Tag Archives: glance

Top 3 Updates with Compose across Form Factors at Google I/O ’24

Posted by Chris Arriola – Developer Relations Engineer

Google I/O 2024 was filled with lots of updates and announcements around helping you be more productive as a developer. Here are the top 3 announcements around Jetpack Compose and Form Factors from Google I/O 2024:

#1 New updates in Jetpack Compose

The June 2024 release of Jetpack Compose is packed with new features and improvements such as shared element transitions, lazy list item animations, and performance improvements across the board.

With shared element transitions, you can create delightful continuity between screens in your app. This feature works together with Navigation Compose and predictive back so that transitions can happen as users navigate your app. Another highly requested feature—lazy list item animations—is also now supported for lazy lists giving it the ability to animate inserts, deletions, and reordering of items.

Jetpack Compose also continues to improve runtime performance with every release. Our benchmarks show a faster time to first pixel of 17% in our Jetsnack Compose sample. Additionally, strong skipping mode graduated from experimental to production-ready status further improving the performance of Compose apps. Simply update your app to take advantage of these benefits.

Read What’s new in Jetpack Compose at I/O ‘24 for more information.


#2 Scaling across screens with new Compose APIs and Tools

During Google I/O, we announced new tools and APIs to make it easier to build across screens with Compose. The new Material 3 adaptive library introduces new APIs that allow you to implement common adaptive scenarios such as list-detail, and supporting pane. These APIs allow your app to display one or two panes depending on the available size for your app.

Watch Building UI with the Material 3 adaptive library and Building adaptive Android apps to learn more. If you prefer to read, you can check out About adaptive layouts in our documentation.

We also announced that Compose for TV 1.0.0 is now available in beta. The latest updates to Compose for TV include better performance, input support, and a whole range of improved components that look great out of the box. New in this release, we’ve added lists, navigation, chips, and settings screens. We’ve also added a new TV Material Catalog app and updated the developer tools in Android Studio to include a new project wizard to get a running start with Compose for TV.

Finally, Compose for Wear OS has added features such as SwipeToReveal, an expandableItem, and a range of WearPreview supporting annotations. During Google I/O 2024, Compose for Wear OS graduated visual improvements and fixes from beta to stable. Learn more about all the updates to Wear OS by checking out the technical session.

Check out case studies from SoundCloud and Adidas to see how apps are leveraging Compose to build their apps and learn more about all the updates for Compose across screens by reading more here!


#3 Glance 1.1

Jetpack Glance is Android’s modern recommended framework for building widgets. The latest version, Glance 1.1, is now stable. Glance is built on top of Jetpack Compose allowing you to use the same declarative syntax that you’re used to when building widgets.

This release brings a new unit test library, Error UIs, and new components. Additionally, we’ve released new Canonical Widget Layouts on GitHub to allow you to get started faster with a set of layouts that align with best practices and we’ve published new design guidance published on the UI design hub — check it out!

To learn more about using Glance, check out Build beautiful Android widgets with Jetpack Glance. Or if you want something more hands-on, check out the codelab Create a widget with Glance.


You can learn more about the latest updates to Compose and Form Factors by checking out the Compose Across Screens and the What’s new in Jetpack Compose at I/O ‘24 blog posts or watching the spotlight playlist!

Announcing Glance: Tiles for Wear OS made simple

Posted by Anna Bernbaum, Associate Product Manager


Last year we announced the Wear Tiles API. To complement that Java API, we are excited to announce that support for Wear OS Tiles has been added to Glance, a new framework built on top of Jetpack Compose designed to make it easier to build for surfaces outside your app on Android. We'd love to get your feedback on this alpha version.

Tiles provide Wear OS users easy access to the information and actions they need in order to get things done quickly. They also are one of the most used surfaces on Wear OS. Just one swipe away from the Watch Face, users can quickly access the most important information or actions from an app, like start a timer or get the latest weather forecast.


Watch face gif


Let's see how we can create a Tile with Glance: 


class HelloTileService : GlanceTileService() {
   @Composable
   override fun Content() {
       Text(text = "Hello Glance")
   }
}

The simple code above generates the Tile below.


“Hello Glance” Tile sample with Glance

“Hello Glance” Tile sample with Glance


Note: Using Glance-wear-tiles requires`minSdkVersion`>= 26.



How it works

Glance creates “glanceable” experiences across Android surfaces using a base-set of Composables. For Tiles on Wear OS, Glance translates Composables into Tiles.


Diagram: Glance structure 

Diagram: Glance structure


Glance requires Compose to be enabled and depends on Runtime, Graphics, and Unit UI Compose layers, but it’s not directly interoperable with other existing Jetpack Compose UI elements, like Compose for Wear OS.

What’s in the Alpha

This initial release introduces the main APIs to build wear Tiles:

We are working on bringing even more functionality with default theming, further Android Studio support, and more. Stay tuned for new releases.

Get started with Glance

For a quick start, take a look at the samples in the AndroidX repository. Glance works with the latest stable Android Studio, although since Glance relies on Compose Runtime, follow the steps on the Jetpack Compose docs to set it up first.

The Alpha version is your opportunity to influence the APIs, so please share your feedback and let us know your experience!

Happy Composing with Glance!

Announcing Jetpack Glance Alpha for app widgets

Posted by Marcel Pintó Biescas, Developer Relations Engineer, @marxallski

Illustration of a laptop with the Android rocket logo

Android 12 revamps a key feature for many Android users, App Widgets, making them more useful, beautiful, and discoverable (84% use at least 1 widget). Today, we’re making it even easier to build them by releasing the first alpha of Jetpack Glance, a new framework built on top of the Jetpack Compose runtime designed to make it faster and easier to build app widgets for the home screen and other surfaces.

We’d love you to give it a try and share your feedback!

Glance offers similar modern, declarative Kotlin APIs that you are used to with Jetpack Compose, helping you build beautiful, responsive app widgets with way less code.

Glance “Hello World” widget sample

Glance “Hello World” widget sample


class GreetingsWidget(private val name: String): GlanceAppWidget() {
    @Composable
    override fun Content() {
        Text(text = "Hello $name")
    }
}

class GreetingsWidgetReceiver : GlanceAppWidgetReceiver() {

    override val glanceAppWidget = GreetingsWidget("Glance")
}

How it works

Glance provides a base-set of Composables to help build “glanceable” experiences. Starting today with app widget components but with more coming. Using the Jetpack Compose runtime, Glance can translate Composables into actual RemoteViews, and display them in an app widget.


Diagram: Glance structure

Diagram: Glance structure


This means that Glance requires Compose to be enabled and depends on Runtime, Graphics, and Unit UI Compose layers, but it’s not directly interoperable with other existing Jetpack Compose UI elements. However, state or any other logic within your app can be shared to create a glanceable UI.


What's in Alpha

This initial release introduces the main APIs to enable you to build app widgets in addition to providing interoperability with existing RemoteViews.

Here’s an overview of what the library offers, at a glance:

We are working on bringing even more functionality with default theming, further Android Studio support, and more. Stay tuned for new releases.



Get started with Glance

Check out the sample on GitHub for a quick start. Glance works with the latest stable Android Studio, although since Glance relies on Compose Runtime, follow the steps on the Jetpack Compose docs to set it up first.

In addition, for a more advanced showcase, checkout the demos in the AndroidX repository.


ResponsiveAppWidget.kt demo

ResponsiveAppWidget.kt demo

The Alpha version is your opportunity to influence the APIs, so please share your feedback and let us know your experience!

Happy Composing with Glance!