Android N APIs are now final, get your apps ready for Android N!

Android N APIs are now final, get your apps ready for Android N!

androidn Develop Developer Preview Featured

Posted by Dave Burke, VP of Engineering

As we put the finishing touches on the href="https://developer.android.com/preview/index.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_npreview_061516&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">next release of
Android, which will begin to roll out to consumers later this summer, we’re
releasing the 4th Developer Preview of Android N, including the Android N final
SDK. And thanks to your continued feedback over the last three releases, all of
the APIs are now final as well. If you’ve already enrolled your device in the
Android Beta Program, (available at href="https://android.com/beta">android.com/beta) you will receive an update
to this Developer Preview shortly.

Get your apps ready for Android N

The final SDK for Android N is now available for download through the SDK
Manager in Android
Studio. It gives you everything you need to develop and test against the
official APIs in the Android N platform. Once you’ve installed the final SDK,
you can update your project’s compileSdkVersion to API 24 to
develop with the Android N APIs and build and test on the new platform, for href="https://developer.android.com/preview/api-overview.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_npreview_061516&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">new features
such as Multi-window support, direct-reply notifications, and others. We also
recommend updating your app’s targetSdkVersion to API 24 to opt-in
and test your app with Android N specific href="https://developer.android.com/preview/behavior-changes.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_npreview_061516&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">behavior
changes. For details on how to setup your app with the final SDK, see href="https://developer.android.com/preview/setup-sdk.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_npreview_061516&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">Set up the
Preview. For details on API level 24 check out the href="https://developer.android.com/sdk/api_diff/24/changes.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_npreview_061516&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">API diffs
and the updated href="https://developer.android.com/reference/packages.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_npreview_061516&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">API reference,
now hosted online.

Along with the Android N final SDK, we’ve also updated the href="https://developer.android.com/topic/libraries/support-library/revisions.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_npreview_061516&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">Android
Support Library to 24.0.0. This allows you to use multi-window and
picture-in-picture callbacks, new notification features, methods for supporting
Direct Boot, and new MediaBrowser APIs in a backward compatible manner.

Publish your apps to alpha, beta or production channels in Google Play

Now that you have a final set of APIs, you can publish updates compiling with,
and optionally targeting, API 24 to Google Play. You can now publish app updates
that use API 24 to your alpha, beta, or even production channels in the Google
Play Developer Console. In this way, you can test your app’s
backward-compatibility and push updates to users whose devices are running
Developer Preview 4.

To make sure that your updated app runs well on Android N, as well as older
versions, a common strategy is to use href="https://developer.android.com/distribute/engage/beta.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_npreview_061516&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">Google Play’s
beta testing feature to get early feedback from a small group of users --
including developer preview users — and then do a staged rollout as you release
the updated app to all users.

How to Get Developer Preview 4

Developer Preview 4 includes updated system images for all supported Preview
devices as well as for the Android emulator. If you are already enrolled in the
Android Beta program, your devices will
get the Developer Preview 4 update right away, no action is needed on your part.
If you aren’t yet enrolled in Android Beta, the easiest way to get started is by
visiting android.com/beta and opt-in your
eligible Android phone or tablet -- you’ll soon receive this (and later) preview
updates over-the-air. As always, you can also download and href="https://developer.android.com/preview/download.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_npreview_061516&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#flash">flash this
update manually. The N Developer Preview is available for Nexus 6, Nexus 5X,
Nexus 6P, Nexus 9, and Pixel C devices, as well as General Mobile 4G [Android
One] devices and the Sony Xperia Z3.

Thanks so much for all of your feedback so far. Please continue to share
feedback or requests either in the href="https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/list?can=2&q=label%3ADevPreview-N">N
Developer Preview issue tracker, href="https://plus.google.com/communities/103655397235276743411">N
Preview Developer community, or href="https://plus.google.com/communities/106765800802768335079">Android Beta
community as we work towards the consumer release later this summer. We’re
looking forward to seeing your apps on Android N!

Android Wear 2.0 Developer Preview

Android Wear 2.0 Developer Preview

Android Wear Developer Preview Featured

Posted by David Singleton, VP of Engineering

Today at Google I/O, we announced the most significant Android Wear update since its launch two years ago: Android Wear 2.0. Based on what we’ve learned from users and developers, we're evolving the platform to improve key experiences on the watch, including watch faces, messaging, and fitness.

Android Wear 2.0 will be available to users this fall. We’re making a Developer Preview available today and plan to release additional updates throughout the summer, so please send us your feedback early and often. Also, please keep in mind that this preview is a work in progress, and is not yet intended for daily use.

What’s new?

• Standalone apps: Your Android Wear app can now access the internet directly over Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or cellular, without relying on the Data Layer APIs. This means your app can continue to offer full functionality even if the paired phone is far away or turned off. Removing the requirement to use the Data Layer APIs also enables your app to offer the same functionality regardless of whether the watch is paired with an Android or iPhone. In addition, your app can receive push messages via Google Cloud Messaging and access AccountManager directly on the watch.


• New system UI: We’ve made a number of UI changes that will help users interact with your app more easily. A new notification design and app launcher make it easier to take action on notifications and launch your app, and a new watch face picker makes switching watch faces fast and fun. The system UI also adopts a dark color palette and makes better use of round displays. We recommend you test your existing Android Wear app and notifications with the new UI.


• Material design for wearables: The new Material Design for Wearables guide will help you make your app’s interface more consistent, intuitive, and beautiful. The new navigation drawer and action drawer components in the Wearable support library make it easy to align your app with the system UI’s new vertical layout. We’ve also provided guidance on how to adopt the dark color palette.


• Complications API: Complications are bite-sized pieces of information displayed to users directly on the watch face. Android Wear now has a system-wide framework to enable any app to show data on any watch face that implements the API. As an app developer, you can choose to publish your data to a wide variety of watch faces and make it easier for users to launch your app from the watch face. As a watch face developer, you can rely on data from a rich ecosystem of Wear apps without having to worry about sourcing it yourself.


• Input methods: Keyboard and handwriting input methods open up new ways to accept text from users on the watch. You can now use these new input methods in your app via RemoteInput and EditText, and notifications that already use RemoteInput for voice replies will automatically support the new input methods. We’ve ported over the full Android input method framework to the watch, so you can even create your own custom input methods if you wish.


• New MessagingStyle notification: Android Wear 2.0 includes a new notification template with a layout optimized for quick and responsive messaging. This template is also available on phones and tablets using Android N, so creating a great cross-device messaging experience is a breeze.


• Google Fit platform: Improvements to the Google Fit platform make it easier for your app to use fitness data and detect activity. You can register a PendingIntent to be notified of changes in the fitness data store, so you don’t have to keep querying for changes to weight, nutrition, and other data types. It’s also easier for your app to get a consistent daily step count on Android Wear -- with HistoryApi.readDailyTotal(), a step recording subscription is no longer required. Finally, apps will soon be able to detect (with consent) when the user starts walking, running, or biking.


• Support for Android N: Your Android Wear app can now take advantage of the latest Android N features such as Data Saver and Java 8 Lambda support. Also, let’s not forget the new emojis!

Get started and give us feedback!

The Android Wear 2.0 Developer Preview includes an updated SDK with tools, and system images for testing on the official Android emulator, the LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE, and the Huawei Watch.

To get started, follow these steps:

1. Take a video tour of the Android Wear 2.0 developer preview


2. Update to Android Studio v2.1.1 or later


3. Visit the Android Wear 2.0 Developer Preview site for downloads and documentation


4. Get the emulator system images through the SDK Manager or download the device system images


5. Test your app with your supported device or emulator


6. Give us feedback

We will update this developer preview over the next few months based on your feedback. The sooner we hear from you, the more we can include in the final release, so don't be shy!

First Preview of Android N: Developer APIs & Tools

First Preview of Android N: Developer APIs & Tools

Android N Developer Preview

Posted by Dave Burke, VP of Engineering

Today we’re happy to announce a Developer Preview of the N release of Android! We’re doing something a little different this year by releasing the preview early… really early. By releasing a “work in progress” build earlier in development, we have more time to incorporate developer feedback. Also, the earlier preview allows us to hand off the final N release to device makers this summer, so they can get their hands on the latest version of Android earlier than ever. We’re looking forward to getting your feedback as you get your apps ready for N.

Here are a few APIs and features we want to highlight which are available as a part of the Android N Developer Preview today, with more to come as we continue developing the release:

Multi-window - A new manifest attribute called android:resizableActivity is available for apps targeting N and beyond. If this attribute is set to true, your activity can be launched in split-screen modes on phones and tablets. You can also specify your activity's minimum allowable dimensions, preventing users from making the activity window smaller than that size. Lifecycle changes for multi-window are similar to switching from landscape to portrait mode: your activity can handle the configuration change itself, or it can allow the system to stop the activity and recreate it with the new dimensions. In addition, activities can also go into picture-in-picture mode on devices like TVs, and is a great feature for apps that play video; be sure to set android:supportsPictureInPicture to true to take advantage of this.

Direct reply notifications: The RemoteInput notification API, which was originally added for Android Wear, now works in N for phones and tablets. Using the RemoteInput API enables users to reply to incoming message notifications quickly and conveniently, without leaving the notification shade. Learn more here.

Bundled notifications - With N, you can use the Notification.Builder.setGroup() method to group notifications from the same app together - for example individual messages from a messaging app. Grouped notifications can be expanded into individual notifications by using a two-finger gesture or tapping the new expansion button. Learn more here.

Efficiency - We launched Doze in Marshmallow to save battery when your device is stationary. In N, Doze additionally saves battery whenever the screen turns off. If you’ve already adapted your app for Doze, e.g. by using the GCM high priority message for urgent notifications, then you’re set; if not, here’s how to get started. Also, we’re continuing to invest in Project Svelte, an effort to reduce the memory needs of Android so that it can run on a much broader range of devices, in N by making background work more efficient. If you use JobScheduler for background work, you’re already on the right track. If not, N is a good time to make that switch. And to help you out, we’re making JobScheduler even more capable, so now you can use JobScheduler to react to things like changes to content providers.

Improved Java 8 language support - We’re excited to bring Java 8 language features to Android. With Android's Jack compiler, you can now use many popular Java 8 language features, including lambdas and more, on Android versions as far back as Gingerbread. The new features help reduce boilerplate code. For example, lambdas can replace anonymous inner classes when providing event listeners. Some Java 8 language features --like default and static methods, streams, and functional interfaces -- are also now available on N and above. With Jack, we’re looking forward to tracking the Java language more closely while maintaining backward compatibility.

Get started

The N Developer Preview includes an updated SDK with system images for testing on the official Android emulator and on Nexus 6, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus Player, Nexus 9, and Pixel C devices (and to help test out these features on a tablet, developers can get a $150 discount on Pixel C), as well as on General Mobile 4G (Android One) devices.

This initial preview release is for developers only and not intended for daily use or consumer use. We plan to update the N Developer Preview system images often during the Developer Preview program. As we get closer to a final product, we’ll be inviting consumers to try it out as well.

We are also making it easier for you to try out N on your development devices with the new Android Beta Program. Starting today, you can update your Android devices to the developer preview of N and receive ongoing updates via OTA by visiting g.co/androidbeta.

Click here for more details on getting started with the N Developer Preview and let us know what you think -- the sooner we hear from you, the more of your feedback we can integrate.