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Now in Android #113. Second Developer Preview of Android 16… | by Tram Bui | Android Builders | Jan, 2025


We launched the second Developer Preview of Android 16, forward of the deliberate launch in Q2 of 2025. Android 16 introduces main and minor API releases to permit us to drive quicker innovation with extra frequent API releases. We’re planning each a significant and minor API launch in 2025, and solely the Q2 main launch will embrace app-impacting deliberate habits modifications; the minor launch introduces new options with out these modifications, so you may focus your app testing on main releases.

This developer preview focuses on efficiency optimization, developer instruments, haptic suggestions enhancements, process administration, adaptive refresh charge enhancements and extra.

Android 16 Developer Preview 2 introduces System Triggered Profiling to assist builders gather profiling information throughout essential eventualities like app startups or ANR occasions. It improves developer instruments with enhanced job introspection, permitting apps to establish a number of the explanation why jobs are pending and debug process scheduling extra successfully. Haptic suggestions enhancements embrace new APIs to outline detailed amplitude and frequency curves for extra nuanced tactile responses throughout units.

Moreover, adaptive refresh charge enhancements refine app habits on units with variable refresh charges, optimizing efficiency and lowering energy consumption. Predictive again additions embrace new APIs to assist play corresponding ahead-of-time animations when the again gesture is invoked.

Get began right this moment by testing your app with Android 16 within the emulator or by flashing a system picture onto a Pixel system.

We launched the Developer Preview of the Android XR SDK, a toolkit to create immersive prolonged actuality (XR) experiences on Android.

The SDK helps builders:

  • Spatialize Functions: Add 3D parts, spatial panels, and spatial audio.
  • Construct Immersive Environments: Create digital or augmented areas.
  • Allow Pure Interactions: Help hand and eye monitoring for intuitive engagement.
  • It consists of Jetpack XR SDK for Compose and Materials Design in XR, Unity Integration for real-time 3D improvement, WebXR for immersive internet experiences, and OpenXR 1.1 for native C/C++ improvement. The Play Retailer will even help XR apps, with current apps spatialized mechanically.

At XR Unlocked ’24, we shared how you can design intuitive and interesting apps for Android XR. We coated XR design ideas, concerns, and sensible approaches to interplay and UI that leverage the distinctive capabilities of the platform and enable you elevate your app’s design.

Then, Ryan, Spencer, Tricia, and Luke mentioned how you can construct immersive experiences with Open XR and Unity by constructing on high of supporting business requirements and instruments acquainted to XR builders. They explored OpenXR APIs, our partnership with Unity, and the experimental launch of Unity for Android XR, together with options and roadmap.

Moreover, if you happen to puzzled how you can adapt current Android apps for Android XR units, Yasmine, Patrick, and Stevan coated new instruments and sources out there. You can begin constructing with the Android XR SDK and see your modifications come to life within the Android XR Emulator inside Android Studio. Additionally, you may learn to use what you already know to ship nice experiences to your customers.

The week of January seventh is a Highlight Week on Android Digicam and Media, providing sources that will help you uplevel the media experiences in your app. Try this weblog put up for every thing that we coated in the course of the week!

Tuesday centered on the most recent releases in CameraX and Media3, together with steering on constructing digicam apps with Compose.

Wednesday emphasised creating premium consumer experiences, similar to using the Media Efficiency Class and enabling HDR video seize. We featured Google Drive’s implementation of Extremely HDR pictures and Instagram’s enhancement of in-app picture seize with Night time Mode.

Thursday addressed adapting digicam and media apps for giant screens and the brand new Android XR platform, masking media experiences on massive units, implementing tabletop mode for digicam functions, and getting ready apps for XR with concerns for spatial audio and video.

Friday delved into media creation, exploring Media3’s Transformer module for media processing, showcasing the 1 Second On a regular basis app, and introducing a brand new API for capturing concurrent digicam streams. Android GDE Tom Colvin additionally shared how he constructed a hand gesture recognizer app with CameraX and MediaPipe.

Ben Weiss collaborated with Reddit to discover how they leveraged Baseline Profiles, the R8 compiler, and Jetpack Compose to scale back startup occasions, improve rendering efficiency, optimize bytecode, and modernize legacy UI, bettering each consumer and developer experiences.

Scott Nien showcased the expanded HDR capabilities, preview stabilization, and versatile results framework in CameraX 1.4.0. He additionally demonstrated how you can seamlessly combine CameraX with Jetpack Compose, empowering builders to leverage Android’s digicam capabilities for creating distinctive app experiences.

Donovan McMurray detailed how Instagram improved its Android app with Night time Mode, enabling customers to seize higher-quality photographs in low-light settings. This function leverages Android’s Digicam Extensions API to faucet into device-specific capabilities, guaranteeing a constant and scalable expertise throughout units.

Jolanda Verhoef demonstrated how you can combine the camera-compose APIs into your app, showcasing the pleasant UI experiences they permit. In Half 1, she coated constructing a primary digicam preview utilizing the brand new camera-compose artifact, together with permission dealing with and primary integration. In Half 2, she carried out a visible tap-to-focus function utilizing the Compose gesture system, graphics, and coroutines.

Nevin Mital demonstrated how Google Maps leveraged MPC to roll out a UI transparency function solely to higher-performing units and supplied steering on implementing MPC in your apps with the Core Efficiency library.

Yacine Rezgui walked you thru the important steps to organize your apps for 16 KB web page measurement units, unlocking efficiency enhancements, enabling future improvements, and delivering smoother, extra immersive app experiences to customers.

Steven Jenkins introduced the secure launch of Android Studio’s Ladybug Function Drop, introducing 5 Gemini in Android Studio options, Animation Preview help for Put on Tiles, and an App Hyperlinks Assistant to simplify app improvement. These enhancements are designed to enhance developer productiveness and help the creation of high-quality Android functions.

There have been lots of alpha releases.

That will help you construct for Android XR, we’ve got added:

For Digicam and Media, we’ve got added:

Transition Model 1.6.0-alpha01 units the disjoint father or mother for ViewOverlays used to animate its transitions.

Television-Materials 1.1.0-alpha01 modifications FocusEnterExitScope.cancelFocus() to cancelFocusChange() and replaces FocusProperties.enter and FocusProperties.exit with onEnter and onExit.

Don’t fret, there’s stability — there have been additionally some secure releases.

AndroidX Core 1.16.0-alpha01 has a repair for inset dispatching for Views.

ViewPager 1.1.0 is secure and provides help for Android 12 stretch over scroll edge impact and nullability annotations in ViewPager.

Exercise 1.10.0 is secure and provides a brand new LocalActivity composition native that gives the Exercise for the present scope and PhotoPicker permits selecting pictures so as and selecting which tab needs to be initially seen.

RecyclerView 1.4.0 is secure and has Adaptive refresh charge help.

That’s it for this week, with the Second Developer Preview of Android 16, Android XR, the Highlight Week on Android Digicam and Media, the Android Studio Ladybug Function Drop and extra!

Test again quickly in your subsequent replace from the Android developer universe! 💫

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