Category Archives: Android Developers Blog

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11 Weeks of Android: That’s a wrap

11

This is the final blog post for #11WeeksOfAndroid. Thank you for joining us over the past 11 weeks as we dove into key areas of Android development. In case you missed it, here’s a recap of everything we talked about during each week:

Week 1 - People and identity

Discover how to implement the conversation shortcut and bubbles with ‘conversation notifications’. Also, learn more about conversation additions and other System UI news, and discover the people and conversations developer documentation here. Finally, you can also listen to the Android Backstage podcast where the System UI team is interviewed on people and bubbles.

To tackle user and developer complexity that makes identity a challenge for developers, we've been working on One Tap and Block Store, part of our new Google Identity Services Library.

If you’re interested in learning more about Identity, we published the video “in Identity on Android: what’s new in sign-in,” where Vishal explains the new libraries in the Google Identity System.

Two teams that worked very early with us are the Facebook Messenger team and the direct messaging team from Twitter. Read the story from Twitter here and find out how we worked with Facebook on the implementation here.

Find out more with the People and Identity learning path, playlist, and the week’s wrap-up blog post.

Week 2 - Machine learning

We kicked off the week by announcing the winners of the #AndroidDevChallenge! Check out all the winning apps and see how they used ML Kit and TensorFlow Lite, all focused on demonstrating how machine learning can come to life in a powerful way to help users get things done, like an app to help visually impaired navigate crowded spaces or another to help students learn sign language.

We recently made ML Kit a standalone SDK and it no longer requires a Firebase account. Just one line in your build.gradle file and you can start bringing ML functionality into your app.

Another much anticipated addition is the support for swapping Google models with your own for both Image Labeling as well as Object Detection and Tracking.

Find out about the importance of finding the unique intersection of user problems and ML strengths and how the People + AI Guidebook can help you make ML product decisions. Check out the interview with the Read Along team for more inspiration.

This week we also highlighted how adding a custom model to your Android app has never been easier.

Finally, try out our codelabs:

Find out more with the Machine Learning pathway, playlist, and the week’s wrap-up blog post.

Week 3 - Privacy and security

As shared in the “Privacy and Security” blog post, we’re giving users even more control and transparency over user data access.

In Android 11, we introduced various privacy improvements such as one time permissions that let users give an app access to the device microphone, camera, or location, just that one time. Learn more about building privacy-friendly apps with these new changes. You can also learn about various Android security updates in this video.

Other notable updates include:

  • Permissions auto-reset: If users haven’t used an app that targets Android 11 for an extended period of time, the system will “auto-reset” all of the granted runtime permissions associated with the app and notify the user.
  • Data access auditing APIs: In Android 11, developers will have access to new APIs that will give them more transparency into their app’s usage of private and protected data. Learn more about new tools in Android 11 to make your apps more private and stable.
  • Scoped Storage: In Android 11, scoped storage will be mandatory for all apps that target API level 30. Learn more and check out the storage FAQ.
  • Google Play system updates: Google Play system updates were introduced with Android 10 as part of Project Mainline, making it easier to bring core OS component updates to users.
  • Jetpack Biometric library:The library has been updated to include new BiometricPrompt features in Android 11 in order to allow for backward compatibility.

Find out more with the ‘privacy, trust and security’ learning pathway, playlist, and documentation on privacy and security best practices.

Week 4 - Android 11 compatibility

We shipped the second Beta of Android 11 and added a new release milestone called Platform Stability to clearly signal to developers that all APIs and system behaviors are complete. Find out more about Beta 2 and platform stability, including what this milestone means for developers, and the Android 11 timeline. Note: since week #4, we shipped the third and final beta and are getting close to releasing Android 11 to AOSP and the ecosystem. Be sure to check that your apps are working!

To get your apps ready for Android 11, check out some of these helpful resources:

In our “Accelerating Android updates” blog post, we looked at how we’re continuing to get the latest OS to reach critical mass by expanding Android’s updatability architecture.

We also highlighted Excelliance Tech, who recently moved their LeBian SDK away from non-SDK interfaces, toward stable, official APIs so they can stay more compatible with the Android OS over time. Check out the Excelliance Tech story.

Find out more with the Android 11 Compatibility learning pathway, playlist, and the week’s wrap-up blog post.

Week 5 - Languages

With the Android 11 beta, we further improved the developer experience for Kotlin on Android by officially recommending coroutines for asynchronous work. If you’re new to coroutines, check out:

Also, check out our new Kotlin case studies page for the latest case studies and data, including the new Google Home case study, and our state of Kotlin on Android video. For beginners, we announced the launch of our new Android basics in Kotlin course.

If you’re a Java language developer, watch support for newer Java APIs on how we’ve made newer OpenJDK libraries available across versions of Android. With Android 11, we also updated the Android runtime to make app startup even faster with I/O prefetching.

Android 11 included updates across the native toolchain, including better tools for profile-guided optimization (PGO) and improvements to native dependency management in Android Studio 4.0.

Finally, we continue to focus on improvements to the D8 and R8 compilers in Android Studio with better support for Kotlin in the R8 shrinker. Learn more.

Find out more with the languages learning pathway, playlist, and the week’s wrap-up blog post.

Week 6 - Android Jetpack

Interested in what’s new in Jetpack? Check out the #Android11 Beta launch with a quick fly-by introducing many of the updates to our libraries, with tips on how to get started.

  • Dive deeper into major releases like Hilt, with cheat sheets to help you get started, and learn how we migrated our own samples to use Hilt for dependency injection. Less boilerplate = more fun.
  • Discover more about Paging 3.0, a complete rewrite of the library using Kotlin coroutines and adding features like improved error handling, better transformations, and much more.
  • Get to know CameraX Beta, and learn how it helps developers manage edge cases across different devices and OS versions, so that you don’t have to.

This year, we've made several major improvements with the release of Navigation 2.3, which allows you to navigate between different screens of your app with ease while also allowing you to follow Android UI principles.

In Android 11, we continued our work to give users even more control over sensitive permissions. Now there are type-safe contracts for common intents and more via new ActivityResult APIs. These changes simplify how you request permissions, and we’ll continue to work on making permissions easier in the future.

Also learn about our recent releases of the AppStartup library as well as what’s new in WorkManager.

Find out more with the Jetpack learning pathway, playlist, and the week’s wrap-up blog post.

Week 7 - Android developer tools

We have brought together an overview of what is new in Android Developer tools.

Check out the latest updates in design tools, and go even deeper:

Also, find out about debugging your layouts, with updates to the layout inspector. Discover the latest developments for Jetpack Compose Design tools, and also how to use the new database inspector in Android Studio.

Discover the latest development tools we have in place for Jetpack Hilt in Android Studio.

Learn about the build system in Android developer tools:

To learn about the latest updates on virtual testing, read this blog on the Android Emulator. Lastly, to see the latest changes for performance tools, watch performance profilers content about System Trace. Additionally, check out more about C++ memory profiling with Android Studio 4.1.

Find out more with the Android developer tools learning pathway, playlist, and the week’s wrap-up blog post.

Week 8 - App distribution and monetization

Check out our webinars about the new Google Play Console beta if you weren’t able to tune in live.

We shared recent improvements we’ve made to app bundles, as well as our intention to require new apps and games to publish with this format in the second half of 2021. The new in-app review API means developers can now ask for ratings and reviews from within your app!

Don’t forget about our policy around more transparent subscriptions to help increase user trust in Google Play Billing. We also expanded our feature set to help you better reach and retain buyers, and launched Play Billing Library 3, which will be required by mid-2021.

Google Play Pass launched in nine new markets last month. Developers using both Google Play Pass and direct billing on Google Play have earned an average of 2.5 times US revenue with Google Play Pass, without diminishing Google Play store earnings. Learn more and express interest in joining.

Find out more with the app distribution and monetization learning pathway, playlist, and the week’s wrap-up blog post.

Week 9 - Android beyond phones

Check out some of the highlights from this week, including;

Find out more with the learning pathways for Android TV and Large Screens, Beyond phones playlist, and the week’s wrap-up blog post.

Week 10 - Games and media

We shared several games updates and presented a special "11 Weeks" episode of The Android Game Developer Show.

You can also take advantage of Android 11's new media controls by making sure your app is using MediaStyle with a valid MediaSession token. Learn how to support media resumption by making your app discoverable with a MediaBrowserServiceCompat, using the EXTRA_RECENT hint to help with resuming content, and handling the onPlay and onGetRoot callbacks. Then check out how to leverage the MediaRouter jetpack library and check out the updated version of the UAMP sample.

Finally, we covered some of the primary ways apps can benefit from 5G. Android 11 adds new APIs and updates existing APIs to help ensure you have all the tools you need to leverage the capabilities of 5G, such as an enhanced bandwidth estimation API, 5G detection capabilities, and a new meteredness flag from cellular carriers. The Android emulator now enables you to develop and test these APIs without needing a 5G device or network connection. All of this and more is available from our dedicated 5G page.

Find out more with the ‘games and media’ learning pathway, playlist, and the wrap-up blog post, and visit d.android.com/games to stay up to date on all of our tools and resources for game developers.

Week 11 - UI

In our final week, we released 4 new codelabs, 9 new samples, new documentation and a podcast from the Compose team. If you prefer videos; we’ve got you covered:

New in Android 11 is the ability for apps to create seamless transitions between the on screen keyboard being opened and closed. To find out how to add this to your app, slide on over to the video, blog posts and sample app

We recommend following the Material Design guidelines to ensure that apps operate consistently, enabling patterns learned in one app to be used in another. Find out more about Material Theming (color, type and shape), dark theme and Material’s motion system using the Material Design Components (MDC) library. If you haven’t already migrated to MDC, then check out our migration guide.

It even becomes possible to ease your migration with libraries like the new MDC-Android Compose Theme Adapter which converts an MDC XML theme into a Compose `MaterialTheme`.

Find out more with the Compose learning pathway, the Modern UI learning pathway, playlist, and the week’s wrap-up blog post.

Resources

You can find the entire playlist of #11WeeksOfAndroid video content here. Follow us on Twitter and YouTube, and subscribe to our email list to receive all the latest news and resources. Thanks so much for letting us be a part of this experience with you!

11 Weeks of Android: UI and Compose

Posted by Chris Banes & Nick Butcher

Android

This blog post is part of a weekly series for #11WeeksOfAndroid. Each week we’re diving into a key area of Android so you don’t miss anything. This week, we spotlighted people & identity; here’s a look at what you should know.

The big news: Jetpack Compose Alpha

This week we released the first alpha of Jetpack Compose ?, Android’s modern UI toolkit with native access to the platform APIs. Compose combines the power of Kotlin with the reactive programming model to make it easier and faster to build UI. We want your feedback to help us build the APIs that you need in your apps, so now is the time to try it out.

To get you up to speed with Compose, this week we’ve released 4 new codelabs, 7 new samples, new documentation and a podcast from the Compose team. If you prefer videos; we’ve got you covered...

To understand the reactive mindset and how to think about building apps with Compose, check out ‘Thinking in Compose’:

Learn how Jetpack Compose makes Android UI easier by walking through concrete examples from our open-source sample apps in ‘Compose by Example’:

Finally, to understand how Jetpack Compose and View based UIs can co-exist and interact, making it easy to adopt Compose at your own pace, check out ‘Compose for Existing’ apps:

Keyboard (IME) animations

New in Android 11 is the ability for apps to create seamless transitions between the on screen keyboard being opened and closed, as well as a revamped WindowInsets API to enable control of things such as the keyboard (IME). To find out how to add this to your app, slide on over to the video, blog posts and sample app…

Material Design Components

We recommend following the Material Design guidelines to ensure that apps operate consistently, that patterns learned in one app can be used in another. Check out our new blog posts on Material Theming (color, type and shape), dark theme and Material’s motion system using the Material Design Components (MDC) library.

Adopting MDC now will prepare your codebase for later adopting Jetpack Compose — it uses the same concepts, design vocabulary and components. It even becomes possible to ease your migration with libraries like the new MDC-Android Compose Theme Adapter which converts an MDC XML theme into a Compose `MaterialTheme`.

If you haven’t already migrated to MDC, then check out our migration guide.

Learning path

If you’re looking for an easy way to pick up the highlights of this week, you can check out the learning pathways. This week we have two pathways for you to go through: the Compose pathway, and the ‘Modern UI’ pathway.

A pathway is an ordered tutorial that allows users to complete a pre-defined module that culminates in a quiz. It may include codelabs, videos, articles and blog posts. A virtual badge is awarded to each user who passes the quiz. Test your knowledge in each pathway to earn a limited edition badge.

Key takeaways

Whether you're building with the current UI toolkit or getting ready for the next generation we hope that the resources that we’ve shared this week help you to create beautiful, engaging UIs that your users will love. Thanks to everyone who tuned in or joined us for the AMA. Follow the Modern UI pathway to learn how to leverage Material Design, animation or the latest Android 11 features. Take the Compose pathway to learn about the future of Android UI development and help shape it with your feedback.

Resources

You can find the entire playlist of #11WeeksOfAndroid video content here, and learn more about each week here. We’ll continue to spotlight new areas each week, so keep an eye out and follow us on Twitter and YouTube. Thanks so much for letting us be a part of this experience with you!

Announcing Jetpack Compose Alpha!

Posted by Karen Ng, Director, Product Management

Today, we’re releasing the alpha of Jetpack Compose, our modern UI toolkit designed to help you quickly and easily build beautiful apps across all Android platforms, with native access to the platform APIs. Bring your app to life with dramatically less code, interactive tools, and intuitive Kotlin APIs.

No matter where you’re working from -- whether it’s your kitchen table or an office, we know you need a programming language, an IDE and a powerful UI framework that can save you time and reduce how much code you need to write. So we built Jetpack Compose to make you (and us!) more productive with building UI.

We started with Android Jetpack — taking the hardest, most common developer problems on Android and creating a suite of libraries that ensure high quality apps that work across all versions of the platform. Today, 84% of the top 10,000 apps in the Play store are using a Jetpack library.

Then we heard how developers love Kotlin, with over 70% of the top 1000 apps and 60% of pro Android developers using Kotlin today. The Google Home app saw, in certain instances, an 80% reduction in lines of code by using Kotlin and a decrease of NullPointerExceptions by 33% compared to a similar past period. Duolingo, saw reduced line count by an average of 30%.

Finally, we heard strong feedback from the community that developers like the simplicity of declarative APIs for building UI. Jetpack Compose combines all three of these: APIs for high quality apps at scale, an intuitive language, and a reactive programming model.

Jetpack

Jetpack Compose: Now in Alpha

Jetpack Compose Alpha has what you need to build full-fledged Android apps, including powerful tools and interoperability with existing Android views so you don’t need to rewrite your app. Compose APIs are designed and developed hand-in-hand with a set of canonical sample apps that use Material Design that we’re excited to release today! You can import and explore the latest samples directly in Android Studio as well.

compose

The alpha release includes:

  • Animations
  • Constraint Layout
  • Initial A11Y support
  • Input and Gestures
  • Interoperability with Views (start mixing Composable functions in your existing app)
  • Lazy Lists
  • Material UI components
  • Performance optimizations
  • Testing
  • Text and editable Text
  • Theming and Graphics
  • Window management

We've also added a number of new capabilities to Android Studio 4.2 canary, in close partnership with the JetBrains Kotlin team, to help you build apps with Compose:

  • Compose Code completion
  • Compose Preview Annotations
  • Deploy individual composables to any device
  • Interactive Compose previews
  • Kotlin compiler plugin for code generation
  • Sample Data API for Compose

Thinking in Compose

Compose uses a programming model that is quite different from the existing model of building UI on Android. Historically, an Android view hierarchy has been represented as a tree of UI widgets. As the state of the app changes, the UI hierarchy needs to be updated to display the current data. The most common way of updating the UI is to walk the tree using functions like findViewById(), and change nodes by calling methods like: 

 button.setText(String) 
container.addView(View) 
 img.setImageBitmap(Bitmap)
These methods change the internal state of the widget. Not only can this be tedious, but updating views manually increases the likelihood of errors (e.g. forgetting to update a view).

Jetpack Compose is a fully declarative component-based approach, meaning you describe your UI as functions that transform data into a UI hierarchy. When the underlying data changes, the Compose framework automatically updates the UI hierarchy for you, making it simple to build UIs easily and quickly.

Full interop with existing Android views

Adopting any new framework is a big change for existing projects and codebases, which is why we’ve designed Compose to be as easy to adopt as Kotlin — it is fully interoperable with existing Android code, from day one.

Migrating to Compose depends on you and your team. If you're building a new app, the best option might be to implement your entire UI with Compose. We know that most of you have large existing codebases, so rather than rewriting your app, you can combine Compose with your existing UI design.

There are two main ways you can combine Compose with a view-based UI:

  • You can add Compose elements into your existing UI, either by creating an entirely new Compose-based screen, or by adding Compose elements into an existing fragment or view layout.
  • You can add a view-based UI element into your composable functions. Doing so lets you add non-Compose widgets, such as MapView or WebView, into a Compose-based design.

We’ve also published a new library, MDC Compose Theme Adapter, which allows you to reuse your existing Material Components themes within your Compose UI.

To learn more, try the Compose for existing apps codelab or check out these two samples:

  • Tivi and Sunflower are existing apps which are being integrated with Compose
  • Crane sample app, embeds a MapView in Compose

Powerful Tools

Jetpack Compose is built with powerful tooling in Android Studio, designed to help you iterate quickly on the piece of UI you’re working on.

The Compose layout preview enables you to preview your Compose components without having to deploy your app to a device or emulator. As you develop your app, your previews update to help you review your changes faster. To create a layout preview, write a composable function that does not take any parameters, and add the 

 @Preview annotation
After you build your app, the preview function's UI appears in Studio's Preview pane.

Jetpack

Android Studio provides an interactive preview mode. While you're in interactive preview mode, you can click or type in your UI elements, and the UI responds as if it were in the installed app.

Jetpack

You can also deploy a single composable to your physical device or Android Emulator. Android Studio creates a new activity containing the UI generated by that function, and deploys it to your app on the device. This lets you try out the UI on an actual device without needing to reinstall the entire app or navigate to its location.

Jetpack

Get started with Jetpack Compose

To get started with Jetpack Compose, try the Compose Tutorial and get setup. Or dive right into the sample apps and walk through those apps in ‘Compose by Example’:

To find a comprehensive set of Compose resources, from new codelabs and expanded documentation, see the Compose pathway.

Since we open-sourced Jetpack Compose last year, so many of you have given us invaluable feedback, logged bugs, or contributed CLs and have gotten us where we are today. Thank you!

Compose isn’t recommended for full production use yet, in particular as we work towards API stability and finish performance optimizations, but we’d love you to give it a try and share feedback. Join us in the discussion on the #compose channel at Kotlin Slack. Compose 1.0 is expected in 2021.

Happy Composing!

11 Weeks of Android: Games, media, and 5G

Posted by Dan Galpin, Developer Advocate

Android

This blog post is part of a weekly series for #11WeeksOfAndroid. For each of the #11WeeksOfAndroid, we’re diving into key areas so you don’t miss anything. This week, we spotlighted games, media, and 5G; here’s a look at what you should know.

What's the buzz in Android 11?

  • You can now control media applications from a dedicated space within the notification area while enabling features such as playback resumption and seamless transfer.
  • New and updated 5g APIs help you unlock transformative new user experiences.
  • Adds new support for key game tools and technologies. On top of that foundation, we're building tools to both improve your game developer experience and help you better characterize the performance of your game, services to help you expand the reach of your game to more devices and new audiences, and new and improved features to support your games' go-to-market with Google Play.

Android 11 media

We covered how to take advantage of Android 11's new media controls by making sure your app is using MediaStyle with a valid MediaSession token. We showed how to support Media resumption by making your app discoverable with a MediaBrowserServiceCompat, using the EXTRA_RECENT hint to help with resuming content, and handling the onPlay and onGetRoot callbacks. Finally we showed you how to leverage the MediaRouter jetpack library to support seamless media transfer between devices. Check out the updated version of the UAMP sample which contains a reference implementation for media controls and playback resumption.

Android 11 and 5G

We covered some of the primary ways apps can benefit from 5g, including:

  • Turning indoor use cases into outdoor use cases
  • Turning photo-centric UX into video-centric or AR-centric UX
  • Prefetch helpfully to make your app even more responsive
  • Turn niche use cases into mainstream use cases, such as allowing streaming content everywhere

Android 11 adds new APIs and updates existing APIs to ensure you have all the tools you need to leverage the capabilities of 5G, such as an enhanced bandwidth estimation API, 5G detection capabilities, and a new meteredness flag from cellular carriers. The Android emulator now enables you to develop and test these APIs without needing a 5G device or network connection. All of this and more is available from our dedicated 5G page.

Catch up on what's happening with game development

We presented a special "11 Weeks" episode of The Android Game Developer Show providing an update on the tools, services, and technologies we're bringing to help you build, optimize, and distribute great games.

Check out d.android.com/games to learn about everything we've covered this week and more, and stay up to date by signing up for the games quarterly newsletter.

Android game development tooling

In Android Studio 4.1, we enhanced the System Trace view of the CPU Profiler and added the Native Memory Profiler, and both can now be launched standalone from Android Studio. The System Trace and Native Memory blog posts have more details on how to use them with your game or app.

You can sign up for developer previews of the Android Game Development Extension, and the Android GPU Inspector. The Android Game Development Extension helps with building multi-platform C/C++ games, while the GPU Inspector is used to profile and debug graphics. Stay tuned for the open beta of the Android GPU Inspector.

Reaching more devices and users with your game

We took a deep dive into the Android Performance Tuner, explaining annotations, quality levels, and fidelity parameters along with some best practices on how to use them. Once you've implemented that, we also covered how to use the new insights and analysis you'll get within Android Vitals.

We showed how Google Play Asset Delivery brings the benefits of app bundles to games with large asset sizes, flexible delivery modes, auto-updates, compression, and delta patching. Texture compression format targeting is coming very soon letting you tap into modern texture compression such as ASTC (now supported on over 50% of devices) allowing you to considerably cut your game size and in-memory footprint.

We published new codelabs to help you integrate Android Performance Tuner and Google Play Asset Delivery into your Unity or native C/C++ game.

We explained how we can help protect your game, players, and business by fighting monetization and distribution abuse.

Boost your games' go-to-market

We launched the open beta of Play Games Services - Friends to help you bootstrap and enhance your in-game friend networks while having your games surfaced in new clusters in the Play Games app.

We demonstrated the new release management experience in the Google Play Console beta and showed how it can help your testing and publishing workflow.

Day one auto-installs is a new Google Play feature that allows users to request the automatic installation of your game during pre-registration. Early experiments show a +20% increase in day 1 installs when using this feature. The new pre-registration menu in the beta Google Play Console makes it easier than ever to access this feature.

We showed how to optimize your store listing page to take advantage of the greatly improved games visual experience within Google Play, showcasing rich game graphics and engaging videos.

The new in-app review API lets you choose when to prompt users to write reviews from within your game, without heading back to the app details page. This API supports both public and private reviews for when your app is in beta.

Learning path

If you’re looking for an easy way to pick up the highlights of this week, check out the Games, media, and 5G pathway. A pathway is an ordered tutorial that allows users to complete a pre-defined module that culminates in a quiz. It includes videos and blog posts. A virtual badge is awarded to each user who passes the quiz. Test your knowledge of key takeaways about Android game development, media, and 5G to earn a limited edition badge.

Key takeaways

Thank you for tuning in and learning about the latest in Android game, media, and 5G development.

Seamless media transfer and media resumption

MediaRouter API (UAMP Sample)

5G

Bandwidth estimation API

5G Detection (Android Emulator)

Meteredness flag

Features found in Android Studio 4.1 (Beta Channel)

System Trace in Android Studio CPU Profiler

Android Studio Native Memory Profiler

Pre-release standalone tools

Android Game Development Extension

Android GPU Inspector.

Features in the Android Game SDK

Android Frame Pacing Library

Android Performance Tuner (C/C++ Codelab) (Unity Codelab)

Google Play features

Play Asset Delivery (C/C++ Codelab) (Unity Codelab)

In App Review API

App Licensing

SafetyNet Attestation

Pre-registration

Google Play Games Services

Play Games Services Friends Beta

You can find the entire playlist of #11WeeksOfAndroid video content here, and learn more about each week here. We’ll continue to spotlight new areas each week, so keep an eye out and follow us on Twitter and YouTube. Thanks so much for letting us be a part of this experience with you!

Getting ready for 5G on Android

Posted by Stella Loh, Product Manager, Android 5G

Android

Getting ready for 5G on Android

Connectivity is the lifeblood that makes all of the experiences on our phones come alive, helping us connect, communicate, and express ourselves to the people that we care about. As app developers, this mission is as important now as it’s ever been. You’ve probably heard the buzz around 5G and wondered: what does this mean for my app? As we dive into Media & Games as part of this weeks' #11WeeksofAndroid, two areas where 5G offers a lot of potential, we wanted to spotlight ways for you to think about taking advantage of 5G for your app or game.

Transforming your app or game with 5G: unlocking new experiences

5G isn’t just about faster connectivity: it’s about unlocking transformative new experiences, and we want to see how you continue to push the bar.

  • Turn indoor use cases into outdoor use cases: Suddenly, everything you could only do indoors comes alive outside, like high-quality video chat and playing multiplayer games wherever you happen to be.
  • Turn photo-centric UX into video-centric or AR-centric UX: Upgrade your users’ experience by replacing photos with videos and by incorporating augmented reality into your UX.
  • Prefetch helpfully, delight rather than buffer: Use the increased bandwidth to prefetch content, further enhancing the responsiveness of your app or game.
  • Turn niche use cases into mainstream use cases: Streaming content on older networks was the exception. Make streaming content the new mainstream with 5G.

We’ve been hard at work building in support for 5G on Android, and have been working with 5G carriers starting with Verizon and AT&T in the U.S., as well as others in Europe and Asia to provide necessary Android features for app developers looking to build 5G experiences.

In addition to working with the carriers, we have been updating and adding new APIs to ensure you have all the tools you need to leverage the capabilities of 5G. First, we enhanced the functionality of our bandwidth estimation API. Then we added 5G detection capabilities, so you know when to take it up a notch. Lastly, we added a new meteredness flag from cellular carriers so you know when your user isn’t being charged for bandwidth, and can really bring it!

We’ve also added features to the Android SDK emulator to enable you to develop and test these APIs without needing a 5G device or network connection.

All of this means that 5G starts here and now. Check out our new page dedicated to 5G so you can start imagining how 5G can transform your app.

Playing nicely with media controls

Posted by Don Turner - Developer Advocate - Android Media

Android

In Android 11 we've made it easier than ever for users to control media playback. This is achieved with three related features: media controls, playback resumption and seamless transfer.

This article will explain what these features are, how they work together and how you can take advantage of them in your apps.

Media Controls

Android 11's media controls are found below the Quick Settings panel and represent a dedicated persistent space for controlling media playback.

Media

Media controls in Android 11

Part of the motivation for media controls is that users often have multiple media apps (music player, podcasts, video player etc) and regularly switch between them. Media controls display up to five current and recent media sessions in a carousel allowing the user to swipe between them.

On Android 10 and earlier, media notifications for multiple apps can occupy most of the notification area. All those control buttons can also be confusing. Moving the controls into a dedicated space means that there's more room for other notifications, and provides a more consistent user experience for controlling media apps.

Here's the comparison:

image image of screen

Android 10 media notifications (left) Android 11 media controls (right)

Displaying media controls for your app

Now, the really good news. As long as you're using MediaStyle with a valid MediaSession token (both available since Lollipop API 21), media controls will be displayed for your app automatically - no extra work for you!

In case you're not using a MediaStyle and MediaSession here's a quick recap in code: 

// Create a media session. NotificationCompat.MediaStyle
// PlayerService is your own Service or Activity responsible for media playback.  
val mediaSession = MediaSessionCompat(this, "PlayerService")

// Create a MediaStyle object and supply your media session token to it. 
val mediaStyle = Notification.MediaStyle().setMediaSession(mediaSession.sessionToken)

// Create a Notification which is styled by your MediaStyle object. 
// This connects your media session to the media controls. 
// Don't forget to include a small icon.
val notification = Notification.Builder(this@PlayerService, CHANNEL_ID)
            .setStyle(mediaStyle)
            .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.ic_app_logo)
            .build()

// Specify any actions which your users can perform, such as pausing and skipping to the next track. 
val pauseAction: Notification.Action = Notification.Action.Builder(
            pauseIcon, "Pause", pauseIntent
        ).build()
notification.addAction(pauseAction)

The small icon and app name are shown in the upper left of the media controls. The actions are shown in the bottom center.

Paging

Media controls UI and corresponding Notification fields

The remaining UI fields, such as track title and playback position, are obtained from the media session's metadata and playback state.

Here's how the metadata fields map to the UI. 

mediaSession.setMetadata(
    MediaMetadataCompat.Builder()
        
        // Title. 
        .putString(MediaMetadata.METADATA_KEY_TITLE, currentTrack.title)

        // Artist. 
        // Could also be the channel name or TV series.
        .putString(MediaMetadata.METADATA_KEY_ARTIST, currentTrack.artist)
        
        // Album art. 
        // Could also be a screenshot or hero image for video content
        // The URI scheme needs to be "content", "file", or "android.resource".
        .putString(
            MediaMetadata.METADATA_KEY_ALBUM_ART_URI, currentTrack.albumArtUri)
        )

        // Duration. 
        // If duration isn't set, such as for live broadcasts, then the progress
        // indicator won't be shown on the seekbar.
        .putLong(MediaMetadata.METADATA_KEY_DURATION, currentTrack.duration) // 4

        .build()
)

This screenshot shows how these metadata fields are displayed in the media controls.

metadata

Media controls UI and corresponding metadata fields

The seek bar is updated using the media session's playback state in a similar way: 

mediaSession.setPlaybackState(
    PlaybackStateCompat.Builder()
        .setState(
            PlaybackStateCompat.STATE_PLAYING,
                        
            // Playback position.
            // Used to update the elapsed time and the progress bar. 
            mediaPlayer.currentPosition.toLong(), 
                        
            // Playback speed. 
            // Determines the rate at which the elapsed time changes. 
            playbackSpeed
        )

        // isSeekable. 
        // Adding the SEEK_TO action indicates that seeking is supported 
        // and makes the seekbar position marker draggable. If this is not 
        // supplied seek will be disabled but progress will still be shown.
        .setActions(PlaybackStateCompat.ACTION_SEEK_TO)
        .build()
)

This screenshot shows how these playback state fields are displayed in the media controls.

Media controls UI and corresponding playback state fields

Your media controls should now look and function perfectly!

Media resumption

Ever wanted to continue listening to a podcast, TV episode or DJ set but couldn't remember where you left off, or even the app that was playing it? Media resumption solves this problem.

There are two stages to media resumption: discovering recent media apps and resuming playback.

Discovering recent media apps

After booting, Android will look for recent media apps and ask them what their most recently played content was. It will then create media controls for that content.

To be discoverable your app must provide a MediaBrowserService, typically using the MediaBrowserServiceCompat library from Android Jetpack.

On boot, Android will call your MediaBrowserServiceCompat's onGetRoot method, so it's imperative that you return quickly. Usually you would return the root of your media tree from this method but the system also specifies the EXTRA_RECENT hint.

You should treat EXTRA_RECENT as a special case and instead return the root of a media tree that contains the most recently played media item as the first element.

The system will call your onLoadChildren method to obtain this media tree, which is a list of MediaItem objects.

Here's a diagram showing how the system and a media app interact to retrieve the most recently played item.

How the system retrieves the most recently played item from the MediaBrowserService

For the first playable media item in this list the system will create static media controls with just a play button.

static

Static media controls

At this point no media session has been created. This is to save resources - the system doesn't know whether the user actually wants to resume playing that content yet.

Resuming playback

If the user taps the play button the system will make another call to onGetRoot with the EXTRA_RECENT hint. This is so you can prepare your previously played content as before, just in case anything has changed since the static controls were created.

Android will then connect to your media session and issue a play command to it. You should override the media session onPlay callback in order to start playback of your media content and create your MediaStyle notification.

Once you post the notification the static media controls will be swapped with the media controls created from your notification.

Graphic

Figure 7: Diagram showing interaction between System UI and media app when resuming playback

Seamless media transfer

As well as being able to resume media sessions, Android 11 also allows you to easily transfer playback from one device to another. This is known as "seamless media transfer", and is done through the output switcher. The output switcher is shown in the upper right corner of the media notification that appears below.

graphic

Output Switcher (upper right corner)

The output switcher shows the name and icon of the current media route; and when you tap on it you'll see a list of media routes which this app supports.

image

Media routes available to the current app

By default, only local media routes are shown. If your app supports other media routes, such as remote playback you'll need to let the system know.

To do this add the MediaRouter jetpack library to your app. 

dependencies {
    implementation 'androidx.mediarouter:mediarouter:1.2.0-alpha02'`
}

Seamless media transfer is supported from 1.2.0-alpha02.

Then, add the MediaTransferReceiver class to your Android manifest. 

<receiver android:name="androidx.mediarouter.media.MediaTransferReceiver" />

Now in your app, obtain the MediaRouter singleton - this is an object that maintains the state of all currently available media routes. 

router = MediaRouter.getInstance(this)

Create a MediaRouteSelector and specify the route categories which your app supports. The categories you define here determine the routes which are displayed in the output switcher.

Here we'll just specify the "remote playback" category which is used for Cast devices. 

routeSelector = MediaRouteSelector.Builder() // Add control categories that this media app is interested in.
            .addControlCategory(MediaControlIntent.CATEGORY_REMOTE_PLAYBACK)
            .build()

If you want to support transfer from remote to local devices, you need to explicitly enable this using setTransferToLocalEnabled: 

router.routerParams = MediaRouterParams.Builder().setTransferToLocalEnabled(true).build()

We can now use our selector when adding a media router callback. 

router.addCallback(routeSelector, MediaRouterCallback(),
             MediaRouter.CALLBACK_FLAG_REQUEST_DISCOVERY);

We also supply a callback object so we can be informed of changes to media routes.

Here's the callback class: 

    private class MediaRouterCallback : MediaRouter.Callback() {
        override fun onRouteSelected(
            router: MediaRouter,
            route: MediaRouter.RouteInfo,
            reason: Int
        ) {
            if (reason == MediaRouter.UNSELECT_REASON_ROUTE_CHANGED) {
                Timber.d("Unselected because route changed, continue playback")
            } else if (reason == MediaRouter.UNSELECT_REASON_STOPPED) {
                Timber.d("Unselected because route was stopped, stop playback")
            }
        }
    }

The method we override is onRouteSelected which will be called whenever a new media route has been selected.

When this happens we need to take into account the reason why it was selected.

If the existing route was disconnected (for example, bluetooth headphones were switched off) we should pause or stop playback.

If the route was actively changed, for example when switching from a phone to a Cast device, then we should continue playing the media from its previous playback position - this is the "seamless" part of "seamless media transfer" :)

Get started

To get started with media controls and related features on Android 11 take a look at the official documentation. Also be sure to check out UAMP which contains a reference implementation for many of the features mentioned in this article.

Good luck and remember to play nicely!

New language features and more in Kotlin 1.4

Posted by Wojtek Kaliciński, Developer Advocate, Android

When we adopted Kotlin as a supported language on Android, and then shifted to a Kotlin-first approach, one of the main drivers was the excitement and adoption from the developer community. As Kotlin has grown, we’ve seen continued investment in the language from JetBrains (Kotlin's creators), the open source community, and increasingly our own teams at Google.

Today we are excited to share the news about the Kotlin 1.4 release, the next milestone in the evolution of Kotlin, which contains new language features, improved compilers and tools. Below you'll find a brief rundown of some exciting new features in this release. You can read more about Kotlin 1.4 in the official announcement.

New language features

New language features introduced in Kotlin 1.4 improve the ergonomics of writing Kotlin code. Here's just one example:

SAM conversions for Kotlin interfaces

Previously, only functional interfaces (i.e. having just a Single Abstract Method - SAM) defined in the Java programming language benefited from the shorthand syntax in Kotlin: 

executor.execute { println("This is shorthand for passing in a Runnable") }

In Kotlin 1.4 you can now mark your Kotlin interfaces as functional and get them to work in a similar manner by adding the fun keyword: 

fun interface Transformer<T, U> {
   fun transform(x: T): U
}
val length = Transformer {
   x: String -> x.length
}

You can read more about new language features such as: mixing named and positional arguments, trailing comma, callable reference improvements, and using break and continue inside when included in loops on the Kotlin 1.4 release notes page.

Explicit API mode

One additional feature is the new Explicit API mode for authors of libraries written in Kotlin.

It enforces certain language properties of Kotlin that are normally optional, such as specifying visibility modifiers, as well as explicit typing for any public declarations, in order to prevent mistakes when designing the public API of your library. Refer to the linked documentation for instructions how to enable Explicit API mode and start using these additional checks.

Compiler improvements

The language features mentioned above are some of the most developer-facing changes in Kotlin 1.4, however the bulk of work went into improving the overall quality and performance of the Kotlin compiler.

One of the benefits all developers can take advantage of right now is the new, more powerful type inference algorithm, which is now enabled by default. It will help developers be more productive by supporting more smart-casts and cases where types can be inferred automatically.

Other than the type inference algorithm, Kotlin 1.4 also brings in optional, Alpha stability compiler backends for Kotlin/JVM and Kotlin/JS, which generate code in what's called internal representation (IR) also used in the Kotlin/Native backend.

The Kotlin/JVM IR backend is a requirement for Jetpack Compose, and Google engineers are working together with JetBrains to make it the default JVM compiler backend in the future.

That's why, even if you're not currently developing with Jetpack Compose, we encourage you to try out the new Kotlin/JVM backend, currently in alpha, and to file any issues and feature requests to the issue tracker.

To enable the new JVM IR backend, specify an additional compiler option in your Gradle build script: 

kotlinOptions.useIR = true

Try Kotlin 1.4 now!

There are two steps to updating your projects and IDE to Kotlin 1.4.

First, make sure you are on the latest version of Android Studio to maximize the performance benefits and compatibility with the newest Kotlin plugin. Android Studio will prompt you when a Kotlin 1.4.0 plugin that is compatible with your IDE version is available. Alternatively, you can go to Preferences | Plugins and manually trigger the update.

Once the plugin is enabled, you can upgrade your app project to use Kotlin 1.4 by updating the Kotlin Gradle plugin version in your build.gradle scripts. Depending on how you manage your plugins, you either have to update the version in the top-level project's buildscript block: 

buildscript {
    dependencies {
        classpath "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-gradle-plugin:1.4.0"
    }
}

Or change the version number in the plugins block in a module level build.gradle file: 

plugins {
    id 'org.jetbrains.kotlin.android' version '1.4.0'
}

Make sure to read the language changes carefully and update your project's code to ensure compatibility with the latest release. Enjoy Kotlin 1.4!

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

What’s new for Android game developers: August update

Posted by Greg Hartrell, Head of Product Management, Games on Android & Google Play

Android

Welcome to our latest Android games update and the start of our #11WeeksOfAndroid week focused on games, media and 5G. With all of your interest and feedback in our developer previews, tools and services, we have lots to share in our ongoing efforts to help you better understand your game’s performance, expand your reach to more devices and new audiences, and support your go-to-market with Google Play.

Get the latest updates below and follow us at @AndroidDev for additional games resources and more.

Android tools for mobile game development

  • Android Studio 4.1: We've enhanced the CPU Profiler to expose more data with an improved UI, and we've added memory visualization, startup profiling capabilities, and sampling rate configuration to our Native Memory Profiler. Additionally, you can now open the Android Studio Profilers in a standalone UI. Checkout the System Trace and Native Memory blog posts for more details, and update Android Studio today for better profiling.
  • Android Game Development Extension: For developers building games on multiple platforms with C/C++, we continue to invest in our extension for Visual Studio, including adding support for Visual Studio 2019 and launching standalone Android Studio Profilers. Sign up for the developer preview to integrate with your Visual Studio workflow.
  • Android GPU Inspector: Look into the GPU of Android devices to better understand the bottlenecks and utilize the insights to optimize the graphical performance of your game experiences. Sign up for the developer preview and stay tuned for our upcoming open beta.

Reach more devices and users

  • Android Performance Tuner: Deliver higher quality game experiences to more Android users with less effort. Measure your frame rate performance and graphical fidelity and optimise between them to achieve stable frame rates at scale across the whole Android device ecosystem. Integrate the Unity plug-in or do a custom integration. Learn more in our new session.
  • Android Game SDK: Achievieving smoother frame rates and managing input latency on Android has become even easier! Now that the Game SDK is part of Jetpack, it’s simple to integrate our gaming libraries, such as the Frame Pacing API or the Android Performance Tuner, into your game. Grab the SDK or integrate it now through Jetpack.
  • Play Asset Delivery: Improve your user experience while reducing delivery costs and the size of your game with Play Asset Delivery’s flexible delivery modes, auto-updates and delta patching. Gameloft used PAD to improve user retention, resulting in 10% more new players than with their previous asset delivery system. App bundle format will be required for all new apps starting August 2021. As part of this, we will deprecate legacy APK expansion files (OBBs), making Play Asset Delivery the standard option for publishing games over 150MB.
  • Protect game integrity and fairness with Google Play tools: Protect your game, players, and business by reducing costs fighting monetization and distribution abuse. Some partners have seen up to a 40% decrease in potential hacks and up to a 30% decrease in fraudulent purchase attempts using our integrity and commerce APIs. Express interest in the automatic integrity protection EAP.

Boost your go-to-market

  • Play Games Services - Friends: Now in open beta, help players easily find and play with friends across Android games. Millions of players have a new platform-level friends list that you can access to bootstrap and enhance your in-game friend networks and have your games surfaced in new clusters in the Play Games app. Start using Google Play Games Services - Friends in your game today.
  • Pre-registration: Boost early installs with pre-registration and day 1 auto install. Early experiments show a +20% increase in day 1 installs when using this new feature. We have also optimized our day 1 notifications to pre-registered users. Try out the new pre-registration menu in the Play Developer Console to access this feature.
  • Play store updates: We’re updating games home with a much greater visual experience, showcasing rich game graphics and engaging videos. This provides a more arcade-like browse experience helping users discover new games that match what they like to play. Learn how to optimize your store listing page with the best quality assets.
  • In-app reviews: Give users the ability to leave a review from within your game, without heading back to the app details page, using our new in-app review API, part of the Play Core Library. Learn more in our recent blog post.

Check out d.android.com/games to learn about these tools and more, and stay up to date by signing up for the games quarterly newsletter.


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11 Weeks of Android: Beyond phones

Posted by Product Leads for Android TV, Android for cars, Wear OS, and Chrome OS

Android

This blog post is part of a weekly series for #11WeeksOfAndroid. Each week we’re diving into a key area of Android so you don’t miss anything. This week, we spotlighted Android Beyond Phones; here’s a look at what you should know.

With Android, people can experience the apps and services that they love across many devices & surfaces. Beyond phones, Android offers distinct yet familiar experiences on devices of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the smallest smartwatch screens, to larger displays on foldables and Chromebooks, to in-car entertainment systems, and all the way up to the largest television screens. For the past 4 days, we featured a daily deep dive into each of these exciting form factors that are providing developers with new and growing ways to engage people. Read on for a recap.

Android TV

We kicked off the week with Android TV, which is now partnering with 7 of the top 10 OEMs and over 160 television operators across the globe. The Android TV team highlighted 6 upcoming launches, like instant app trials right from Google Play and an updated Gboard, to help developers acquire more users, more easily monetize, and build even more engaging experiences. Then, new resources were published to help developers build their first Android TV app, or even go deep on new integrations like Cast Connect and frictionless subscriptions. If you’re excited about developing for TV, pick up an ADT-3, learn the latest from the training pathway, and bring your Android app to the biggest screen in the home!

Android for Cars

We shared new ways to reach more drivers on Android for cars. Android Auto, which allows you to connect your phone to your car display, is currently available with nearly every major car manufacturer and is on track to reach 100 million cars. Soon, new app categories including navigation, parking, and electric vehicle charging will be available and the experience for Android Auto users will become even more seamless as car manufacturers continue to add support for wireless connectivity. We also highlighted the launch of the first car powered by Android Automotive OS with Google apps and services built in — the Polestar 2. As more manufacturers ship cars with this embedded functionality, we’re making it even easier for developers to build media apps on Android Automotive OS with updated documentation and emulators. Get started today to bring your app to cars!

Large Screens

We covered large screens starting with the announcement of ChromeOS.dev — a dedicated resource for technical developers, designers, product managers, and business leaders. We’ve showcased our growth in device sales in Chrome OS, seeing Chromebook unit sales grew 127% year over year between March and June this year1, as well as some of the new features coming, such as customizable Linux Terminal and Android Emulator support. We’ve also continued to see growth in apps optimized for larger screen experiences, with over 1 million apps optimized for tablets and large screens available in the Google Play store. To help you develop the best-in-class apps for Chrome OS, foldables and tablets, we are continuing to release new features and updates. We released new design recommendations for your app as well as a few updates made in Android Studio. Check out the new sessions and some of the resurfaced content to learn more about bringing the best experiences to your users on these large-screen devices.

Wear OS

To round out the week, we talked about Wear OS where we are investing in the fundamentals with a focus on performance and faster app startup times, which you’ll see in the latest platform release coming in the fall. Wear OS will be launching updates to cornerstone features like Weather in the coming months, and is investing in helpful experiences, such as our recent hand-wash timer to help people maintain hand-hygiene in the Covid-19 pandemic. The team is working hard to bring the best of Android 11 to Wear OS.

Learning paths

Are you building your apps with different screen sizes and form factors in mind? Check out all the resources for Wear OS and Android for cars, and if you’re looking for an easy way to pick up the highlights of this week for Android TV and large screens, consider completing the pathway for each. These include codelabs, videos, articles and blog posts. A virtual badge is awarded to each user who passes the quiz.

We hope that you found the Android Beyond Phones week useful, and we're excited to see all the great experiences that you'll build on these platforms!

Resources

You can find the entire playlist of #11WeeksOfAndroid video content here, and learn more about each week here. We’ll continue to spotlight new areas each week, so keep an eye out and follow us on Twitter and YouTube. Thanks so much for letting us be a part of this experience with you!

Sources:
1 The NPD Group, Inc., U.S. Retail Tracking Service, Notebook Computers, based on unit sales, April–June 2020 and March–June 2020​.

11 Weeks of Android: Beyond phones

Posted by Product Leads for Android TV, Android for cars, Wear OS, and Chrome OS

Android

This blog post is part of a weekly series for #11WeeksOfAndroid. Each week we’re diving into a key area of Android so you don’t miss anything. This week, we spotlighted Android Beyond Phones; here’s a look at what you should know.

With Android, people can experience the apps and services that they love across many devices & surfaces. Beyond phones, Android offers distinct yet familiar experiences on devices of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the smallest smartwatch screens, to larger displays on foldables and Chromebooks, to in-car entertainment systems, and all the way up to the largest television screens. For the past 4 days, we featured a daily deep dive into each of these exciting form factors that are providing developers with new and growing ways to engage people. Read on for a recap.

Android TV

We kicked off the week with Android TV, which is now partnering with 7 of the top 10 OEMs and over 160 television operators across the globe. The Android TV team highlighted 6 upcoming launches, like instant app trials right from Google Play and an updated Gboard, to help developers acquire more users, more easily monetize, and build even more engaging experiences. Then, new resources were published to help developers build their first Android TV app, or even go deep on new integrations like Cast Connect and frictionless subscriptions. If you’re excited about developing for TV, pick up an ADT-3, learn the latest from the training pathway, and bring your Android app to the biggest screen in the home!

Android for Cars

We shared new ways to reach more drivers on Android for cars. Android Auto, which allows you to connect your phone to your car display, is currently available with nearly every major car manufacturer and is on track to reach 100 million cars. Soon, new app categories including navigation, parking, and electric vehicle charging will be available and the experience for Android Auto users will become even more seamless as car manufacturers continue to add support for wireless connectivity. We also highlighted the launch of the first car powered by Android Automotive OS with Google apps and services built in — the Polestar 2. As more manufacturers ship cars with this embedded functionality, we’re making it even easier for developers to build media apps on Android Automotive OS with updated documentation and emulators. Get started today to bring your app to cars!

Large Screens

We covered large screens starting with the announcement of ChromeOS.dev — a dedicated resource for technical developers, designers, product managers, and business leaders. We’ve showcased our growth in device sales in Chrome OS, seeing Chromebook unit sales grew 127% year over year between March and June this year1, as well as some of the new features coming, such as customizable Linux Terminal and Android Emulator support. We’ve also continued to see growth in apps optimized for larger screen experiences, with over 1 million apps optimized for tablets and large screens available in the Google Play store. To help you develop the best-in-class apps for Chrome OS, foldables and tablets, we are continuing to release new features and updates. We released new design recommendations for your app as well as a few updates made in Android Studio. Check out the new sessions and some of the resurfaced content to learn more about bringing the best experiences to your users on these large-screen devices.

Wear OS

To round out the week, we talked about Wear OS where we are investing in the fundamentals with a focus on performance and faster app startup times, which you’ll see in the latest platform release coming in the fall. Wear OS will be launching updates to cornerstone features like Weather in the coming months, and is investing in helpful experiences, such as our recent hand-wash timer to help people maintain hand-hygiene in the Covid-19 pandemic. The team is working hard to bring the best of Android 11 to Wear OS.

Learning paths

Are you building your apps with different screen sizes and form factors in mind? Check out all the resources for Wear OS and Android for cars, and if you’re looking for an easy way to pick up the highlights of this week for Android TV and large screens, consider completing the pathway for each. These include codelabs, videos, articles and blog posts. A virtual badge is awarded to each user who passes the quiz.

We hope that you found the Android Beyond Phones week useful, and we're excited to see all the great experiences that you'll build on these platforms!

Resources

You can find the entire playlist of #11WeeksOfAndroid video content here, and learn more about each week here. We’ll continue to spotlight new areas each week, so keep an eye out and follow us on Twitter and YouTube. Thanks so much for letting us be a part of this experience with you!

Sources:
1 The NPD Group, Inc., U.S. Retail Tracking Service, Notebook Computers, based on unit sales, April–June 2020 and March–June 2020​.