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Jetpack Compose debuts new Material Design 3 controls and expands to Android TV
Developers shouldn’t have to dread yearly OS updates anymore thanks to the new Android SDK Upgrade Assistant
Google is kicking off its annual Android Dev Summit with a welcome lineup of updates, new development libraries, and enhanced tooling. This year's big talking points feature Jetpack Compose, Material Design 3, and Android Studio Flamingo, but most of the individual form factors are also making appearances.
Now in Android gets a dedicated showcase app that doubles as a news portal for developers
It's currently in its early stages but a Play Store version is expected soon
Getting into Android app development is like stepping into the fast lane — Google's not shy about keeping developers on their toes with new libraries, ever-changing APIs, and of course, frequently updated design guidelines. Remaining up to date with all these changes becomes crucial if you want to stay relevant as a mobile developer, and one of the better resources for that is Now in Android, with plenty of instructional Medium articles and YouTube videos. Now Google's building on those with a dedicated Now in Android app, helping to further highlight its latest best practices.
Google's UI tool Jetpack Compose reaches stable build after two years of development
Android development is better than ever
Since its introduction during I/O 2019, Jetpack Compose was obviously destined to become the prescribed method of Android UI development. After more than two years in public development, it has hit the milestone many developers have been waiting for: an official 1.0 release. Alongside a stable release of Android Studio Arctic Fox, Jetpack Compose is ready for use in production code.
Google to make 2-Step Verification mandatory for Google Play Console users
The change starts with new users later this year
In our modern world where anyone could be a hacker (even a Florida teen), it's important to keep our data secure. Google has been pushing its 2-Step Verification program as a way to make sure it's really you logging into your account. Now, the company has announced that 2FA will be mandatory for new users of the Google Play Console soon and existing users with high-risk permissions late this year.
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We're always on the lookout for what's to come with the future of Android, and if you're a developer, you may want to check out Android Studio right now. The Android R Preview SDK just appeared in the SDK Manager, meaning there's likely some new stuff to poke through.
As developers, it's almost always desirable to be able to write shorter and more readable code without sacrificing performance, stability, or control. Many Android devs have adopted Kotlin to replace Java because it delivers on those points and many others. Even though Kotlin's syntax and language features make it well-suited to Android, it's still not designed specifically for Android, so there are plenty of platform-specific patterns that require a lot of boilerplate code. To that end, a new extension library called Android KTX was released in preview form today with a focus on wrapping a lot of that boilerplate code.
The Play Store created some controversy last month after announcing plans to remove apps that used Accessibility Services for any purpose that didn't directly relate to disabled users. While Google is reconsidering the best implementation for the Accessibility Services policy, a separate announcement introduces additional policies intended to help make apps distributed through the Play Store more secure and possibly improve performance. Over the next two years, developers will be required to target a recent SDK version in their app updates and provide 64-bit versions of native apps if they aren't already. The Play Store will also begin adding some new metadata to APKs for verification purposes, but most developers shouldn't need to worry about this.
Back in October, Android Studio 3.0 was set loose to the stable channel with improved support for the Kotlin language, platform technologies like Android Things, and many other new and improved features. At the same time, a major upgrade to the Android Emulator also went out to developers on Android Studio's canary channel. It came with quite a few enhancements, but the the headliner was Quick Boot, which can reportedly achieve startup times of less than 6 seconds. Today, this version of the emulator reaches the stable channel and the Android Tools team posted about many of the other valuable improvements this update brings.
Have you been thinking about getting into Android development (or any development in general) lately? Don't know where to start? Well, Packt currently has its full catalog of eBooks and videos available for just $10 apiece - a great deal, considering the original prices of some of these books.
The Facebook app for Android isn't great, but it's far better than it used to be. Last year, the company began working on a new user interface framework for its Android app, called Litho. The goal was to achieve smooth scrolling performance on a wide range of devices, and now Facebook has open-sourced the library for anyone to use.
Screenshots are great for sharing something funny with a friend, but it'd be so much easier if we could do that without having to crop the original shot first. Some Redditors discovered over the weekend that partial screenshot functionality is currently hidden in Android Nougat, and can be turned on via the source code and then used with either the normal screenshot buttons or a physical keyboard.
If you cruise by the Android developer site with any frequency, you may have noticed that it looks a little different. There aren't a lot of tiny individual adjustments, but rather two immediately obvious changes to the look and layout.
The Mobile Dev + Test conference is back this year and better than ever, with in-depth Android development and mobile training, tutorials, keynotes, and sessions! In addition, TechWell events is also launching the collocation of the inaugural, Internet of Things conference, IoT Dev + Test with Mobile Dev + Test. Both conferences will be happening at the Westin San Diego April 17–22, 2016. Register for one conference and gain access to both conference programs. Pick and choose what content is right for you and build a customized week of learning and networking.
It's been a long and winding road, but the days of Eclipse with ADT are over. In a post on the Android development blog, Google has announced that development and official support for the Android Development Tools plugin for Eclipse will be shut down at the end of this year. Google intends to focus all of its effort on improving Android Studio and advises developers move their active projects to Android Studio using the included migration tool.
As much as we all love to live in a digital world, there's just no replacing books. Sure, ebooks are good - but there's something awesome about having a physical copy and flipping through the pages. That's especially true if you're already using your computer for something else - you know, like work. Let me give an example.
Most of the standard (non-game) Android apps we use today are created with Java. Alternatives are available, like Apache Cordova and Mono for Android, but there's no doubt that Java is the only true first-class citizen. However, a team at Google is now working on a new cross-platform alternative called Sky, and it's able to deliver 120 FPS out of the box.
Microsoft is in the midst of its annual Build conference. This is sort of like Google I/O or WWDC, but with fewer online viewers. Wednesday's keynote presentation was filled with announcements about Windows 10, the Microsoft Edge browser, an augmented reality headset, and quite a bit more. One product failed to earn stage time: the Visual Studio Emulator for Android, but developers may find renewed interest since the latest version is showing maturity as it expands through the addition of Device Profiles and a number of other recent enhancements.