A Developer’s Roadmap to Predictive Back (Views)

Posted by Ash Nohe and Tram Bui – Developer Relations Engineers

Before you read on, this topic is scoped to Views. Predictive Back with Compose is easier to implement and not included in this blog post. To learn how to implement Compose with Predictive Back, see the Add predictive back animations codelab and the I/O workshop Improve the user experience of your Android app.

This blog post aims to shed light on various dependencies and requirements to support predictive back animations in your views based app.

First, view the Predictive Back Requirements table to understand if a particular animation requires a manifest flag, a compileSDK version, additional libraries or hidden developer options to function.

Then, start your quest. Here are your milestones:

  1. Upgrade Kotlin milestone
  2. Back-to-home animation milestone
  3. Migrate all activities milestone
  4. Fragment milestone
  5. Material Components (Views) milestone
  6. [Optional] AndroidX transitions milestone
Milestones

Upgrade Kotlin milestone

The first milestone is to upgrade to Kotlin 1.8.0 or higher, which is required for other Predictive Back dependencies.

Upgrade to Kotlin 1.8.0 or higher

Back-to-home animation milestone

The back-to-home animation is the keystone predictive back animation.

To get this animation, add android:enableOnBackInvokedCallback=true in your AndroidManifest.xml for your root activity if you are a multi-activity app (see per-activity opt-in) or at the application level if you are a single-activity app. After this, you’ll see both the back-to-home animation and a cross-task animation where applicable, which are visible to users in Android 15+ and behind a developer option in Android 13 and 14.

If you are intercepting back events in your root activity (e.g. MainActivity), you can continue to do so but you’ll need to use supported APIs and you won’t get the back-to-home animation. For this reason, we generally recommend you only intercept back events for UI logic; for example, to show a dialog asking the user to save before they quit.

See the Add support for the predictive back gesture guide for more details.

Milestone grid

Migrate all activities milestone

If you are a multi-activity app, you’ll need to opt-in and handle back events within those activities too to get a system controlled cross-activity animation. Learn more about per-activity opt-in, available for devices running Android 14+. The cross-activity animation is visible to users in Android 15+ and behind a developer option in Android 13 and 14.

Custom cross activity animations are also available with overrideActivityTransition.

Milestone grid

Fragment milestone

Next, you’ll want to focus on your fragment animations and transitions. This requires updating to AndroidX fragment 1.7.0 and transition 1.5.0 or later and using Animator or AndroidX Transitions. Assuming these requirements are met, your existing fragment animations and transitions will animate in step with the back gesture. You can also use material motion with fragments. Most material motions support predictive back as of 1.12.02-alpha02 or higher, including MaterialFadeThrough, MaterialSharedAxis and MaterialFade.

Don’t strive to make your fragment transitions look like the system’s cross-activity transition. We recommend this full screen surface transition instead.

Learn more about Fragments and Predictive Back.

Milestone grid

Material Components milestone

Finally, you’ll want to take advantage of the Material Component View animations available for Predictive Back. Learn more about available components.

Milestone grid

After this, you’ve completed your quest to support Predictive Back animations in your view based app.

[Optional] AndroidX Transitions milestone

If you’re up for more, you might also ensure your AndroidX transitions are supported with Predictive Back. Read more about AndroidX Transitions and the Predictive Back Progress APIs.

Milestone grid

Other Resources

Chrome Dev for Android Update

Hi everyone! We've just released Chrome Dev 127 (127.0.6493.0) for Android. It's now available on Google Play.

You can see a partial list of the changes in the Git log. For details on new features, check out the Chromium blog, and for details on web platform updates, check here.

If you find a new issue, please let us know by filing a bug.

Erhu Akpobaro
Google Chrome

Google @ KotlinConf 2024: A Look Inside Multiplatform Development with KMP and more

Following our recent Google I/O announcement recommending Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) for sharing business logic across mobile, web, server, and desktop platforms, and our move to use KMP in Google Workspace, KotlinConf 2024 was the next moment to share the highlights and connect with the Kotlin community.

Google @ KotlinConf 2024: A Look Inside Multiplatform Development with KMP and more

Posted by Murat Yener – Developer Relations Engineer

Following our recent Google I/O announcement recommending Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) for sharing business logic across mobile, web, server, and desktop platforms, and our move to use KMP in Google Workspace, KotlinConf 2024 was the next moment to share the highlights and connect with the Kotlin community.

Kotlin Multiplatform, developed by JetBrains, allows developers to build cross-platform apps by compiling Kotlin code into platform-native binaries while leveraging the full capabilities of a modern, memory-managed language. This approach has been a long-term investment for the Google Workspace team, enabling them to share the business logic between different platforms.

The Android team has been working to support KMP and recently released an alpha version of Room with KMP support. As of today, Annotations, Collections and DataStore are already in stable with KMP support . We've also commonified Lifecycle, ViewModel and Paging libraries to allow integrations with non-Android platforms.

Keynotes and Technical Sessions

The conference kicked off with a keynote, as part of which, Google’s Jeffrey van Gogh gave an overview of Google’s contributions to the Kotlin ecosystem. As part of this, Jeffrey delved into how Google leverages Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) to streamline development across its own product portfolio. Jeffrey highlighted the benefits of code sharing and efficiency that KMP brings to Google's projects, aligning with our recent recommendations for Android app development.

Our technical sessions at KotlinConf 2024 span a range of topics:

  • A Tale of Two Languages by John Pampuch offered an engaging comparison of Java and Kotlin's evolution, highlighting their symbiotic relationship and mutual influence.
  • The Android Jetpack team, represented by Elif Bilgin, Yigit Boyar, and Daniel Santiago Rivera, unveiled Enabling Kotlin Multiplatform Success: The Android Jetpack Journey. They provided insights into the current state of KMP in Jetpack, shared updates on KMP-enabled Jetpack libraries, and explored the migration process of a well-established Jetpack library to KMP.
  • Going Fast with Kotlin by Andrei Shikov shared valuable insights gained from optimizing Compose for Android. Andrei highlighted interesting performance nuances in Kotlin and the guardrails the Compose team established to ensure optimal performance.
  • Kotlin Multiplatform in Google Workspace by Jason Parachoniak discussed Google Workspace's ongoing migration from a Java-oriented multiplatform foundation to Kotlin Multiplatform, aligning with Google's broader adoption of KMP. Jason shared lessons learned and the current state of this ambitious transition.
  • Write Your Own Kotlin Lint Checks! by Tor Norbye, Android Studio Engineering Director, empowered developers to extend Android Lint, a static analysis tool used by millions, by creating their own checks. Despite the name, it's not actually Android specific -- it's also used to analyze server Kotlin and Java code inside of Google!

Community Engagement at KotlinConf

We are always looking into ways to be actively engaged with the Kotlin community. If you attended KotlinConf, we hope you got a chance to check out our booth, with opportunities to chat with our engineers, get your questions answered, and learn more about how you can leverage Kotlin and KMP.

Learn more about KMP

In addition, you can view updated docs and a new mobile sample on KMP. These resources should have what you need to start learning KMP and if you have any feedback or come across any issues, please share them through this link.

Looking Ahead

We are excited about the future of Kotlin and are planning to add KMP support to more AndroidX libraries. We are looking forward to seeing how you will adopt and build the next generation of apps using KMP.

Thanks to KotlinConf organizers, speakers, attendees, and the entire Kotlin community for making this event happen and bringing Kotlin enthusiasts together.

Chrome for Android Update

 Hello, Everyone! We've just released Chrome 125 (125.0.6422.112/.113) for Android: it'll become available on Google Play over the next few days.

This release includes stability and performance improvements. You can see a full list of the changes in the Git log. If you find a new issue, please let us know by filing a bug.


Android releases contain the same security fixes as their corresponding Desktop (Windows & Mac: 125.0.6422.112/.113 and Linux:125.0.6422.112 ) unless otherwise noted.

Krishna Govind
Google Chrome

Extended Stable Channel Update for Desktop

 The Extended Stable channel has been updated to 124.0.6367.233 for Windows and Mac which will roll out over the coming days/weeks.

A full list of changes in this build is available in the log. Interested in switching release channels? Find out how here. If you find a new issue, please let us know by filing a bug. The community help forum is also a great place to reach out for help or learn about common issues.


Prudhvikumar Bommana
Google Chrome

Stable Channel Update for Desktop

 The Stable channel has been updated to 125.0.6422.112/.113 for Windows, Mac and 125.0.6422.112 for Linux which will roll out over the coming days/weeks. A full list of changes in this build is available in the Log.



Security Fixes and Rewards

Note: Access to bug details and links may be kept restricted until a majority of users are updated with a fix. We will also retain restrictions if the bug exists in a third party library that other projects similarly depend on, but haven’t yet fixed.


This update includes 1 security fix. Below, we highlight fixes that were contributed by external researchers. Please see the Chrome Security Page for more information.


[N/A][341663589] High CVE-2024-5274: Type Confusion in V8. Reported by Clément Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group and Brendon Tiszka of Chrome Security on 2024-05-20


Google is aware that an exploit for CVE-2024-5274 exists in the wild.


We would also like to thank all security researchers that worked with us during the development cycle to prevent security bugs from ever reaching the stable channel.


Interested in switching release channels? Find out how here. If you find a new issue, please let us know by filing a bug. The community help forum is also a great place to reach out for help or learn about common issues.




Prudhvikumar Bommana

Google Chrome



Long Term Support Channel Update for ChromeOS

LTS-120 is being updated in the LTS (Long Term Support) channel, version 120.0.6099.312 (Platform Version: 15662.109.0), for most ChromeOS devices. 


Release notes for LTS-120 can be found here 
Want to know more about Long-term Support? Click here


This update contains selective Security fixes, including:

Chrome Browser Security Fixes
339458194 High CVE-2024-4761 Out of bounds write in V8
340221135 High CVE-2024-4947 Type Confusion in V8

Giuliana Pritchard 
Google Chrome OS

GFiber is growing in Washington State

Seattle has been a GFiber Webpass city since 2017. Since then we’ve been steadily growing, bringing fast, reliable internet to multi-tenant communities across the city from Belltown to Capitol Hill to the U District, as well as many other neighborhoods. 

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And now we’re moving beyond the city limits to expand our network in the metro area, not only with our point to point wireless offering, but we’re also exploring bringing GFiber’s fiber-to-the-home broadband network to several other nearby cities and towns.

The Puget Sound area has long been home to tech and innovation, which make the region a natural fit for GFiber’s gigabit and multigig offerings. We’re in advanced conversations with Kent, and are having similar discussions with several additional municipalities in the area about bringing GFiber’s high speed broadband networks to these communities that need an approach more tailored to neighborhoods with single family homes. We hope to have more to share here very soon, so please stay tuned!

And in the meantime, we’re bringing GFiber Webpass to even more places - beginning in Bellevue, where we expect to serve our first customers by the end of the summer. We’ll be expanding to other municipalities in the areas as well, so to make sure you are keeping up with the latest on availability in the Seattle area, join our email list. 

Posted by Erin Schultz, General Manager - Pacific Region

Expanding voice typing and automatic captions to additional browsers

What’s changing

Currently users can edit their documents in Google Docs or edit speaker notes in Google Slides by using their voice. Users can also turn on automatic captions to display the speakers’ words in real time while presenting in Slides. These features have previously been available using the latest version of Google Chrome only. 

Starting today, we’re expanding support for voice typing and captions features to additional browsers, such as Edge and Safari. When a user turns on voice typing or captions, the web browser controls the speech-to-text service, determines how speech is processed, and then sends text data to Google Docs and Google Slides. 


Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why it’s important 

This launch leads to more inclusive and accessible user interactions within Docs and Slides for more users. 


Additional details 

These features are available only on desktop. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: Admins can control which web browsers are supported in their domain. Certain browsers may offer browser level controls for disabling the Web Speech API. 
  • End users: 
    • When enabling this feature for the first time, you may see the following notice: Expanding voice typing and automatic captions to additional browsers

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts 

Resources