14 Issues to know for Android builders at Google I/O!

Posted by Matthew McCullough, Vice President, Product Administration, Android Developer

Immediately, at Google I/O 2023, you noticed how we’re ushering in necessary breakthroughs in AI throughout all of Google. For Android builders, we see this know-how serving to you out in your stream, saving you time so you possibly can deal with constructing participating new experiences in your customers. Time saving instruments are going to be much more necessary, as your customers are asking you to assist their experiences throughout an increasing portfolio of screens, like giant screens and wearables specifically. Throughout the Google and Developer Keynotes, Android confirmed you plenty of methods to assist you on this mission to assist construct nice experiences in your customers; learn on for our 14 new issues to know on the earth of Android Developer (and sure, we additionally confirmed you the most recent Beta for Android 14!).

BRINGING AI INTO YOUR WORKFLOW

#1: Leverage AI in your growth with Studio Bot

#2: Generate Play Retailer Listings with AI

Beginning at present, once you draft a retailer itemizing in English, you’ll have the ability to use Google’s Generative-AI know-how that can assist you get began. Simply open our AI helper in Google Play Console, enter a few prompts, like an viewers and a key theme, and it’ll generate a draft you possibly can edit, discard, or use. As a result of you possibly can at all times evaluation, you’re in full management of what you submit and publish on Google Play.

BUILDING FOR A MULTI-DEVICE WORLD

#3: Going large on Android foldables & tablets

Google is all in on giant screens, with two new Android gadgets coming from Pixel – the Pixel Fold and the Pixel Pill – and 50+ Google apps optimized to look nice on the Android giant display ecosystem, alongside a spread of apps from builders all over the world. It’s a nice time to take a position, with improved instruments and steering like the brand new Pixel Fold and Pixel Pill emulator configurations in Android Studio Hedgehog Canary 3, expanded Materials design updates, and inspiration for gaming and creativity apps. You can begin optimizing for these and different giant display gadgets by studying the do’s and don’ts of optimizing your Android app for big screens and watching the Growing prime quality apps for big screens and foldables session.

#4: Put on OS: Watch faces, Put on OS 4, & Tiles animations

Put on OS lively gadgets have grown 5x since launching Put on OS 3, so there’s extra purpose than ever to construct an excellent app expertise for the wrist. That can assist you in your approach, we introduced the brand new Watch Face Format, a brand new declarative XML format inbuilt partnership with Samsung that can assist you carry your nice concept to the watch face market. We’re additionally releasing new APIs to carry wealthy animations to tiles and serving to you prepare for the subsequent era of platform updates with the Put on OS 4 Developer Preview. Be taught extra about all the most recent updates by trying out our weblog, watching the session, and having a look on the model new Put on OS gallery.

#5: Android Well being: An interconnected well being expertise throughout apps and gadgets

With 50+ apps in our Well being Join ecosystem and 100+ apps built-in with Well being Providers, we’re bettering Android Well being choices so extra builders can work collectively to carry distinctive well being and health experiences to customers. Well being Join is coming to Android 14 this fall, making it even simpler for customers to regulate how their well being information is being shared throughout apps instantly from Settings on their system. Learn extra about what we introduced at I/O and take a look at our Well being Providers documentation, Well being Join documentation, and code samples to get began!

#6: Android for Automobiles: New apps & experiences

Our efforts in automobiles proceed to develop: Android Auto will probably be out there in 200 million automobiles this yr and the variety of automobiles with Google built-in will double in the identical interval. It’s simpler than ever to port current Android apps to automobiles and produce solely new experiences to automobiles, like video and video games. To get began, try the What’s New with Android for Automobiles session and take a look at the developer weblog.

#7: Android TV: Compose for TV and extra!

We proceed our dedication to bringing one of the best of the app ecosystem to Android TV OS. Immediately, we’re saying Compose for TV, the most recent UI framework for creating stunning and practical apps for Android TV OS. To be taught extra, learn the weblog publish and take a look at the developer guides, design reference, our new codelab and pattern code. Additionally, please proceed to provide us suggestions so we are able to proceed shaping Compose for TV to suit your wants.

#8: Assistant: Simplified voice experiences throughout Android

Constructing Google Assistant integrations inside acquainted Android growth paths is even simpler than earlier than. With the brand new App Actions Take a look at Library and the Google Assistant plugin for Android Studio–which is now additionally out there for Put on and Auto–it’s now simpler to code, simpler to emulate your consumer’s expertise to forecast consumer expectations, and simpler to deploy App Actions integrations throughout main and complementary Android gadgets. To get began, try the session What’s new in Android growth instruments and take a look at the developer documentation.

MODERN ANDROID DEVELOPMENT

#9: Construct UI with Compose throughout screens

Jetpack Compose, our trendy UI toolkit for Android growth has been steadily rising within the Android group: 24% of the highest 1000 apps on Google Play are utilizing Jetpack Compose, which has doubled from final yr. We’re bringing Compose to much more surfaces with Compose for TV in alpha, and homescreen widgets with Look, now in beta. Learn extra about what we introduced at Google I/O, and get began with Compose for constructing UI throughout screens.

#10: Use Kotlin in every single place, all through your app

The Kotlin programming language is on the core of our growth platform, and we maintain increasing the dimensions of Kotlin assist for Android apps. We’re collaborating with JetBrains on the brand new K2 compiler, and are actively engaged on integration into our instruments corresponding to Android Studio, Android Lint, KSP, Compose and many others and leveraging Google’s giant Kotlin codebases to confirm compatibility of the brand new compiler. We now suggest utilizing Kotlin DSL for construct scripts. Watch the What’s new in Kotlin for Android discuss to be taught extra.

#11: App High quality Insights now comprise Android Vitals studies

Android Studio’s App High quality Insights lets you entry Firebase Crashlytics challenge studies instantly from the IDE, permitting you to navigate between stack hint and code with a click on, use filters to see solely crucial points, and see report particulars that can assist you reproduce points. Within the newest launch of Android Studio, now you can view necessary crash studies from Android Vitals, all with out including any extra SDKs or instrumentation to your app. Learn extra about Android Studio Hedgehog for updates in your favourite Android Studio options.

AND THE LATEST FROM ANDROID & PLAY

#12: What’s new in Play

Get the most recent updates from Google Play, together with new methods to drive viewers progress and monetization. Now you can create customized retailer listings for extra consumer segments together with inactive customers, and shortly for visitors from particular Google Adverts campaigns. New itemizing teams additionally make it simpler to create and preserve a number of listings. Optimize your monetization technique with worth experiments for in-app merchandise and new subscription capabilities that let you supply a number of costs per billing interval. Study these updates and extra in our weblog publish.

#13: Design stunning Android apps with the brand new Android UI Design Hub

To make it even simpler to construct compelling UI throughout type components, try the brand new Android UI Design Hub. A complete useful resource to grasp how one can create user-friendly interfaces for Android with steering – sharing takeaways, examples and do’s and don’ts, figma starter kits, UI code samples and inspirational galleries.

#14: And naturally, Android 14!

We simply launched Android 14 Beta 2, bringing enhancements to the platform round digicam and media, privateness and safety, system UI, and developer productiveness. Get enthusiastic about new options and adjustments together with Well being Join, Extremely HDR for photographs, predictive again, and ML. ML Package is launching new APIs like face mesh and doc scanner, and Acceleration Service in customized ML stack is now in public beta so you possibly can ship extra fluid, decrease latency consumer experiences. Be taught extra about Beta 2 and get began by downloading the beta onto a supported system or testing your app within the Emulator.

This was only a small peek of a few of the new methods Android is right here to assist assist you. Don’t neglect to take a look at the Android observe at Google I/O, together with a few of our favourite talks like how one can Scale back reliance on passwords in Android apps with passkey assist and Constructing for the way forward for Android. The brand new Exercise embedding studying pathway can be now out there to allow you to distinguish your apps on tablets, foldables, and ChromeOS gadgets. Whether or not you’re becoming a member of us on-line or in-person at one of many occasions all over the world, we hope you could have an excellent Google I/O – and we are able to’t wait to see the good experiences you construct with the updates which are popping out at present!