Posted by Leticia Lago, Developer MarketingIn our first batch of #WeArePlay stories for 2023, discover the inspiring app founders sharing their knowledge with millions around the world: from cooking up the best recipes, learning better ways to stay healthy, finding the best spots for photography or sharing tips to nail that next exam.
Check out all the stories now at g.co/play/weareplay and stay tuned for even more coming soon.
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Posted by the Android teamJetpack Compose is Android’s modern UI toolkit which is used by many well-known apps such as Pinterest, SoundCloud and Lyft. It enables developers to more intuitively and efficiently build better quality Android apps. To help developers around the world take advantage of these benefits, we launched Compose Camp, an Android meetup series where developers were able to learn Jetpack Compose, network with peers, and work on hands-on coding projects together, with the guidance of “Camp Leaders” who facilitated the sessions.
“Compose Camp enabled me to educate others about new technologies used by developers, and helped me learn about them in the process. Our college now has a group of fellow developers who concentrate solely on the development of Android apps."
“I used Jetpack Compose in my published game, which has received more than 10,000 installs in the first three months of its release!”
“Compose Camps are engaging and fun! Some of my favorite parts were when the students saw how cool it was to use one language to write the UI, and asked questions about Kotlin. I love teaching; when I see my students solving problems together, sharing ideas, and learning how easy it is to write their UI in Compose, this warms my heart.”
If you’re looking to lead a learning session with your peers, check out the Compose Camp Organizer Guide for everything you need to lead an Android development workshop.
Everyone has different methods for learning something new, so we asked Compose Camp participants to share their favorite tips and tricks for learning Jetpack Compose, and these were some of our favorite answers. We hope they help you on your Android development learning journey:
“Check out the Compose samples and the Now in Android(NiA) app from Android on GitHub. They are great assets for learning Compose best practices! 😍😊” -Odin from Norway
“Use [the] Accompanist animation library to add cool animations in your Compose UI.” -Mansi from GDG Ahmedabad in India
“One magic word for Android developers’ ears, Modifier. Make round edges, draw borders, and set shadows with ease. Learn Modifier, and the flexibility of customization [in] your UI elements is insane.” -Ban from Montenegro
“@PreviewParameter provides sample data for Composables, which allows a preview of the Composable and accelerates development by providing sample data.” -Google Developer Expert Nav Singh from GDG Montreal in Canada
We recommend using Jetpack Compose if you’re looking to build a new app, and you can use the same development concepts to extend your app to tablets, foldables, and Wear OS. In case you missed Compose Camp or if you’re looking to deepen your learning, you can take the Jetpack Compose for Android Developers or the Android Basics with Compose courses online now. For additional Android learning opportunities in your local area, check out our Google Developer Communities near you.
Happy Composing!
Posted by Diego Zavala - Product Manager, Lee Campbell - Tech Lead
Today, we are glad to announce the alpha release of Credential Manager, a new Jetpack API that allows app developers to simplify their users' authentication journey, while also increasing security with support of passkeys.
Credential Manager supports multiple sign-in methods, such as username/password, passkeys, and federated sign-in solutions (e.g., Sign-in with Google) in a single API, thus simplifying the integration for developers. Furthermore, for users, Credential Manager unifies the sign-in interface across authentication methods, making it clearer and easier for users to sign-in to apps, regardless of the method they choose.
Since our update in October 2022, we’ve been expanding support for passkeys - the new industry standard for passwordless authentication - across Android and Chrome. Credential Manager allows users to create passkeys and store them in Google Password Manager. Their passkeys will sync across all of their devices that are signed in to the same Google Account, allowing users to seamlessly sign in to apps that support passkeys across these devices.
Please stay tuned for more updates from us throughout this year, as we roll out third-party password manager support to integrate with Credential Manager.
To make sign-in easier in your app use Credential Manager. Visit this Android Developer guide to learn more.
We'd love to hear your inputs during this alpha release, so please let us know about your experience integrating with Credential Manager, using passkeys, or any other feedback you might have:
Posted by Steve Suppe, Product Manager, Google Play and Manuel Wang, Product Manager, Google Play; Ashley Marshall, UX Writing Lead, Google Play Google Play Console is constantly evolving to improve how you manage and publish your apps. We know that launch moments are really important to you. Whether that's launching a new version of your app, or updating your store listing – you need the right tools to help you launch with confidence.
As a result of your feedback, we're making some changes to give you more flexibility and control over the app review process.
On the Publishing overview page in Play Console, you’ll soon see a new section called “Changes ready to send for review.” Whenever you save a change in Play Console that is subject to review, it will be listed here – instead of it being automatically sent for review. You can then send these changes for review together, whenever you’re ready.
Once you send changes to Google for review, they'll appear in the “Changes in review” section on the Publishing overview page.
If you have managed publishing turned on, these changes will appear in the “Ready to publish” section as soon as they're approved. You can then publish these changes whenever you're ready.
If you have managed publishing turned off, changes will be published automatically as soon as they're approved. We recommend turning managed publishing on when you want more control over app changes or wish to push an app update live at a specific time.
To give you even more flexibility, we're also adding the ability for you to remove changes that have already been sent for review, or that are ready to publish.
Changes you remove will once again appear in the “Changes ready to send for review” section.
Here's an example of how we think these new changes will add predictability and control to your app publishing process, and how they will enable more flexible workflows.
Imagine you have a major update to your app that is due to go live and requires several changes to happen at the same time, such as publishing a new release, updating your store listing screenshots, and making changes to your Data safety form. Here's how this would look with all of the new improvements that we've made in Play Console.
1. Make changes to your app, store listing, and Data safety form in Play Console You can make changes to all of the different parts of your app at your own pace, with confidence that these changes won't be sent for review or published until you're ready.2. Send changes for review when you're ready On the Publishing overview page, you'll now see all of the changes that have been made. You can send them for review together when you decide you’re ready.3. Remove changes if you've made a mistakeImagine that you've made a change to something else by accident, or your marketing team has told you that some of the screenshots you originally uploaded need to be changed. On the Publishing overview page, you can now remove these changes from the review, make any necessary updates, and send the changes for review – again. 4. Publish according to your schedule with managed publishing Plans change all the time. Imagine that your marketing team tells you that your launch date has been delayed by a week. Or, what if you don't want your changes to go live on a weekend, when no one is in the office? You can choose to turn on managed publishing and control exactly when approved changes are published.
You can make changes to all of the different parts of your app at your own pace, with confidence that these changes won't be sent for review or published until you're ready.
On the Publishing overview page, you'll now see all of the changes that have been made. You can send them for review together when you decide you’re ready.
3. Remove changes if you've made a mistake
Imagine that you've made a change to something else by accident, or your marketing team has told you that some of the screenshots you originally uploaded need to be changed. On the Publishing overview page, you can now remove these changes from the review, make any necessary updates, and send the changes for review – again.
Plans change all the time. Imagine that your marketing team tells you that your launch date has been delayed by a week. Or, what if you don't want your changes to go live on a weekend, when no one is in the office? You can choose to turn on managed publishing and control exactly when approved changes are published.
We’re really excited to share these upcoming features with you, and hope these changes give you more predictability and control over the app publishing process.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Today, we are ⚡️electrified⚡️ to announce the latest stable release of the official IDE for building Android applications: Android Studio Electric Eel (2022.1.1)!
Download impact in Build Analyzer: The Build Analyzer tool provides you insight into what happens during your builds. This now includes a summary of any dependency downloads that happened. You can use this information to determine the impact of downloads on your build, and to spot problems such as downloads happening during incremental builds.
IntelliJ Platform Update - Android Studio Electric Eel (2022.1.1) includes the IntelliJ 2022.1 platform release, which has many new features such as Dependency Analyzer to facilitate dependency management and conflict resolution and the Notifications tool window that offers a new, streamlined way to receive notifications from the IDE. It also includes a number of other notable improvements that are covered here.
To recap, Android Studio Electric Eel (2022.1.1) includes these new enhancements & features:
Check out the Android Studio release notes, Android Gradle plugin release notes, and the Android Emulator release notes for more details.
It is a good time to download Android Studio Electric Eel (2022.1.1) to incorporate the new features into your workflow. As always, we appreciate any feedback on things you like and issues or features you would like to see. If you find a bug or issue, please file an issue and also check out known-issues. Remember to also follow us on Twitter, Medium, or YouTube for more Android Development updates!
Posted by Anton Hansson, Software EngineerAndroid 10 and higher support Modular System Components that allow us to expedite functional and security updates to the Android ecosystem outside of major API level releases and make new functionality backward compatible on already-released Android versions. These improvements help make development more flexible and broaden the reach for app developers. We've built a new Extension SDK framework for you to integrate with these APIs, and today, we’re releasing the first public version of the Extension SDK (Extension Level 4).
Having the ability to introduce new functionality outside of major API level releases allows faster innovations. As shared in a previous post, beginning this year we plan to roll out the initial Privacy Sandbox on Android Beta release to Android 13 devices. You can start using the Extension SDK to integrate your solutions with the AdServices APIs to prepare for limited production testing. Learn more on how to participate in the Privacy Sandbox Beta release, and set up your development environment with a test device or emulator.
fun isPhotoPickerAvailable(): Boolean { return SdkExtensions.getExtensionVersion(VERSION_CODES.R) >= 2 }
The alternative check, via Build.VERSION.SDK_INT, would look like this:
fun isPhotoPickerAvailable(): Boolean { return Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 33 }
This check is still safe and correct, but this function would return false on some devices where the API is now available. As a result, the SDK_INT check is not optimal, and the extension version check is a better way to check for API availability. All devices with SDK_INT >= 33 also have an R extension version of >= 2, but there are devices with SDK_INT < 33 with R extension versions >= 2.
Similarly, the AdServices API reference may indicate that it’s “added in Ad Services Extensions 4”. The Ad Services extension uses the SdkExtensions.AD_SERVICES constant. The availability check looks like this:
fun isAdServicesAvailable(): Boolean { return SdkExtensions.getExtensionVersion(SdkExtensions.AD_SERVICES) >= 4 }
For developer convenience, we are extending Jetpack to make it easier to work with extension versions. For example, you can use a Jetpack library function to check for PhotoPicker availability, which abstracts away the conditional version checks. We expect to be releasing more Jetpack libraries (such as the Privacy Preserving APIs in the Privacy Sandbox) to aid the correct use of APIs released via Extension SDKs.
We’re just beginning the SDK Extension developer journey and plan to make more features available in the future. You can get the latest SDK extension 4 available in the SDK Manager today. Learn more about the SDK Extensions and our documentation on the Privacy Sandbox Beta and the photo picker.
Posted by the Android TeamSignos helps people make healthier decisions and achieve their health goals by giving them a simple way to track and monitor their body’s response to glucose throughout the day. Pairing a continuous glucose monitor with an AI-driven app, Signos builds an understanding of a member's metabolic profile in real time, providing personalized nutrition suggestions based on their glucose patterns. This includes determining which foods are best for a member and when to eat them, or when to exercise to bring glucose levels back within a healthy range for optimal weight loss.
Signos integrated Health Connect so its members’ health and fitness data from apps like Fitbit, Samsung Health, and Google Fit can be automatically synced to the Signos app. Instead of requiring members to manually input this data from multiple sources, they can use Health Connect and enable Signos to sync with the other integrated apps they use to support their well-being. Not only does this save members time, it also ensures consistent and accurate data.
With Health Connect, it’s easier for Signos to identify patterns in a member's health and offer more insightful recommendations based on their glucose patterns. It also provides Signos members with a better understanding of how their daily choices affect their glucose, metabolic health, and weight by bringing their health data together in Signos, where they can easily view it and make comprehensive connections.
Before implementing Health Connect, Signos developers struggled to connect relevant data from multiple sources because many APIs weren't available or too many integrations needed to be created and maintained. This meant the Signos team had to write individual integrations to support multiple API surfaces for every app they wanted to sync data from. Now, they only need to write one, saving them a tremendous amount of development time and effort.
Currently, Health Connect’s first integration with Signos syncs personal wellness data like exercise, heart rate, sleep, and hydration. In the future, Signos plans to build out more robust integrations and in-app experiences with each data set, including women’s health, nutrition, and even mindfulness.
Signos is excited about what the future of Health Connect will bring. Health Connect helps standardize different data types and allows Android apps to freely connect to the API, so Signos won’t have to create any further integrations as other apps adopt Health Connect. This means that as the Health Connect ecosystem grows, so will Signos’ ability to help its members.
Health Connect lets developers and users securely connect with multiple Android apps and devices. Watch the DevByte introduction video to learn how you can get started with Health Connect.
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