fidzu : Android

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One UI 7 protects your Galaxy phone, even when it's in the hands of a thief. Anticipate passkeys, a fresher UI, and a cleaner camera app.

05 Dec 2024 12:01pm GMT

Posted by Mindy Brooks - Senior Director, Android Platform

App developers play a vital role in shaping how people of all ages interact with technology. Whether your app content is specifically designed for kids or simply attracts their attention, there is an added responsibility to ensure a safe and trusted experience. Google is here to support you in that work. Today, we're sharing some important reminders and updates on how we empower developers to build high-quality, engaging, and age-appropriate apps across the Android ecosystem.

Help Determine Android User Age with Digital IDs

Understanding a user's age range can be critical for providing minors with safer and more appropriate app experiences, as well as complying with local age-related regulations. Android's new Credential Manager API, now in Beta for Digital IDs, addresses this challenge by helping developers verify a user's age with a digital ID saved to any digital wallet application. Importantly, Android's Credential Manager was built with both safety and privacy at its core - it minimizes data exposure by only sharing information necessary with developers and asks the user for explicit permission to share an age signal. We encourage you to try out the Beta API for yourself and look forward to hearing your feedback.

While digital IDs are still in their early days, we're continuing to work with governments on further adoption to strengthen this solution. Android is also exploring how the API can support a range of age assurance methods, helping developers to safely confirm the age of their users, especially for users that can't or don't want to use a digital ID. Please keep in mind that ID-based solutions are just one tool that developers can use to determine age and the best approach will depend on your app.

Shield Young Users from Inappropriate Content on Google Play

As part of our continued commitment to creating a safe and positive environment for children across the Play Store, we recently launched the Restrict Declared Minors (RDM) setting within the Google Play Console that allows developers to designate their app as inappropriate for minors. When enabled, Google Play users with declared ages below 18 will not be able to download or purchase the app nor will they be able to continue subscriptions or make new purchases if the app is already installed.

Beyond Play's broader kids safety policies, this new setting gives developers an additional tool to proactively prevent minors from accessing content that may be unsuitable for them. It also empowers developers to take a more proactive role in ensuring their apps reach the appropriate audience. As a reminder, this feature is simply one tool of many to keep your apps safe and we are continuing to improve it based on early feedback. Developers remain solely responsible for compliance with relevant laws and regulations. You can learn more about opting in to RDM here.

Develop Teacher Approved Apps and Games on Google Play

Great content for kids can take many forms, whether that's sparking curiosity, helping kids learn, or just plain fun. Google Play's Teacher Approved program highlights high-quality apps that are reviewed and rated by teachers and child development specialists. Our team of teachers and experts across the world review and rate apps on factors like age-appropriateness, quality of experience, enrichment, and delight. For added transparency, we include information in the app listing about why the app was rated highly to help parents determine if the app is right for their child. Apps in the program also must meet strict privacy and security requirements.

Building a teacher-approved app not only helps raise app quality for kids - it can also increase your reach and engagement. All apps in this program are eligible to appear and be featured on Google Play's Kids tab where families go to easily discover quality apps and games. Please visit Google Play Academy for more information about how to design high-quality apps for kids.

Stay Updated With Google Play's Families Policies

Google Play policies provide additional protections for children and families. Our Families policies require that apps and games targeted to children have appropriate content, show ads suitable for children, and meet other requirements including ones related to personally identifiable information. We frequently update and strengthen these policies to ensure that Google Play remains a place where families can find safe and high-quality content for their children. This includes our new Child Safety Standards Policy for social and dating apps that goes into effect in January.

Developers can showcase compliance with Play's Families policies with a special badge on the Google Play Data safety section. This is another great way that you can better help families find apps that meet their needs, while supporting Play's commitment to provide users more transparency and control over their data. To display the badge, please visit the "Security practices" section of your Data Safety form in your Google Play Developer Console.

Additional Resources

Protecting kids online is a responsibility we all share and we hope these reminders are helpful as you prepare for 2025. We're grateful for your partnership in making Android and Google Play fantastic platforms for delightful, high-quality content for kids and families. For more resources:

04 Dec 2024 8:00pm GMT

Posted by Robbie McLachlan, Developer Marketing

In our latest film for #WeArePlay, which celebrates the people behind apps and games, we meet Mesty and Garri - the husband and wife duo who created Tentang Anak. Their app helps parents across Indonesia navigate their parenting journey with confidence: with a focus on child health, growth tracking, and providing accessible expert consultations.

What inspired you to create Tentang Anak?

Mesty: I saw so much misinformation about child health and parenting, especially in Indonesia where there's a huge gap between the number of pediatricians and children. I wanted to provide parents with reliable, accessible information that could help them raise healthy, well-rounded children, allowing them to feel confident and calm in their parenting journey.

Garri: For me, it was about seeing the need for a one-stop solution for parents. Everything was scattered-pregnancy, growth tracking, expert advice-and I realized we could create something that brings it all together in one place. I wanted to build a platform that supported parents, especially in remote areas, with everything they need to raise their kids with confidence.

How does Tentang Anak ensure that the expert advice is both accurate and accessible to parents in remote areas of Indonesia?

Mesty: We make sure to partner with a team of highly qualified pediatricians, psychologists, and child development experts to ensure our advice is accurate and up-to-date.

Garri: Exactly, staying current with the latest research and best practices is crucial. Misinformation can have a huge impact, especially when it comes to child health. Parents often turn to social media or unverified sources for answers, which can lead to confusion or even harm. By partnering with qualified experts and constantly updating our content, we make sure that parents get accurate, reliable, and timely advice. This is especially important in remote areas where access to healthcare professionals can be limited.

How has Google Play supported Tentang Anak?

Garri: Google Play has provided us with the tools and support to optimize our app's performance and engagement. From using Google's analytics and A/B testing to improve the user experience, to the seamless distribution through the Play Store, Google has been a key partner in scaling Tentang Anak and making sure parents across Indonesia can access the app.

What is next for Tentang Anak?

Mesty: We're focused on expanding our reach across Indonesia, ensuring that more parents, especially in remote areas, have access to the support and resources they need. We're also enhancing our app with more interactive features to keep parents engaged and informed.

Garri: At the same time, we're expanding our offerings with products for children, including children's books, vitamins, and skincare. Our goal is to make Tentang Anak the go-to platform and brand for all things parenting in Indonesia, and we're excited to see how we can grow and help even more families.

Discover more global #WeArePlay stories and share your favorites.

04 Dec 2024 2:00pm GMT

Posted by Dom Elliott - Group Product Manager, Google Play

At Google Play, we're committed to providing a safe and secure environment for your business to thrive. That's why we continually invest in reinforcing user trust, protecting your business, and safeguarding the ecosystem. This includes actively combating bad actors who try to deceive users or spread malware, and giving you tools to combat abuse.

Our tools like the Play Integrity API helps protect your business from revenue loss and enhance user safety. You can use the Play Integrity API to detect suspicious activity and decide how to respond to abuse, such as fraud, bots, cheating, or data theft. In fact, apps that use Play Integrity features have seen 80% less unauthorized usage on average compared to other apps. Today, we're sharing how we're enhancing the Play Integrity API for everyone.

Play integrity verdicts are becoming faster, less spoofable, and more privacy-friendly

Starting today, we're changing the technology that powers the Play Integrity API on all devices running Android 13 (API level 33) and above to make it faster, more reliable, and more private for users. Developers already using Play Integrity API can opt-in to start using the new verdicts today; all API integrations will automatically transition to the new verdicts in May 2025. The improved verdicts will require, and make greater use of, hardware-backed security signals using Android Platform Key Attestation, making it significantly harder and more costly for attackers to bypass. We'll also be adjusting verdicts when we detect security threats across Android SDK versions, such as when there is evidence of excessive activity or key compromise, without requiring any developer work. And now, Play Integrity API will have the same level of reliability and support across all Android form factors.

The transition to the new verdicts will reduce the device signals that need to be collected and evaluated on Google servers by ~90% and our testing indicates verdict latency can improve by up to ~80%.

You can now check whether a device has a recent security update

Play Integrity API offers enhanced security signals, like the optional "meets-strong-integrity" and "meets-basic-integrity" responses in the device recognition verdict, to help you decide how much you trust the environment your app is running in. Now, we're updating the "meets-strong-integrity" response to require a security update within the last year on devices running Android 13 and above. This update gives apps with higher security needs, like banking and finance apps, governments, and enterprise apps, more ways to tailor their level of protection for sensitive features, like transferring money. When the strong label isn't available for the user, we recommend that you have a fallback option. Learn more about our recommended API practices.

We're also making it easier for you to adjust your app's behavior based on the user's Android SDK version with a new device attributes field. For example, your app could respond differently to the legacy "meets-strong-integrity" definition on devices running Android 12 and lower than to the enhanced definition on devices running Android 13 and higher. The FAQ includes some example code for using the new device attributes field.

We're standardizing all optional verdict signals so it's consistent for you to use

We're simplifying and standardizing all verdict content across apps, games, SDKs, and more, so that what you see will be more consistent and predictable. For apps installed by Google Play, you can get enhanced verdicts with optional signals such as the improved "meets-strong-integrity" device verdict and the recently launched app access risk verdict (which helps you detect and and respond to apps that can capture the screen or control the device, so you can protect your users from scams or malicious activity). For apps installed out of Google Play and all other API requests, you'll receive a verdict with information about the device, account license, and app, but without the extra security signals.

Developers can start using the improved verdicts today and they'll go live for all integrations in May 2025

Starting today, all new integrations will automatically receive the improved verdicts. Developers who already use the Play Integrity API can opt-in to the new verdicts now, or wait until it automatically updates for them in May 2025. For more information, see the Play Integrity API documentation. With these ongoing enhancements, the Play Integrity API is becoming an even more essential tool for safeguarding your apps and users.

03 Dec 2024 5:00pm GMT

Posted by Thomas Ezan - Sr Developer Relation Engineer (@lethargicpanda)

We're excited to announce Gaze Link as the winner of the Best Android App for our Gemini API Developer Competition!

This innovative app demonstrates the potential of the Gemini API in providing a communication system for individuals with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) who develop severe motor and verbal disabilities, enabling them to type sentences with only their eyes.

About Gaze Link

Gaze Link uses Google's Gemini 1.5 Flash model to predict the user's intended sentence based on a few key words and the context of the conversation.

For example if the context is "Is the room temperature ok?" and the user replies "hot AC two" the app will leverage Gemini to generate the full sentence "I am hot, can you turn the AC down by two degrees?".

The Gaze Link team took advantage of Gemini 1.5 Flash multilingual capabilities to let the app generate sentences in English, Spanish and Chinese, the three languages currently supported by the app.

We were truly impressed by the Gaze Link app. The team used the Gemini API combined with ML Kit Face Detection to empower individuals with ALS providing them with a powerful communication system that is both accessible and affordable.

With Gemini 1.5 Flash currently supporting 38 languages, it is possible for Gaze Link to add support for more languages in the future. In addition, the model's multimodal abilities could enable the team to enhance the user experience by integrating image, audio and video to augment the context of the conversation.

Build with the Gemini API

The result of the integration of the Gemini API in Gaze Link is inspiring. If you are working on an Android app today, we encourage you to learn about the Gemini API capabilities to see how you can successfully add generative AI to your app and delight your users.

To get started, go to the Android AI documentation!

21 Nov 2024 5:30pm GMT

Posted by Niharika Arora - Developer Relations Engineer

From breaking news and entertainment to sports and politics, X is a social media app that aims to help nearly 500 million users worldwide get the full story with all the live commentary. Recently, X developers revamped the Android app's login process so users never miss out on the conversations they're interested in. Using the Credential Manager API, the team implemented new passkey authentication for quicker, easier, and safer access to the app.

Simplifying login with passkeys

Today, traditional password-based authentication systems are less secure and more prone to cyber attacks. Many users often choose easy-to-guess passwords, which bad actors can easily crack using brute force attacks. They also reuse the same passwords across multiple accounts, meaning if one password is hacked, all accounts are compromised.

Passkeys address the growing concern of account security from weak passwords and phishing attacks by eliminating the need for passwords entirely. The feature provides a safer, more seamless sign-in experience, freeing users from having to remember their usernames or passwords.

"Passkeys are a simpler, more secure way to log in, replacing passwords with pins or biometric data like fingerprints or facial recognition," said Kylie McRoberts, head of safety at X. "We explored using passkeys to make signing in easier and safer for users, helping protect their accounts without the hassle of remembering passwords."

Since implementing passkeys, the X team has seen a substantial reduction in login times and metrics showing improved login flow. With passkeys, the app's successful login rate has doubled compared to when it only relied on passwords. The team has also seen a decline in password reset requests from users who have enabled passkeys.

According to X developers, adopting passkeys even came with benefits beyond enhanced security and a simplified login experience, like lower costs and improved UX.

"Passkeys allowed us to cut down on expenses related to SMS-based two-factor authentication because they offer strong, inherent authentication," said Kylie. "And with the ease of login, users are more likely to engage with our platform since there's less friction to remember or reset passwords."

Passkeys rely on public-key cryptography to authenticate users and provide them with private keys. That means websites and apps can see and store the public key, but never the private key, which is encrypted and stored by the user's credential provider. As keys are unique and tied to the website or app, they cannot be phished, further enhancing their security.

Seamless integration using the Credential Manager API

To integrate passkeys, X developers used Android's Credential Manager API, which made the process "extremely smooth," according to Kylie. The API unifies Smart Lock, One Tap, and Google Sign-In into a single, streamlined workflow. This also allowed developers to remove hundreds of lines of code, boosting implementation and reducing maintenance overhead.

In the end, the migration to Credential Manager took X developers only two weeks to complete, followed by an additional two weeks to fully support passkeys. This was a "very fast migration" and the team "didn't expect it to be that simple and straightforward," said Saurabh Arora, a staff engineer at X. Thanks to Credential Manager's simple, coroutine-powered API, the complexities of handling multiple authentication options were essentially removed, reducing code, the likelihood of bugs, and overall developer efforts.

X developers saw a significant improvement in developer velocity by integrating the Credential Manager API. With their shift to passkey adoption through Credential Manager API, they achieved an:

Using the Credential Manager API's top-level methods, like createCredential and getCredential, simplified integration by removing custom logic complexities surrounding individual protocols. This uniform approach also meant X developers could use a single, consistent interface to handle various authentication types, such as passkeys, passwords, and federated sign-ins like Sign in with Google.

"With Credential Manager's simple API methods, we could retrieve passkeys, passwords, and federated tokens with a single call, cutting down on branching logic and making response handling cleaner," said Saurabh. "Using different API methods, like createCredential() and getCredential(), also simplified credential storage, letting us handle passwords and passkeys in one place."

X developers didn't face many challenges when adopting Sign in With Google using the Credential Manager API. Replacing X's previous Google Sign In, One Tap, and Smart Lock code with a simpler Credential Manager implementation meant developers no longer had to handle connection or disconnection statuses and activity results, reducing the margin of error.

A future with passkeys

X's integration of passkeys shows that achieving a more secure and user-friendly authentication experience can be achieved. By leveraging Credential Manager API, X developers simplified the integration process, reduced potential bugs, and improved both security and developer velocity-all while sharpening the user experience.

"Our advice for developers considering passkey integration would be to take advantage of the Credential Manager API," said Saurabh. "It really simplifies the process and reduces code you need to write and maintain, making implementation better for developers."

Looking ahead, X plans to further enhance the user experience by allowing sign-ups with passkeys alone and providing a dedicated passkey management screen.

Get started

Learn how to improve your app's login UX using passkeys and the Credential Manager API.

21 Nov 2024 5:00pm GMT

Posted by Neelansh Sahai - Developer Relations Engineer

Did you know that, on average, 40% of the people in the US reset or replace their smartphones every year? This frequent device turnover presents a challenge - and an opportunity - for maintaining strong user relationships. When users get a new phone, the friction of re-entering login credentials can lead to frustration, app abandonment, and churn.

To address this issue, we're introducing Restore Credentials, a new feature of Android's Credential Manager API. With Restore Credentials, apps can seamlessly onboard users to their accounts on a new device after they restore their apps and data from their previous device. This makes the transition to a new device effortless and fosters loyalty and long term relationships.

On top of all this, there's no developer effort required for the transfer of a restore key from one device to the other, as this process is tied together with the android system's backup and restore mechanism. However, if you want to login your users silently as soon as the restore is completed, you might want to implement BackupAgent and add your logic in the onRestore callback. The experience is delightful - users will continue being signed in as they were on their previous device, and they will be able to get notifications to easily access their content without even needing to open the app on the new device.

Some of the benefits of the Restore Credentials feature include:

How does Restore Credentials work?

The Restore Credentials feature enables seamless user account restoration on a new device. This process occurs automatically in the background during device setup when a user restores apps and data from a previous device. By restoring app credentials, the feature allows the app to sign the user back in without requiring any additional interaction.

The credential type that's supported for this feature is called restore key, which is a public key compatible with passkey / FIDO2 backends.

User flow

On the old device:

1. If the current signed-in user is trusted, you can generate a restore key at any point after they've authenticated in your app. For instance, this could be immediately after login or during a routine check for an existing restore key.
2. The restore key is stored locally and backed up to the cloud. Apps can opt-out of backing it up to the cloud.

On the new device:

1. When setting up a new device, the user can select one of the two options to restore data. Either they can restore data from a cloud backup, or can locally transfer the data. If the user transfers locally, the restore key is transferred locally from the old to the new device. Otherwise, if the user restores using the cloud backup, the restore key gets downloaded along with the app data from cloud backup to the new device.
2. Once this restore key is available on the new device, the app can use it to log in the user on the new device silently in the background.

Note: You should delete the restore key as soon as the user signs out. You don't want your user to get stuck in a cycle of signing out intentionally and then automatically getting logged back in.

How to implement Restore Credentials

Using the Jetpack Credential Manager let you create, get, and clear the relevant Restore Credentials:

Restore Credentials is available through the Credential Manager Jetpack library. The minimum version of the Jetpack Library is 1.5.0-beta01, and the minimum GMS version is 242200000. For more on this, refer to the Restore Credentials DAC page. To get started, follow these steps:

// build.gradle.kts
implementation("androidx.credentials:credentials:1.5.0-beta01")

// Fetch Registration JSON from server
// Same as the registrationJson created at the time of creating a Passkey
// See documentation for more info
val registrationJson = ... 

// Create the CreateRestoreCredentialRequest object
// Pass in the registrationJSON 
val createRequest = CreateRestoreCredentialRequest(
  registrationJson,
  /* isCloudBackupEnabled = */ true
)

val credentialManager = CredentialManager.create(context)

// On a successful authentication create a Restore Key
// Pass in the context and CreateRestoreCredentialRequest object
val response = credentialManager.createCredential(
    context,
    createRestoreRequest
)

// Fetch the Authentication JSON from server
val authenticationJson = ...

// Create the GetRestoreCredentialRequest object
val options = GetRestoreCredentialOption(authenticationJson)
val getRequest = GetCredentialRequest(Immutablelist.of(options))

// The restore key can be fetched in two scenarios to 
// 1. On the first launch of app on the device, fetch the Restore Key
// 2. In the onRestore callback (if the app implements the Backup Agent)
val response = credentialManager.getCredential(context, getRequest)

If you're using a backup agent, perform the getCredential part within the onRestore callback. This ensures that the app's credentials are restored immediately after the app data is restored.

// Create a ClearCredentialStateRequest object
val clearRequest = ClearCredentialStateRequest(/* requestType = */ 1)

// On user log-out, clear the restore key
val response = credentialManager.clearCredentialState(clearRequest)

Conclusion

The Restore Credentials feature provides significant benefits, ensuring users experience a smooth transition between devices, and allowing them to log in quickly and easily through backup agents or restore key checks. For developers, the feature is straightforward to integrate and leverages existing passkey server-side infrastructure. Overall, Restore Credentials is a valuable tool that delivers a practical and user-friendly authentication solution.

This blog post is a part of our series: Spotlight Week: Passkeys. We're providing you with a wealth of resources through the week. Think informative blog posts, engaging videos, practical sample code, and more-all carefully designed to help you leverage the latest advancements in seamless sign-up and sign-in experiences.

With these cutting-edge solutions, you can enhance security, reduce friction for your users, and stay ahead of the curve in the rapidly evolving landscape of digital identity. To get a complete overview of what Spotlight Week has to offer and how it can benefit you, be sure to read our overview blog post.

20 Nov 2024 5:00pm GMT

Posted by Robbie McLachlan, Developer Marketing

Earlier this year #WeArePlay went on a virtual tour of Australia and the U.S. to spotlight the stories of app and game founders. Today, we're rounding up our tour across the world with the last stop for 2024: Japan. From an app that uses AI to promote early health intervention to one that's turning litter picking into a social movement, meet the 49 apps and games founders building growing businesses on Google Play.

Let's take a quick road trip across Japan by reading some of my favorite stories.

Fujio's app is turning litter collection into a global movement

When Fujio was a child, his love for environmental books ignited his passion for protecting nature. Later, while traveling through different countries, he was shocked to find litter everywhere, even in remote jungles. This experience inspired him to create Pirika - named after the Ainu word for "beautiful" - a social platform that encourages people to pick up litter, document it with photos, and geotag locations to track problem areas. With over over 360 million pieces of trash collected globally, Pirika is fostering a nationwide movement towards cleaner communities. Fujio plans on expanding the app's reach worldwide, mobilizing communities to fight pollution collectively.

Self-taught game developer and illustrator CHARROOM turned her passion for mini-games into a full-time career. Her latest project, Sushi Food Cart, combines two of her favorite things: sushi and cats. In this fun cooking game, players manage a sushi food cart, preparing and serving sushi to customers quickly and accurately. The game features quirky cat characters, time-management challenges, and colorful art. As players progress, they unlock new recipes, upgrades, and meet new cat characters. For Char, creating apps is her 'ikigai'-her purpose in life. She's currently working on a new restaurant game to continue spreading her playful approach to gaming.

Kota and Yoshinori's app uses AI to help people research their health concerns and connect with medical specialists

When entrepreneur Kota decided to create a healthcare app, he partnered with his high school friend and roommate, Dr. Yoshinori. Combining Kota's tech expertise with Yoshinori's medical knowledge, they developed Ubie, an AI-powered symptom checker that allows people to research their symptoms and connect with medical specialists. The app promotes early detection and intervention by offering them tailored information on potential health concerns and guidance on finding care. Ubie's goal is not just limited to symptom checking; the founders plan to expand its services to include tracking treatments and managing day-to-day healthcare needs alongside transforming Ubie into a global brand.

Takuji has always been passionate about travel and music, but when he learned programming 15 years ago, he discovered a new creative outlet. Together with his brother, Shohei, he launched IzumiArtisan from their parents' house in Osaka. The duo specializes in creating escape room games, heavily influenced by the detective stories Takuji loves. Their popular game, Rime, is filled with mysterious puzzles and plot twists and has been translated into 18 languages, capturing a global audience. The brothers are now working on a new title inspired by the American Underground Railroad.

Discover more #WeArePlay stories from Japan, and stories from across the globe.

20 Nov 2024 2:00pm GMT

Posted by Matthew McCullough - VP of Product Management, Android Developer

Android 16 Developer Preview 1 is available now to test with your apps. This is the start of Android having more frequent API releases as part of our effort to drive faster innovation in apps and devices.

Two Android API releases in 2025

In addition to new developer APIs, the Q4 minor release will pick up feature updates, optimizations, and bug fixes; it will not include any app-impacting behavior changes.

We'll continue to have quarterly Android releases. The Q1 and Q3 updates in-between the API releases will provide incremental updates to help ensure continuous quality. We're actively working with our device partners to bring the Q2 release to as many devices as possible.

Using new APIs with major and minor releases

Guarding a code block with a check for Android's API level is done today using the SDK_INT constant with VERSION_CODES. This will continue to be supported for major Android releases.

if (SDK_INT >= VERSION_CODES.BAKLAVA) {
  // Use APIs introduced in Android 16
}

The new SDK_INT_FULL constant can be used for API checks against both major and minor versions with the new VERSION_CODES_FULL enumeration.

if (SDK_INT_FULL >= VERSION_CODES_FULL.[MAJOR or MINOR RELEASE]) {
  // Use APIs introduced in a major or minor release
}

You can also use the Build.getMinorSdkVersion() method to get just the minor SDK version.

val minorSdkVersion = Build.getMinorSdkVersion(VERSION_CODES_FULL.BAKLAVA)

These APIs have not yet been finalized and are subject to change, so please send us feedback if you have any concerns.

Note that there's no change to the target API level requirements and the associated dates for apps in Google Play; our plans are for one annual requirement each year, and that will be tied to the major API level.

Embedded photo picker

The photo picker provides a safe, built-in way for users to grant your app access to selected images and videos from both local and cloud storage, instead of their entire media library. Using a combination of Modular System Components through Google System Updates and Google Play services, it's supported back to Android 4.4 (API level 19). Integration requires just a few lines of code with the associated Android Jetpack library.

The developer preview includes new APIs that enable apps to embed the photo picker into their view hierarchy. This allows it to feel like a more integrated part of the app while still leveraging the process isolation that allows users to select media without the app needing overly-broad permissions. To maximize compatibility across platform versions and simplify your integration, you'll want to use the forthcoming Android Jetpack library if you wish to integrate the embedded photo picker.

Health records

The developer preview of Health Connect contains an early version of APIs supporting health records. This allows apps to read and write medical records in FHIR format with explicit user consent. This API is currently in an early access program. Sign up to be part of our early access program.

Privacy Sandbox on Android

Android 16 incorporates the latest version of the Privacy Sandbox on Android, part of our ongoing work to develop technologies where users know their privacy is protected. Our website has more about the Privacy Sandbox on Android developer beta program to help you get started. Check out the SDK Runtime which allows SDKs to run in a dedicated runtime environment separate from the app they are serving, providing stronger safeguards around user data collection and sharing.

How to get ready

In addition to performing compatibility testing on the next major release, make sure that you're compiling your apps against the new SDK, and use the compatibility framework to enable targetSdkVersion-gated behavior changes as they become available for early testing.

App compatibility

The Android 16 Preview program runs from November 2024 until the final public release next year. At key development milestones, we'll deliver updates for your development and testing environments. Each update includes SDK tools, system images, emulators, API reference, and API diffs. We'll highlight critical APIs as they are ready to test in the preview program in blogs and on the Android 16 developer website.

We're targeting Late Q1 of 2025 for our Platform Stability milestone. At this milestone, we'll deliver final SDK/NDK APIs and also final internal APIs and app-facing system behaviors. We're expecting to reach Platform Stability in March 2025, and from that time you'll have several months before the official release to do your final testing. Visit our Android Developers site for details on the release timeline.

Get started with Android 16

You can get started today with Developer Preview 1 by flashing a system image and updating the tools. We're looking for your feedback so please report issues and submit feature requests on the feedback page. The earlier we get your feedback, the more we can include in the final release.

For the best development experience with Android 16, we recommend that you use the latest preview of the Android Studio Ladybug feature drop. Once you're set up, here are some of the things you should do:

We'll update the preview system images and SDK regularly throughout the Android 16 release cycle. This initial preview release is for developers only and not intended for daily or consumer use, so we're making it available by manual download only. Once you've manually installed a preview build, you'll automatically get future updates over-the-air for all later previews and Betas. Visit the Android developer website for further information on Android updates.

If you've already installed Beta 1 from the Android 15 QPR2 Beta program, you will not be able to move to the Android 16 Developer Preview program without wiping your device. Consider avoiding installing future betas to transition to the next developer preview build without a data wipe.

As we reach our Beta releases, we'll be inviting consumers to try Android 16 as well, and we'll open up enrollment for Android 16 in the Android Beta program at that time.

For complete information, visit the Android 16 developer site.

18 Nov 2024 7:00pm GMT

Posted by Joseph Lewis - Android Developer Relations Technical Writer, and Niharika Arora - Android Developer Relations Engineer

We're kicking off Spotlight Week with a deep dive into passkeys! This week we're partnering with the Chrome team to feature exciting announcements, insightful resources, and expert guidance on how to build seamless and secure authentication experiences for your apps.

Throughout Spotlight Week: Passkeys, we'll share content to help you understand and implement passkeys effectively. Expect technical deep dives, best practices for user experience, case studies from successful implementations, and answers to your questions.

Here's what we'll cover during Spotlight Week: Passkeys:

Monday, Nov 18: Get started with passkeys

We'll start off the week with resources to help you begin passkey integration. Check out these resources to get started!

Key resources include a quick video on passkey basics, updated UX guidelines for Credential Manager and passkeys, and an in-depth server-side implementation guide. We will introduce you to the Identity hub, a comprehensive resource for passkeys, passwords, Sign in with Google, authorization, and much more.

Tuesday, Nov 19: Updated passkeys developer guides

We'll share updated passkeys developer guidance, including migration guides, a new troubleshooting guide, and more. Highlights include a guide on migrating from legacy APIs to Credential Manager, technical details on FIDO2 attestation format changes, and a troubleshooting guide for common Credential Manager errors.

Developers can also share feedback through a passkeys survey to influence future improvements.

Wednesday, Nov 20: New Credential Manager features

We'll go over some of the new Credential Manager capabilities, including improvements to autofill, single-tap sign-in, and the new Restore Credentials feature. Key updates include showing Credential Manager results as autofill suggestions, single-tap sign-in, Signal API for Chrome desktop and a Restore Credentials feature, which allows users to conveniently recover their saved login information in case of device loss or upgrades, ensuring uninterrupted access to their accounts. With Android 15, these additions streamline user authentication and reinforce security, making it easier for users to manage and access their credentials securely.

Thursday, Nov 21: Passkeys #AskAndroid

On Thursday at 9AM PT Spotlight Week: Passkeys will feature an #AskAndroid session to address your most pressing passkey questions. We'll also share case studies with Tokyu and X, highlighting their successful deployments of passkey authentication.

Watch the live stream:

Friday, Nov 22: Learn more about passkeys

We'll close out the week with learning pathways for passkeys on Android and Chrome, insights from partners, and a new Compose sample app for Credential Manager with Android best practices and built using Compose.

We hope you'll join us in exploring these resources to learn how to elevate your app's security and user experience. We're excited to share this journey with you!

18 Nov 2024 5:30pm GMT

Posted by Neville Sicard-Gregory - Senior Product Manager, Android Studio

Looking for a more stable, reliable, and performant Emulator? Download the latest version of Android Studio or ensure your Emulator is up to date in the SDK Manager.

We know how critical the stability, reliability, and performance of the Android Emulator is to your everyday work as an Android developer. After listening to valuable feedback about stability, reliability, and performance, the Android Studio team took a step back from large feature work on the Android Emulator for six months and started an initiative called Project Quartz. This initiative was made up of several workstreams aimed at reducing crashes, speeding up startup time, closing out bugs, and setting up better ways to detect and prevent issues in the future.

Improved stability and reliability

A key goal of Project Quartz aimed to reduce Emulator crashes, which can frustrate and block developers, decreasing their productivity. We focused on fixing issues causing backend and UI crashes and freezes, updated the UI framework, updated our hypervisor framework, and our graphics libraries, and eliminated tech debt. This included:

As a result, we have seen 30% fewer crashes in the latest stable version of Android Studio, as reported by developers who have opted-in to sharing crash details with us. Along with additional end-to-end testing, this means a more stable, reliable, and higher quality experience with fewer interruptions while using the Android Emulator to test your apps.

This chart illustrates the reduction in reported crashes by stable versions of the Android Emulator (newer versions are at the top and shorter is better).

We have also enhanced our opt-in telemetry and logging to better understand and identify the root causes of crashes, and added more testing to our pre-launch release process to improve our ability to detect potential issues prior to release.

Improved release quality

We also implemented several measures to improve release quality, including increasing the number and frequency of end-to-end, automated, and integration tests on macOS, Microsoft Windows, and Linux. Now, more than 1,100 end-to-end tests are ran in postsubmit, up from 500 tests in the past implementation, on all supported operating system platforms . These tests cover various scenarios, including (among other features) different Android Emulator snapshot configurations, diverse graphics card considerations , networking and Bluetooth functionality, and performance benchmarks between Android Emulator system image versions.

This comprehensive testing ensures these critical components function correctly and translates to a more reliable testing environment for developers. As a result, Android app developers can accurately assess their app's behavior in a wider range of scenarios.

Reduced open issues and bugs

It was also important for us to reduce the number of open issues and bugs logged for the Android Emulator by addressing their root cause and ensuring we cover more of the use cases you run into in production. During Project Quartz, we reduced our open issues by 43.5% from 4,605 to 2,605. 17% of these were actively fixed during Quartz and the remaining were closed as either obsoleted or previously fixed (e.g. in an earlier version of the Android Emulator) or duplicates of other issues.

Next Steps

While these improvements are exciting, it's not the end. We will continue to build on the quality improvements from Project Quartz to further enhance the Android Emulator experience for Android app developers.

As always, your feedback has and continues to be invaluable in helping us make the Android Emulator and Android Studio more robust and effective for your development needs. Sharing your metrics and crashdumps is crucial in helping us understand what specifically causes your crashes so we can prioritize fixes.

You can opt-in by going to Settings, then Appearance and Behavior, then System Settings, then Data Sharing, and selecting the checkbox marked 'Send usage statistics to Google.'

Be sure to download the latest version of the Android Emulator alongside Android Studio to experience these improvements.

As always, your feedback is important to us - check known issues, report bugs, suggest improvements, and be part of our vibrant community on LinkedIn, Medium, YouTube, or X. Together, we can create incredible Android experiences for users worldwide!

13 Nov 2024 5:00pm GMT

Posted by Aditya Pathak - Product Manager, Google Play

We know how complex it can be to navigate the ever-changing landscape of commerce and payments, especially when it comes to global tax and regulatory compliance. In just two years, we've seen a significant increase in the number of new regulations impacting Google Play developers.

By partnering with Google Play, you're not just accessing a global marketplace serving over 190 countries; you're joining a powerful ecosystem built on security and trust. We understand the challenges these regulatory changes present, and we're here to support your growth every step of the way. That's why at Google Play, our teams work tirelessly behind the scenes to make compliance easier for you, providing a safe, trusted, and thriving marketplace for you and your users.

Scaling a trusted ecosystem globally

Unifying a platform for growth and efficiency

We're committed to investing in a seamless and efficient experience for developers on Google Play. Our platform helps you grow your business; here's how:

We're dedicated to supporting your growth in an ever-changing regulatory landscape and are constantly working to make Google Play the best platform for developers to thrive. Stay tuned for updates on new features, tools, and resources designed to help you grow your business and navigate the evolving apps and games landscape.

12 Nov 2024 9:00pm GMT

Posted by Joseph Lewis - Technical Writer, Android Developer Relations

Tired of headaches with passwords? Ready for a future where online authentication is both faster and more secure? Then mark your calendars for Passkeys Week, November 18-22! Passkeys are an easier and more secure alternative to passwords, and are increasingly becoming the industry standard. Google is proud to support passkeys across Chrome, Android and beyond.

Part of our Spotlight Weeks series, this is your opportunity to dive deep into the world of passkeys - the revolutionary technology poised to replace passwords for good. Whether you're an Android or web developer, a security researcher, or just curious about the future of online identity, this week has something for you.

What are passkeys? They're a new type of credential that are far more secure than passwords and much easier to use. Imagine logging in with your device lock you already have set up, such as a fingerprint scan or a face scan, instead of typing out a complex string of characters. No password is used or stored on a server that could be compromised, keeping you safe from phishing attacks. And since there's no password, there' s no arcane string of characters to remember. That's the power of passkeys.

What you'll get out of Passkeys Spotlight Week

We're showcasing content designed to enhance your developer experience and help you get started with adopting passkeys. These items will include:

How to participate

Passkeys Spotlight Week will happen entirely online at web.dev, developer.chrome.com and developer.android.com, and across Android and Chrome's Developer's social media channels:

Follow us for the latest updates, spread the word about Passkeys Spotlight Week, and use #PasskeysWeek on your favorite social media platforms to ask questions and share your passkeys projects with the community. Check the Android Identity developer page on Monday, November 18, 2024 to read our next blog post with full details!

Don't miss this opportunity to learn from the best and be part of the passwordless revolution. Join us for Passkeys Spotlight Week and help shape the future of online authentication!

11 Nov 2024 5:00pm GMT

Posted by Matthew McCullough - Vice President, Product Management, Android Developer

We just dropped our Fall episode of #TheAndroidShow, on YouTube and on developer.android.com, and this time are live from Droidcon in London, giving you the latest in Android Developer news including the biggest update to Gemini in Android Studio as well as sharing that there will be more frequent SDK releases for Android, including two next year. Let's dive in!

Gemini in Android Studio: now helping you at every stage of the development cycle

AI has the ability to accelerate your development experience, and help you be more productive. That's why we introduced Gemini in Android Studio, your AI-powered development companion, designed to make it easier and faster for you to build high quality Android apps, faster. Today, we're launching the biggest set of updates to Gemini in Android Studio since launch: now for the first time, Gemini brings the power of AI with features at every stage of the development lifecycle, directly into your Android Studio IDE experience.

More frequent Android SDK releases starting next year

Android has always worked to get innovation in the hands of users faster. In addition to our annual platform releases, we've invested in Project Treble, Mainline, Google Play services, monthly security updates, and the quarterly releases that help power Pixel's popular feature drop updates. Building off the success those quarterly Pixel releases have had towards bringing innovation faster to Pixel users, Android will have more frequent SDK releases going forward, with two releases planned in 2025 with new developer APIs. These releases will help to drive faster innovation in apps and devices, with higher stability and polish for users and developers. Stay informed on upcoming releases for the 2025 calendar.

Make the investment in adaptive, for Large Screens: 20% increased app spend

Your users, especially in the premium segment, don't just buy a phone anymore, they buy into a whole ecosystem of devices. So the experiences you build should follow your users seamlessly across the many screens they own. Take large screens, for instance - foldables, tablets, ChromeOS Devices: there are now over 300 million active Android large-screen devices. This summer, Samsung released their new foldables - the Galaxy Z Fold6 and Z Flip6, and at Google we released our own - the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. We're also investing in a number of platform features to improve how users interact with these devices, like the developer preview of Desktop Windowing that we've been working on in collaboration with Samsung - optimizing these large screen devices for productivity. High quality apps optimized for large screens have several advantages on Play as well: like improved visibility in the Play Store and eligibility for featuring in curated collections and editorial articles. Apps now get separate ratings and reviews for different form factors, making positive feedback more visible.

And it's paying off for those that make the investment: we've seen that using a tablet, flip, or fold increases app spend by ~20%. Flipaclip is proof of this: they've seen a 54% growth in tablet users in the past four months. It has never been easier to build for large screens - with Compose APIs and Android Studio support specifically for building adaptive UIs.

Kotlin Multiplatform for sharing business logic across Android and iOS

Many of you build apps for multiple platforms, requiring you to write platform-specific code or make compromises in order to reuse code across platforms. We've seen the most value in reducing duplicated code for business logic. So earlier this year, we announced official support for Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) for shared business logic across Android and iOS. KMP, developed by JetBrains, reduces development time and duplicated code, while retaining the flexibility and benefits of native programming.

At Google, we've been migrating Workspace apps, starting with the Google Docs app, to use KMP for shared business logic across Android, iOS and Web. In the community there are a growing number of companies using KMP and getting significant benefits. And it's not just apps - we've seen a 30% increase in the number of KMP libraries developed this year.

To make it easier for you to leverage KMP in your apps, we've been working on migrating many of our Jetpack libraries to take advantage of KMP. For example, Lifecycle, ViewModel, and Paging are KMP compatible libraries. Meanwhile, libraries like Room, DataStore, and Collections have KMP support, so they work out-of-the-box on Android and iOS. We've also added a new template to Android Studio so you can add a shared KMP module to your existing Android app and begin sharing business logic across platforms. Kickstart your Kotlin Multiplatform journey with this comprehensive guide.

Watch the Fall episode of #TheAndroidShow

That's a wrap on this quarter's episode of #TheAndroidShow. A special thanks to our co-hosts for the Fall episode, Simona Milanović and Alejandra Stamato! You can watch the full show on YouTube and on developer.android.com/events/show.

Have an idea for our next episode of #TheAndroidShow? It's your conversation with the broader community, and we'd love to hear your ideas for our next quarterly episode - you can let us know on X or LinkedIn.

31 Oct 2024 5:00pm GMT

Posted by Miguel Montemayor - Developer Relations Engineer

FlipaClip is an app for creating dynamic and engaging 2D animations. Its powerful toolkit allows animators of all levels to bring their ideas to life, and its developers are always searching for new ways to help its users create anything they can imagine.

Increasing tablet support was pivotal in improving FlipaClip users' creativity, giving them more space and new methods of animating the stories they want to tell. Now, users on these devices can more naturally bring their visions to life thanks to Android's intuitive features, like stylus compatibility and unique large screen menu interfaces.

Large screens are a natural canvas for animation

FlipaClip initially launched as a phone app, but as tablets became more mainstream, the team knew it needed to adapt its app to take full advantage of larger screens because they are more natural animating platforms. After updating the app, tablet users quickly became a core revenue-generating audience for FlipaClip, representing more than 40% of the app's total revenue.

"We knew we needed to prioritize the large screen experience," said Tim Meson, the lead software engineer and co-founder of FlipaClip. "We believe the tablet experience is the ideal way to use FlipaClip because it gives users more space and precision to create."

The FlipaClip team received numerous user requests to optimize styluses on tablets, like pressure sensitivity and tilt for styluses and new brush types. So it gave their users exactly what they wanted. Not only did they implement stylus support, but they also redesigned the large screen drawing area, allowing for more customization with moveable tool menus and the ability to hide extra tools.

Now, unique menu interfaces and stylus support provide a more immersive and powerful creative experience for FlipaClip's large screen users. By implementing many of the features its users requested and optimizing existing workspaces, FlipaClip increased its US tablet users by 54% in just four months. The quality of the animations made by FlipaClip artists also visibly increased, according to the team.

Improving large screen performance

One of the key areas the FlipaClip team focused on was achieving low-latency drawing, which is critical for a smooth and responsive experience, especially with a stylus. To help with this, the team created an entire drawing engine from the ground up using Android NDK. This engine also improved the overall app responsiveness regardless of the input method.

"Focusing on GPU optimizations helped create more responsive brushes, a greater variety of brushes, and a drawing stage better suited for tablet users with more customization and more on-screen real estate," said Tim.

Previously, FlipClip drawings were rendered using CPU-backed surfaces, resulting in suboptimal performance, especially on lower-end devices. By utilizing the GPU for rendering and consolidating touch input with the app's historical touch data, the FlipaClip team significantly improved responsiveness and fluidity across a range of devices.

"The improved performance enabled us to raise canvas size limits closer to 2K resolution," said Tim. "It also resolved several reported application-not-responding errors by preventing excessive drawing attempts on the screen."

After optimizing for large screens and reducing their crash rate across device types, FlipaClip's user satisfaction improved, with a 15% improvement in their Play Store rating for large screen devices. The performance enhancements to the drawing engine were particularly well received among users, leading to better engagement and overall positive feedback.

Using Android Vitals, a tool in the Google Play Console for monitoring the technical quality of Android apps, was invaluable in identifying performance issues across the devices FlipaClip users were on. This helped its engineers pinpoint specific devices lacking drawing performance and provided critical data to guide their optimizations.

Listening to user feedback

Large screen users are Android's fastest-growing audience, reaching over 300 million users worldwide. Allowing users to enjoy their favorite apps across device types while making use of the larger screen on tablets, means a more engaging experience for users to love.

"One key takeaway for us was always to take the time to review user feedback and app stability reports," said Tim. "From addressing user requests for additional stylus support to pinpointing specific devices to improve drawing performance, these insights have been invaluable for improving the app and addressing pain points of large screen users."

The FlipaClip team noted that developing for Android stood out in several ways compared to other platforms. One key difference is the libraries provided by the Android team, which are continuously updated and improved, allowing its engineers to seamlessly address and resolve any issues without requiring users to upgrade their Android OS.

"Libraries like Jetpack Compose can be updated independently of the device's system version, which is incredibly efficient," said Tim. "Plus, Android documentation has gotten a lot better over the years. The documentation for large screens is a great example. The instructions are more thorough, and all the code examples and codelabs make it so much easier to understand."

FlipaClip engineers plan to continue optimizing the app's UI for larger screens and improve its unique drawing tools. The team also wants to introduce more groundbreaking animation tools, seamless cross-device syncing, and tablet-specific gestures to improve the overall animation experience on large screen devices.

Get started

Learn how to improve your UX by optimizing for large screens.

31 Oct 2024 4:59pm GMT

Posted by Paul Feng - Vice President of Engineering, Product and UX, Google Play

Our annual Playtime event series kicks off this week and we're excited to share the latest product updates to help your business thrive. We're sharing new ways to grow your audience, optimize revenue, and protect your business in an ever-evolving digital landscape.

Make sure to also check out news from #TheAndroidShow to learn more about the biggest update to Gemini in Android Studio since launch that will help boost your team's developer productivity.

Growing your audience with enhanced discovery features

To help people discover apps and games they'll love, we're continuously improving our tools and personalizing app discovery so you can reach and engage your ideal audience.

Enhanced content formats: To make your video content more impactful, we're making enhancements to how it's displayed on the Play Store. Portrait videos on your store listing now have a full-screen experience to immerse users and drive conversions with a prominent "install" button. Simply keep creating amazing portrait videos for your store listing, and we'll handle the rest.

Our early results are promising: portrait videos drive +7% increase in total watch time, a +9% increase in video completion count, and a +5% increase in conversions.

We've also launched new features to create a more engaging and tailored experience for people exploring the Play Store.

Optimizing your revenue with Google Play Commerce

We want to make it effortless for people to buy what you're selling, so we're focused on helping our 2.5 billion users in over 190 markets have a seamless and secure purchase experience. Our tools support you and your users during every step of the journey, from payment setup, to the purchase flow, to ensuring transactions are secure and compliant.

Proactive payment setup: To help more buyers be purchase ready, we've been proactively encouraging people to set up payment methods in advance, both within the Play Store and during Android device setup, and even during Google account creation. Our efforts have doubled the number of purchase-ready users this year, now reaching over half a billion users. And we're already seeing results from this approach - In September alone, we've seen an almost 3% increase in global conversion rates, which means more people are completing purchases, which translates directly to higher revenue potential for you from your apps and games.

Expanded payment options: Google Play already offers users over 300 local payment methods across 65+ markets, and we're regularly adding new payment methods. US users can now use Cash App eWallet alongside credit cards, PayPal, direct carrier billing, and gift cards and users in Poland can pay with Blik Banking.

Purchase flow recommendations: Our new algorithmic recommendation engine helps people discover relevant in-app purchases they're likely to buy. Simply select products to feature in Play Console, and we'll recommend a popular or related option at different moments in the purchase journey, helping users find what they need. Our early results show an average of 3% increase in spend.

Cart abandonment reminders: If a user is browsing a product in your app or game, but hasn't yet made a decision to purchase, we'll remind them about it later when they browse the Play Store. These automatic, opt-out reminders help nudge users to complete their purchase.

Secure bio authentication: Users can now enjoy a faster and more secure checkout experience by choosing on-device biometrics (fingerprint or face recognition) to verify their purchases, eliminating the need to enter their account password. This year, we've seen adoption triple, as more users choose bioauth to make their first purchase.

Protecting your business with the Play Integrity API

Everything we do at Google Play has safety and security at its core. That's why we're continuing to invest in more ways to reinforce user trust, protect your business, and safeguard the ecosystem. This includes actively combating bad actors who try to deceive users or spread malware, and giving you tools to combat abuse.

The Play Integrity API can help you detect and respond to potential abuse such as fraud, bots, cheating, or data theft, ensuring everyone experiences your apps and games as intended. Apps that use Play Integrity features are seeing 80% less unauthorized usage on average compared to unprotected apps.

Here's what's new with the Play Integrity API:

Those are the latest updates from Google Play! We're always enhancing our tools to help address the specific challenges and opportunities of different app categories, from games and media to entertainment and social.

We're excited to see how you leverage both our new and existing features to grow your business. Check out how Spotify and SuperPlay are already taking advantage of features like Play Points and Collections to achieve powerful results:

31 Oct 2024 4:58pm GMT

Posted by Matthew McCullough - Vice President, Product Management, Android Developer

Android has always worked to get innovation into the hands of users faster. In addition to our annual platform releases, we've invested in Project Treble, Mainline, Google Play services, monthly security updates, and the quarterly releases that help power Pixel Drops.

Going forward, Android will have more frequent SDK releases with two releases planned in 2025 with new developer APIs. These releases will help to drive faster innovation in apps and devices, with higher stability and polish for users and developers.

Two Android releases in 2025

Next year, we'll have a major release in Q2 and a minor release in Q4, both of which will include new developer APIs. The Q2 major release will be the only release in 2025 to include behavior changes that can affect apps. We're planning the major release for Q2 rather than Q3 to better align with the schedule of device launches across our ecosystem, so more devices can get the major release of Android sooner.

The Q4 minor release will pick up feature updates, optimizations, and bug fixes since the major release. It will also include new developer APIs, but will not include any app-impacting behavior changes.

Outside of the major and minor Android releases, our Q1 and Q3 releases will provide incremental updates to help ensure continuous quality. We're actively working with our device partners to bring the Q2 release to as many devices as possible.

What this means for your apps

With the major release coming in Q2, you'll need to do your annual compatibility testing a few months earlier than in previous years to make sure your apps are ready. Major releases are just like the SDK releases we have today, and can include behavior changes along with new developer APIs - and to help you get started, we'll soon begin the developer preview and beta program for the Q2 major release.

The minor release in Q4 will include new APIs, but, like the incremental quarterly releases we have today, will have no planned behavior changes, minimizing the need for compatibility testing. To differentiate major releases (which may contain planned behavior changes) from minor releases, minor releases will not increment the API level. Instead, they'll increment a new minor API level value, which will be accessed through a constant that captures both major and minor API levels. A new manifest attribute will allow you to specify a minor API level as the minimum required SDK release for your app. We'll have an initial version of support for minor API levels in the upcoming Q2 developer preview, so please try building against the SDK and let us know how this works for you.

When planning your targeting for 2026, there's no change to the target API level requirements and the associated dates for apps in Google Play; our plans are for one annual requirement each year, and that will be tied to the major API level only.

How to get ready

In addition to compatibility testing on the next major release, you'll want to make sure to test your builds and CI systems with SDK's supporting major and minor API levels - some build systems (including the Android Gradle build) might need adapting. Make sure that you're compiling your apps against the new SDK, and use the compatibility framework to enable targetSdkVersion-gated behavior changes for early testing.

Meta is a great example of how to embrace and test for new releases: they improved their velocity towards targetSdkVersion adoption by 4x. They compiled apps against each platform Beta and conducted thorough automated and smoke tests to proactively identify potential issues. This helped them seamlessly adopt new platform features, and when the release rolled out to users, Meta's apps were ready - creating a great user experience.

What's next?

As always, we plan to work closely with you as we move through the 2025 releases. We will make all of our quarterly releases available to you for testing and feedback, with over-the-air Beta releases for our early testers on Pixel and downloadable system images and tools for developers.

Our aim with these changes is to enable faster innovation and a higher level of quality and polish across releases, without introducing more overhead or costs for developers. At the same time, we're welcoming an even closer collaboration with you throughout the year. Stay tuned for more information on the first developer preview of Android 16.

The shift in platform releases highlights Android's commitment to constant evolution and collaboration. By working closely with partners and listening to the needs of developers, Android continues to push the boundaries of what's possible in the mobile world. It's an exciting time to be part of the Android ecosystem, and I can't wait to see what the future holds!

31 Oct 2024 4:57pm GMT