laptop as a child. Google has also played an integral role in her career by providing resources and community every step of the way: from early in her university days through Google Summer of Code to today, where she is a Senior ML Engineer at Twitter and leverages the Women Techmakers and Google Developer Experts programs to connect with other developers and pay it forward through programs like Google Code-In.

Getting involved in the developer community

Things started rolling for Jigyasa in her first year at university when she discovered Pharo at the library, where she spent a lot of her time. As she started to dive deeper into Pharo, she read more and more about the open source community and eventually started reaching out to members of the community online. This led her to discover Google Summer of Code, an open source internship, where she was selected to participate as one of the youngest developers. After a successful stint in the program, Jigyasa was invited to participate again the following year, which proved to be a pivotal moment in her academic career. Up to this point, Jigyasa was working primarily on mobile and web app development. “The second year, the project that I was working on was more focused on building web scrapers, machine learning, NLP chatbots, and so on. That was my introduction to the world of machine learning which got me intrigued”, Jigyasa says. After this experience she started taking more courses related to machine learning, watched talks, worked on more machine learning projects, and interned at the National Research Council of Canada and then the Institute Research and Development in France. These experiences helped shape her career vision and she knew that machine learning would be her field of expertise.

Finding community through Google

Up until college, Jigyasa had always gone to all-girls schools so when she first got to engineering school, it was an eye-opening experience for her. She reflects, “I felt like a minority coming from a place where I was surrounded by girls all the time. That's when I started Googling different organizations and found organizations like Women Who Code, Women Techmakers, and Google Developer Groups.” These organizations exposed her to mentorship, resources, and events, and more. One such event was Google I/O, where she was invited to attend online. Many developer events reminded her of the lack of women's representation in the developer community. This inspired her to commit to the saying, "be the change you want to see in the world." Jigyasa would go on to pursue speaking opportunities at tech events and inspire other women developers with her passion and support.

After university, Jigyasa discovered the GDE program and the strong community the program offers. Jigyasa adds, “I think one of the most meaningful parts of the program is the community. I like how different Google programs cater to different kinds of audiences. For example, when I became a GDE, I was a part of the wider developer community but also connected with developers in my field of expertise - machine learning.” Jigyasa appreciates being able to interact with people in her field and is motivated by being surrounded by like-minded people. She has even been a guest on another GDE’s YouTube channel and was also given a chance to connect with Laurence Moroney, Lead AI Advocate at Google, who wrote the foreword for her book. Jigyasa credits Google developer programs for developing her career and expertise, “All of these programs have brought me great opportunities. Summer of Code, Google Developers Groups, Women Techmakers, and now GDE. All these programs have been so important in my journey and I'm forever grateful to them.”

Inspiration and advice

As an award winner and influencer in technology, Jigyasa is a role model for other women and is committed to helping women developers in their careers. She says, “It has definitely been a journey. From being involved in these communities, giving talks in numerous countries and cities. It's just been a domino effect.” In addition to speaking events, Jigyasa has published content, mentored through Google programs and has even designed curriculums at local colleges in the Bay Area.

Jigyasa urges other women developers to pursue opportunities for development and connection. Jigyasa has accomplished a lot in her career by reaching out to her communities and by saying yes to challenging opportunities. She is committed to supporting more women in their developer journey and driving representation in the field of machine learning.

You can find Jigyasa on LinkedIn, Twitter, or her personal site.

Source: Google Developers Blog

What it means to be an Android Google Developer Expert

Posted by Yasmine Evjen, Community lead, Android DevRel

The community of Android developers is at the heart of everything we do. Seeing the community come together to build new things, encourage each other, and share their knowledge encourages us to keep pushing the limits of Android.

At the core of this is our Android Google Developer Experts, a global community that comes together to share best practices through speaking, open-source contributions, workshops, and articles. This is a caring community that mentors, supports each other, and isn’t afraid to get their hands dirty with early access Android releases, providing feedback to make it the best release for developers across the globe.

We asked, “What do you love most about being in the #AndroidDev and Google Developer Expert community?”

Gema Socorro says, ”I love helping other devs in their Android journey,” and Jaewoog Eum shares the joy of “Learning, building, and sharing innovative Android technologies for everyone.”

Hear from the Google Developer Expert Community

We also sat down with Ahmed Tikiwa, Annyce Davis, Dinorah Tovar, Harun Wangereka, Madona S Wambua, and Zarah Dominguez - to hear about their journey as an Android Developer and GDE and what this role means to them - watch them on The Android Show below.

Annyce, VP Engineer Meetup shares, “the community is a great sounding board to solve problems, and helps me stay technical and keep learning.”

Does the community inspire you? Get involved by speaking at your local developer conferences, sharing your latest Android projects, and not being afraid to experiment with new technology. This year, we’re spotlighting community projects! Tag us in your blogs, videos, tips, and tricks to be featured in the latest #AndroidSpotlight.

Active in the #AndroidDev community? Become an Android Google Developer Expert.

A group of Android Developers and a baby, standing against a headge of lush greenery, smiling

Source: Google Developers Blog

Launching new #WeArePlay stories from India

Posted by Parul Tyagi, Developer Marketing

Every month, over 2.5 billion people visit Google Play to discover millions of apps and games, which are created by people with all sorts of backgrounds, who founded companies big and small.

#WeArePlay celebrates this community of people building apps and games businesses, with monthly spotlights of founders from across the world.

Last summer we went on a virtual tour of the USA, sharing stories from every state, and today we’re continuing our tour across the world with our next stop: India.

To kick us off, we are spotlighting 20 stories from across the country, with many more coming throughout the year.

Moving text reads #WeArePlay INDIA Discover now g.co/play/weareplay-india Google Play

First, we begin with Pramit from Gurugram, Haryana. He was climbing the corporate ladder when medication he was taking damaged his retina, therefore losing his vision. No longer able to read, he required help from friends and family to perform daily tasks. One day, when a friend was booking a driver for him, Pramit got the idea to create a tool that could function exactly like a virtual friend through voice-activated commands. Using his app Louie Voice Control, people can operate other apps using their voice, making technology infinitely more accessible for the visually impaired.

#WeArePlay Pramit Visioapps Technology Gurugram, Haryana g.co/play/weareplay-india Google Play

Next, meet Sourav and Gunjan from Kolkata, West Bengal. When Sourav and Gunjan had their son, they noticed how fascinated he was watching videos on their phones. This gave Gunjan the idea to provide meaningful screen time for him by making educational games for young children. Fast forward to today and they have 42 apps, including Yoga for Kids where youngsters follow along with simple yoga poses and unlock animated pets as rewards.

#WeArePlay Sourav & Gunjan Gunjanapps Studios Kolkata, West Bengal g.co/play/weareplay-india Google Play

Now onto Tejas from Rajkot, Gurajat. He was always determined to go his own way in life and pursue programming, rather than his family's construction business. After discovering how popular cooking games are, his company TheAppGuruz makes versions catered specifically for Asian audiences - with some full of Indian dishes and specialties. Now, Tejas and his team are developing more cooking simulation titles, as well as traditional board games for a global audience.

#WeArePlay Tejas TheAppGuruz Rajkot, Gujarat g.co/play/weareplay-india Google Play

And last but not least, Anshul and Rohan from Mumbai, Maharashtra. After bonding over their experiences in overcoming mental health struggles, they discovered they had the same goal: to create something in the mental wellness space. So they built Evolve - an app with guided meditations, breathing exercises and daily affirmations. During the pandemic, the pair realized the LGBTQ+ community was one of the most underserved in mental health support, so they adapted Evolve to meet their needs.

#WeArePlay Rohan &Anshul Evolve Mumbai, Maharashtra g.co/play/weareplay-india Google Play

Check out all the stories now at g.co/play/weareplay-india and stay tuned for even more coming soon.

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Source: Google Developers Blog

Build your first AppSheet app: how I built a food tracker

Posted by Filipe Gracio, PhD - Customer Engineer

I keep forgetting what I have in the freezer. At first I used Google Sheets to keep track of it, but I wanted something that was easy to consult and update on my smartphone. So I turned to AppSheet! Here’s a tutorial to follow to make a similar tracking solution.

Creating the database

First I created a database that imported my data from the Sheet:

A cropped screen shot illustrating creating a database in AppSheet by importing data from sheets

After I selected “Import from Sheets” and selected the sheet I was cumbersomely maintaining, I get the preview of the new database:

Creating the App

Then I can go back and create an App:

A cropped screen shot illustrating creating an app

After I name it I can select the database I just created.

A cropped screen shot illustrating step 1 of selecting the database

Then

A cropped screen shot illustrating step 2 of selecting the database

The App now starts getting created, and then I can start customizing it!

Customizing the App:

I decided I want to actually add more information to the App. For example, I want to categorize my items, so I need another column. I can edit the data for this and I'll add a column “Category”.

A cropped screen shot illustrating editing the data

After adding the extra column, this is the result:

A cropped screen shot showing the data with the new column added

That’s going to come in handy later for presentation and organization!

Now let's do some configuration about how the items are presented on the actual app. That’s in the UX section of the App builder. I want to select “Table”, Group by “category” and then sort alphabetically by “Item”

A cropped screen shot showing The Pirmary views in the UX Section of the App builder

After tweaking a few more options in UX “Brand” and “Format Rules”, this is how my app is looks:

A screen shot of the app on a mobile device displaying with content from the original dataset

Using the App - adding and updating items.

Now, I can see what I have in the freezer at all times. If I cook something and have a leftover, I can just add it by clicking the + button. After that, I just need to add in the info:

A screen shot illustrating the functionality of the app on a mobile device

And of course, if I use something I can just tap on it to edit the amount (or delete it).

Try it yourself!

This small App is something I use every week now! It is much easier than my old method, plus I learned how to use AppSheet. And this was just a quite simple use case - which only touched the tip of the iceberg of AppSheet’s features. If you work for organizations that have information to share and organize, this technology could be useful for you.

Try it out for yourself: you can use the complete set of AppSheet features at no cost while building one or many app prototypes. You can also invite up to 10 test users at no cost to use your apps and share feedback.

Thank you to my colleague Florian Opitz, Customer Engineer - Google Workspace + Security , for his useful edits and suggestions.

Source: Google Developers Blog

How students are making an impact on mental health through technology

Posted by Laura Cincera, Program Manager Google Developer Student Clubs Europe

Mental health remains one of the most neglected areas of healthcare worldwide, with nearly 1 billion people currently living with a mental health condition that requires support. But what if there was a way to make mental health care more accessible and tailored to individual needs?

The Google Developer Student Clubs Solution Challenge aims to inspire and empower university students to tackle our most pressing challenges - like mental health. The Solution Challenge is an annual opportunity to turn visionary ideas into reality and make a real-world impact using the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals as a blueprint for action. Students from all over the world work together and apply their skills to create innovative solutions using Google technology, creativity and the power of community.

One of last year’s top Solution Challenge proposals, Xtrinsic, was a cooperation between two communities of student leaders - GDSC Freiburg in Germany and GDSC Kyiv in Ukraine. The team developed an innovative mental health research and therapy application that adapts to users' personal habits and needs providing effective support at scale.

The team behind Xtrinsic includes Alexander Monneret, Chikordili Fabian Okeke, Emma Rein, and Vandysh Kateryna, who come from different backgrounds but share a common mission to improve mental health research and therapy.

Using a wearable device and TensorFlow, Xtrinsic helps users manage their symptoms by providing customized behavioral suggestions based on their physiological signs. It acts as an intervention tool for mental health issues such as nightmares, panic attacks, and anxiety and adapts the user's environment to their specific needs - which is essential for effective interventions. For example, if the user experiences a panic attack, the app detects the physiological signs using a smartwatch and a machine learning model, and triggers appropriate action, such as playing relaxing sounds, changing the room light to blue, or starting a guided breathing exercise. The solution was built using several Google technologies, including Android, Assistant/Actions on Google, Firebase, Flutter, Google Cloud, TensorFlow, WearOS, DialogFlow, and Google Health Services.

The team behind Xtrinsic is diverse. Alexander, Chikordili, Emma and Vandysh come from different backgrounds but share a passion for AI and how it can be leveraged to improve the lives of many. They all recognize the importance of shedding awareness on mental health and creating a supportive culture that is free from stigma. Their personal experiences in conflict areas, such as Syria and Ukraine inspired them to develop the application.

Solution Challenge Google Developer Student Clubs Xtrinsic project For mental health research and therapy GDSC Ukraine and Germany

Xtrinsic was recognized as one of the Top 3 winning teams in the 2022 Google Solution Challenge for its innovative approach to mental health research and therapy. The team has since supported several other social impact initiatives - helping grow the network of entrepreneurs and community leaders in Europe and beyond.

Google Developer Student Clubs Help students grow and build solutions

Learn more about Google Developer Student Clubs

If you feel inspired to make a positive change through technology, submit your project to Solution Challenge 2023 here. And if you’re passionate about technology and are ready to use your skills to help your local community, then consider becoming a Google Developer Student Clubs Lead!

We encourage all interested university students to apply here and submit their applications as soon as possible. The applications in Europe, India, North America and MENA are currently open.

Learn more about Google Developer Student Clubs here.