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Jetpack Compose comes to Android TV, Compose Material 3 reaches stable
If you're a developer, you probably know what Jetpack Compose is. Material 3 Stable is now here, along with Compose for Android TV.
Jetpack Compose is a declarative UI engine written in Kotlin that aims to replace or be a viable alternative for classic imperative UI engines, like Android’s XML layouts. In essence, Jetpack Compose is a powerful code-only layout engine that can make UI implementation a lot easier. It was first released in alpha in August last year, followed by a beta release in February this year with a lot more additions. Now, at Google's Android Developer Summit, the company has announced that Compose is coming to Android TV. Even better is that Material 3 is now in Stable, meaning that you can use it to build your apps with confidence.
CTS-D is a new Compatibility Test Suite module with tests submitted by Android app developers
In an attempt to give app developers a chance to share their unique perspectives on device compatibility issues, Google has introduced the new CTS-D module.
As part of the Android Compatibility Program, Google gives smartphone OEMs access to a Compatibility Test Suite (CTS). The suite includes a collection of over two million test cases that OEMs use to weed out bugs early in the smartphone development process so that users get a consistent app experience across various devices. However, the CTS mostly includes tests written by Android engineers with little input from app developers. To give app developers a chance to share their "unique perspectives on actual device compatibility issues," Google has now introduced CTS-D.
Google's 'Now in Android' app aims to help app developers build better apps
Google has released a new 'Now in Android' app to help app developers build better apps. Check it out by following the link in the post.
At its I/O developer conference this year, Google showcased a new 'Now in Android' app for developers. The app aims to help developers stay up to date with all areas of Android development and showcase best practices, opinionated designs, and solutions to complex real-world problems that other sample apps don't handle.
Android Studio Electric Eel Canary brings Live Edit to the Compose Preview
At its I/O Developer Conference today, Google announced a new Canary release for Android Studio codenamed Electric Eel. Download from the link in the post.
After months of testing on the Canary channel, Google finally graduated Android Studio Dolphin to the beta channel at its I/O Developer Conference today. The beta release packs various Jetpack Compose features and improvements, new features for the Wear OS emulator, and a couple of additional developer tools. Along with the Dolphin beta release, Google has rolled out the first Android Studio Electric Eel Canary release. It too brings a host of new features and improvements. In this post, we'll take a look at all the new features in the latest Canary release.
Android Studio Dolphin is now available in beta
At its I/O Developer Conference today, Google announced that its graduating Android Studio Dolphin to the beta channel. Download from the link in the post.
Android Studio Dolphin has been in Canary for a while now. At its I/O Developer Conference today, Google has finally graduated it to the beta channel and introduced a new release, codenamed Electric Eel, on the Canary channel. Both the latest beta and Canary releases of Android Studio bring along a host of new features, like the ability to view Compose animations in Animation Preview, resize the emulator for large-screen devices, pair, and control Wear OS emulators and launch tiles, watch faces, etc. directly from Android Studio, and more. In this post, we'll take a look at all that's new in the latest beta release.
Spotify open-sources its Ruler tool to help app devs analyze their app sizes
Spotify has open-sourced its Ruler tool to help app developers analyze their app sizes. It's an easy way to identify large dependencies.
When installing apps on the Google Play Store, users typically prefer smaller app sizes. That may be because of limited storage space or limited download bandwidth, or some users even just prefer a quicker install. Nevertheless, Spotify has a tool called "Ruler" that it uses to measure and analyze the size of its Android apps for the purposes of figuring out how to shrink them down. Now the company is making that tool open-source and free to use for any developer that wants to use it.
Google releases Jetpack Glance Alpha for super-easy widget development
Google is bringing Jetpack Compose to Android app widgets, with the first Alpha release of Jetpack Glance.
Jetpack Compose makes it possible to create interfaces for Android apps without dealing with lengthy XML files and other clunky resources. Instead, it allows developers to create interface elements in Kotlin code (alongside the rest of the app's code), with simpler APIs and full Material Design support. Now Google is bringing that same ease of use to widgets, with the introduction of Jetpack Glance Alpha.
Qualcomm announces Snapdragon Spaces to help developers create immersive AR experiences
Snapdragon Spaces is a new development platform from Qualcomm that aims to help developers create immersive AR experiences.
While augmented reality (AR) headsets have improved significantly over the last couple of years, great augmented reality experiences are still hard to come by. Qualcomm aims to address that with Snapdragon Spaces -- a new platform to help developers create immersive AR experiences.
Google aims to make app development easier for large-screen devices
Along with Android 12L, Google has announced a bunch of changes that help developers build optimized apps for large screen devices.
It's a well-known fact that the Android experience on large-screen devices is far from perfect. Those who have used an Android tablet in the last few years would agree that Android doesn't scale well on large displays. UI elements make poor use of all the extra screen real estate, and most apps are not optimized for the form factor. Google aims to change that with Android 12L. To help developers get their apps ready for the update, the company has shared new tools and guidelines.
Advanced Android Development: How to bypass the hidden API blacklist
Google introduced restrictions in Android 9 on which APIs can be accessed by developers. Here's how to bypass those hidden API restrictions.
Way back in 2018, Google released Android Pie. Among the UI changes and new features, there were also some developer-side changes. Those changes included new APIs, bugfixes for existing APIs, and also restrictions on access to hidden APIs.
Advanced Android Development: Elevate app permissions using Shizuku
Rooting isn't for everyone. Here's how you can get elevated shell-level permissions in your app using the Shizuku library.
There are a lot of reasons the permissions normally granted to your app might not be enough. Maybe you're like me and enjoy creating hacky apps that abuse the Android API. Some of the APIs I use are locked behind special permissions. Sometimes only the shell user (ADB) or system can access them. There's a solution though — Shizuku.
Android Studio 4.2 brings IntelliJ upgrade, Safe Args support, and more
Android Studio 4.2 is now available on the stable channel. The update brings an IntelliJ platform update, Safe Args support, and much more.
In October last year, Google rolled out Android Studio 4.1 with support for foldables in the Android Emulator, a few style updates, TensorFlow Lite enhancements, and more. Over the last few months, the company has been working on the next major Android Studio update, and it's now finally available on the stable channel.
Developers can now start building Windows apps with Flutter
Google is bringing in Windows app development support to Flutter, its open-source cross-platform app development framework. Read on!
Flutter is an open-source app development framework made by Google. One of its main goals is to make developing for multiple platforms easier, by allowing developers to share a single codebase across multiple targets. Up until now, you could use Flutter to build a unified application for Android, iOS, macOS, Linux, and the web. If you look closely, you'll notice there's a pretty important operating system missing from that list. That omission is now being remedied, as Google has announced that Flutter for Windows is now available in alpha. With that, Flutter has become possibly the most cross-platform framework available for developers.
Android Studio 3.5 Canary adds "Apply Changes," an Instant Run replacement
Android Studio 3.5 introduces Apply Changes, the successor to the Instant Run feature of the popular app development tool.
Android Studio 3.5 (currently in the Canary and Dev channels) now features a new way to push code changes to your app and see their effects on the fly without having to restart the app. Dubbed simply "Apply Changes," it's the successor to the "Instant Run" feature in previous versions of Android Studio.
Apps shared via Google Files Go, SHAREIt, and Xender will be verified by Google Play
An application's authenticity (is it from Google Play Store?) will be verified by the metadata built into P2P sharing applications like Files Go.
Google has worked on a way to keep those users secure who love side-loading applications. Back in June, they started to automatically add security metadata to any app uploaded to the Google Play Store so that they can be verified as originating from Google Play when shared elsewhere. This helps users by having their side-loaded apps receive updates from Google Play as if they installed it from the Play Store, and helps developers by better tracking these users for support. But this security measure had one big catch: It only worked when the device was online and in contact with the Google Play Store. Since Google implemented the feature to help users in countries with limited data plans and connectivity, this needed to be fixed.
Google announces improvements to App Bundles, Instant Apps, and app management tools
At Playtime 2018, Google announced a new features in Google Play including improvements to App Bundles, Instant Apps, app management tools, and more.
Each year, Google hosts an invitation-only event called Playtime. Google invites selected developers of apps and games from the Play Store to the event to share the latest features and tips to improve their apps. At this year's event, Google announced updates to the Android App Bundle, Google Play Instant, and the Google Play Console.
How to Locally Capture a System Trace on Android Pie
systrace is a powerful tool that collects timing information from processes running on Android. Here's how to capture a system trace on Android Pie.
Tracing is an invaluable tool that enables developers to understand the impact that various changes have on a system and can provide clues to identify the root cause of problems.
[Update: Not leaked] Source code for DexGuard, commercial anti-piracy software, leaks online
The source code for Android application obfuscator DexGuard has had its source code leak online on GitHub. What does that exactly mean?
DexGuard is a popular commercial anti-piracy software written by Guardsquare which can help obfuscate an APK file. It's pretty easy to decompile an Android app and take a look at its internal workings, but obfuscation programs such as DexGuard make that pretty difficult. The software protects applications from reverse engineering attacks too, to prevent users from figuring out how the app does exactly what it does. This, in turn, prevents piracy, as it makes it a lot harder for attackers to figure out how to bypass anti-piracy checks. However, an older version of DexGuard has had its source code leaked on GitHub.
Google bans cryptocurrency miners, apps to sell guns, and more from the Play Store
Google has banned cryptocurrency miners, applications to sell guns, and a whole lot more with new Google Play Store guidelines.
Google is beginning to take a stronger stance on what can and can't be on the Google Play Store. Following up on a recent ban on Fake ID applications and gambling, a number of others have now been banned too. Cryptocurrency miners, applications to sell guns, and a whole lot more have been barred from the store.
Developers are facing huge drop in new installs after Play Store algorithm changes
Developers of Android apps and games are reporting huge drops in new installs after Google quietly tweaks the Play Store's search and discovery algorithm.
Some Android app and game developers are panicking because their daily installation rates have plummeted in the past week. These developers have noticed new downloads slow down by up to 90%. The affected developers quickly realized they were not alone in these changes to their day-to-day app installation rate with multiple threads on Reddit, a post on the Unity forums, and even a Gamasutra community blog post popping up to help spread the word that something was amiss. Clearly, something is wrong here, and some indie developers are concerned that their livelihood may be at stake. So what's going on?