Luli Perkins, Developer Relations Program Manager

Our second edition of #AndroidDevJourney is here! At the beginning of this year we launched the #AndroidDevJourney to share the stories of members of our community through our social platforms. Each Saturday, from January through June, we'll feature a new developer on our Twitter account.

For a chance to be featured in our March spotlight series, tweet us your story using #AndroidDevJourney.

Andrew Kelly

Tell me about your journey to becoming an Android Developer and how you got started.

In 2012 I was working as a contractor for the NSW government here in Australia as a Java J2EE web developer. I'd been in that role for 11 years, building web apps for students and teachers. However, in 2012 the government decided that contractors were expensive and let us all go. So while in my hand-over period I'd read about some kids who were writing Android apps and making lots of money doing so. The Android Market was new and so any app uploaded got a large audience, and since I already knew Java it seemed like switching from a web developer to a mobile developer might be a smart career move. So I purchased a new phone, the HTC Legend and spent the next 2 weeks learning everything I could about Android apps. It was the first time I could run software I'd written on a device made by someone else that I could carry around with me. It was a very exciting time where any app idea seemed possible.

When my contract finally ended, I managed to get a new job working for a mobile development agency and started working on Android apps for their clients. In order to learn more about Android app development, I started to attend the local Android meetups and Google Developer Group events, listening to speakers (mostly from Google) and trying to improve my skills as an Android developer.

In 2013 I was offered the opportunity to become the organiser of the Sydney GDG and it was that year that I also attended my first Google I/O (I've been every year since). One of the hard parts about being a GDG organiser is finding speakers, so occasionally if there were no speakers, or if a speaker dropped out at the last minute, I would step in and give a talk instead. 2013 was also the year I decided to move on from the mobile agency I was working at, and I spent the next 5 years working as a freelance contractor, working with clients such as eBay, the Sydney Opera House, and one of the large banks in Australia. Being the organiser of GDG Sydney and a regular speaker at the meetups meant finding work was quite easy.

In 2016 because of all the speaking I was doing I was approached to join the Google Developer Experts program, at this time I was doing regular talks at both the GDG Sydney and Android meetup events every couple of months. When I joined the GDE program, I handed over my GDG responsibilities to some friends, who still run it to this day. As part of the GDE program I've been lucky enough to attend many Google I/O events, and I've also had the opportunity to speak at conferences all over the world, including DroidCon Boston, Mobile Era in Oslo, DevFest Melbourne, DroidCon Singapore, Chicago Roboto and many others. Having the chance to speak to so many people all over the world has been very rewarding, and I've made many friends.

In 2019 I joined the company where I work today - mx51, I'm the lead Android developer designing and building apps that run on payment terminals, which also integrate with Point of Sales systems. I'm still a GDE but with the 2020 madness the ability to speak at in-person events was severely hindered. I hope that in-person events will start again soon and that I can continue my journey as a GDE.

What's one shortcut, tip, or hack you can't live without?

Android development is constantly changing and advancing, so there is always something new to learn. My tip would be to always be learning, there are lots of ways to do this, subscribe to the Android Developers YouTube channels and Medium publications. Follow Googlers and Google Developer Experts on Twitter for new tips and posts. Subscribe to the Android Weekly newsletter for an overview of new libraries and blog posts, and attend your local GDG chapter and Meetups. Not only are these great ways to learn new aspects of Android development, but with meetups they're a great place to meet other Android developers, share successes, and ask for advice on problems.

What's the one piece of advice you wish someone would have given you when you started on your journey?

When I started out as an Android developer, I could never have dreamed about being a Google Developer Expert, travelling the world and speaking at large events. It took me a long time to learn that it's ok not to know the answers to people's questions. If at an event someone asks something you don't know, it's ok to say so. You can always say that you'll find out later and get back to them. There is no need to make up a wrong answer on the spot and lead someone off course. People are often scared that a topic they're presenting might not be the best or greatest way to do something, and they fear looking stupid. If a person in the audience suggests a better way that shouldn't be a worry, 1) you learnt something, 2) everyone else learnt something and 3) there may be scenarios where your solution is better and a discussion can be had. So my advice would be, when speaking don't fear questions but embrace the opportunity to help someone immediately, or later, or perhaps discover something new yourself.

Amanda Hinchman-Dominguez

Tell me about your journey to becoming an Android Developer and how you got started.

I dabbled in Android development in college with the student mobile development group, but it wasn't until I was a few years in web development I made the real switch over. Back in my web dev days, I joined the Kotlin community, where I felt immediately welcome. Shortly after, I moved to Chicago a few years back when I heard there was a Kotlin community in the tech scene.

Getting up to speed with Android at a professional level is a whole different game, and I've been lucky to find the overlapping Kotlin/Android community both locally and globally. Android development has accelerated my career technically and professionally, yet the world is so deep and vast within the sandbox of Android development.

Already being an active enthusiast with Kotlin, it only felt natural to switch to Android, and I've never looked back. Since then, I've been working scalable and complex Android applications, and contributing with some technical writing along the way. I'm currently co-writing with my colleague, Pierre Laurence, on "Programming Android with Kotlin: Achieving Structured Concurrency with Coroutines with O'Reilly", and I'm excited to have it come out sometime this year.

What's one shortcut, tip, or hack you can't live without?

For larger projects, it's sometimes hard to locate the file you're looking at in your Project view. You can use the target symbol ⊕ to get a highlight the file you're currently on in Android Studio.

What's the one piece of advice you wish someone would have given you when you started on your journey?

Only install LeakCanary when, and only when, you and your team is ready for that conversation 😁

Anthony Edwards Jr

Tell me about your journey to becoming an Android Developer and how you got started.

My journey as a developer started as a child. As a kid, I was obsessed with robots. I remember my dad bought me a Lego set called Lego Mindstorm, which was basically a robotics set with sensors and motors, plus it was also programmable. After graduating high school, I enrolled in the US Army as an Aviation Maintenance Repairer. After 6 years, I was honorably discharged then enrolled in college at Fordham University. In 2014, I received a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. About 2 years later, I met my now wife, and together we started building EatOkra as a way for us to find black-owned restaurants in Brooklyn, NY. As we introduced the application to new people, they shared it with their network; before we knew it, many people were asking us to cover more areas in the south.

What's one shortcut, tip, or hack you can't live without?

Learn how to ask the right questions.

What's the one piece of advice you wish someone would have given you when you started on your journey?

One piece of advice I wish I took more seriously was to not build an application using beta technology. EatOkra's MVP was created using a beta version of a software framework. It started out good but then as they made updates, at times, I ended up having to wait months for certain issues to get fixed. I also had to completely stop and restart the app with an entirely new code base because the company decided to change how they architected the code. I learned a lot but it was painful to navigate.

Dinorah Tovar

Tell me about your journey to becoming an Android Developer and how you got started.

My journey started a couple of years ago (I was still in college) when I saw the Android Developer Udacity course. There was no nano degree back in the day. So once I saw it, I started building some apps for myself. From there, I applied for my first job as a junior developer in a big consulting firm. Then I started seeing more courses and started following a lot of people at Twitter, like Sam Edwards and Joe Birch (both GDE). The community made me grow and learn. A couple of years later I got my first team and I began delivering speeches at conferences and keeping up my Medium blog on the side. The community offers me feedback and knowledge, and especially a place to learn. My first conference was with WomenWhoCode.org here in Mexico. They opened a place for me without any experience. The same happened with Google Developers Groups here in Mexico City.

I became a Lead Engineer during my second job and I began doing worldwide conferences. I asked for feedback from Sam Edwards and Carlos Muñoz (also GDEs in Colombia) and they told me not to worry because I would amazingly and they encouraged me to keep doing it.

I got a really nice offer to start from scratch here as a Mobile Platform engineer in Mexico City with a huge fintech Startup (Konfio.mx). This is my current job, which means I am in the architectural office where we choose new ideas and new processes and pretty much service all the areas in the company.

I started creating a group of series to teach people some specific topics that I noticed were not deeply addressed. I also started getting involved in Kotlin Multiplatform and then I was reached out to by two GDE that nominated me to become GDE, Walmyr Carvalho, and Sam Edwards. They offered me feedback about my latest talks, podcast, and series and I was accepted at the end of 2020. Right now, I'm trying to learn more and deliver more talks and blog posts to the community.

What's one shortcut, tip, or hack you can't live without?

My special hack as an Android Developer is to use Wireless Debugging in the lastest Android Studio for physical devices. It is my favorite part because I don't need to use any cables and the setup is super easy!

What's the one piece of advice you wish someone would have given you when you started on your journey?

My advice is that learning is a process, things change and all of this must be welcome because we are addressing the evolution of the platform as we code. Also, read everything you can because people in the community are amazing and they love to teach! Open an account on Twitter, because there are a lot of people giving tips in less than 180 characters.

The Android Developer community prides itself in its inclusivity and welcomes developers from all backgrounds and stages of life. If you're feeling inspired and want to learn more about how to become a part of our community, here are a few resources to help get you started.

Dive into developer.android.com

Follow us on Twitter

Subscribe to our YouTube channel

The Google Developer Groups program gives developers the opportunity to meet local developers with similar interests in technology. A GDG meetup event includes talks on a wide range of technical topics where you can learn new skills through hands-on workshops.

Join a chapter near you here.

Founded in 2014, Google's Women Techmakers is dedicated to helping all women thrive in tech through community, visibility and resources. With a member base of over 100,000 women developers, we're working with communities across the globe to build a world where all women can thrive in tech.

Become a member here.

The Google Developers Experts program is a global network of highly experienced technology experts, influencers and thought leaders who actively support developers, companies and tech communities by speaking at events, publishing content, and building innovative apps. Experts actively contribute to and support the developer and startup ecosystems around the world, helping them build and launch highly innovative apps.

Learn more about the program here.

Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

27 Feb 2021 6:00pm GMT

If you are one of the millions who abandoned the WhatsApp ship because of its upcoming privacy policy that shares your data with the entire Facebook umbrella of companies, you'll be happy to note that your chosen messaging app is adding new features all the time. The latest update brings a couple of new widgets, […]

Come comment on this article: The latest Telegram update adds auto-deleting messages, widgets, and expiring invite links

26 Feb 2021 7:14pm GMT

Having been officially announced back in December 2020, the Nokia 5.4 is now on sale in the US, Europe, and the UK with a $249/€199/£159 price tag. Sporting a 6.39-inch HD+ display, Snapdragon 662 chip, quadruple rear cameras with a 48MP main sensor, and a 4,000mAh battery, the Nokia 5.4 offers an improved camera experience […]

Come comment on this article: The Nokia 5.4 is now on sale in the US, Europe, and the UK

26 Feb 2021 5:52pm GMT

With over 3,300 Amazon reviews and a 4.5/5 star rating on Amazon, the SoundPEATS TrueFree2 Wireless Earbuds can be had for just $15.99 instead of its $24.99 RRP. Besides a $9 saving, you'll be getting a set of wireless earbuds with 20-hour battery life, IPX7 water-resistance, and instant Bluetooth pairing. Features: Customized EarFins & IPX7 […]

Come comment on this article: [Deal] Grab the SoundPEATS TrueFree2 Wireless Earbuds for just $15.99

25 Feb 2021 8:33pm GMT

It wasn't long ago that we reported that Twitter was looking at asking users to pay for stuff and today the social media network has announced that people will be able to charge for access to additional content. It's called 'Super Follows' and could involve exclusive tweets, access to a group, deals or discounts, newsletter […]

Come comment on this article: Twitter's Super Follows will let you pay for tweets and special access

25 Feb 2021 8:06pm GMT

Having been exclusive to the Nvidia Shield since it launched on Android TV more than two years ago, the Amazon Music app is finally available to those with other Android TV and Google TV devices, on a worldwide basis. If you've got a soundbar, set-top box or Android TV or Google TV television set you […]

Come comment on this article: Amazon Music is now available on Android TV and Google TV

25 Feb 2021 7:17pm GMT

Remember when Instagram was a social media app that you opened up to look at pictures of cats, travel, food, and fashion without being bombarded with often useless features? It was great when you could check the content you were actually interested in seeing instead of it being the choice of some random algorithm, of […]

Come comment on this article: Instagram Lite gets its first taste of bloatware with the addition of the Reels feature

25 Feb 2021 6:12pm GMT

Posted by Nick Grayson, Product Manager

Android works best when it helps developers create apps that people love. That's why we are dedicated to providing useful APIs like Activity Recognition which, with the user's permission, can detect user's activities (such as whether a user is biking or walking) to help apps provide contextually aware experiences.

So much of what we do relies on a good night's rest. Our phones have become great tools for making more informed decisions about our sleep. And by being informed about sleep habits, people can make better decisions throughout the day about sleep, which affects things like concentration and mental health.

In an effort to help our users stay informed about their sleep, we are making our Sleep API publicly available.

What is the Sleep API?

The Sleep API is an Android Activity Recognition API that surfaces information about the user's sleep. It can be used to power features like the Bedtime mode in Clock.

This sleeping information is reported in two ways:

1. A 'sleep confidence', which is reported at a regular interval (up to 10 minutes)
2. A daily sleep segment which is reported after a wakeup is detected

The API uses an on-device artificial intelligence model that uses the device's light and motion sensors as inputs.

As with all of our Activity Recognition APIs, the app must be granted the Physical Activity Recognition runtime permission from the user to detect sleep.

Why is this important for developers?

Developers spend valuable engineering time to combine sensor signals to determine when the user has started or ended activities like sleep. These detection algorithms are inconsistent between apps and when multiple apps independently and continuously check for changes in user activity, battery life suffers.

The Sleep API is a simple API that centralizes sleep detection processing in a battery-efficient manner. For this launch, we are proud to collaborate with Urbandroid, the developer of the popular alarm app, Sleep As Android

Sleep as Android is a swiss army knife for getting a better night's rest. It tracks sleep duration, regularity, phases, snoring, and more. Sleep Duration is one of the most important parameters to watch for ensuring a good night's rest. The new Sleep API gives us a fantastic opportunity to track it automatically in the most battery efficient way imaginable.

- Sleep as Android Team

When can I start using this API?

The Sleep API is available for developers to use now as part of the latest version of Google Play Services.

This API is one step of our efforts to help our users get a better night's rest. We look forward to working more on this API and in this area in the future.

If you are interested in exploring or using this API, check out our API Documentation.

25 Feb 2021 6:01pm GMT

Posted by Erica Hanson, Global Program Manager, Google Developer Student Clubs

Google Developer Student Clubs, a program of university based community groups for students interested in Google developer technologies, recently started hosting study groups called Android Study Jams. The goal? Learn Android app development through hands-on codelabs in an online curriculum provided by Google. There are two tracks: one for students who are new to programming, and one for those who already have experience. Interested in participating? Facilitator materials are available for anyone to host Android Study Jams in their community - take a look and get to building.

Google Developer Student Clubs are dedicated to helping students learn programming together, among peers, in a fun and interactive setting. While over 50 thousand students from all over the world have participated in these Android workshops, we wanted to highlight the exciting work from groups in Indonesia, Turkey, and Nigeria. From programming in Kotlin to building a series of apps, these students have put their minds to work.

Learn more about what these three clubs have been up to below.

Indonesia

(Image from UNPNVJ's Android Study Jams where students are learning Kotlin)

Club members from Universitas Pembangunan Nasional Veteran Jakarta in Indonesia recently came together to host a virtual Android Study Jams session with over 60 students to learn the basics of building Android apps. Their student-run learning session covered several topics, including:

• An introduction to developing for Android
• An introduction to coding in the Kotlin programming language
• A tutorial on setting up and working in Android Studio

After the students felt comfortable with the basics of Kotlin and Android Studio, they combined their new skills to create their own layouts for a birthday card app.

(Image of Birthday cake app)

We can't wait to see what the students from UPNVJ build next on Android thanks to their new programming skills.

Turkey

(Image from Medipol University where Nelson Glauber is teaching students the basics of Android App Development)

Medipol University in Turkey also hosted their own Android Study Jams by organizing a livestream with over 500 participants. Nelson Glauber, who was the first Google Developer Expert for Android in Latin America, led the event and helped students learn more about topics like:

• How to display text and images in an app
• Adding a button to an app and making it interactive
• Learning more programming concepts in Kotlin like classes, objects, and conditionals

After taking students' questions, Nelson worked with them to build an interactive dice roller app that updates the screen after the results of a roll.

(Image of Dice Roller app)

Nigeria

The Google Developer Student Club at Kaduna State University in Nigeria tackled different codelabs and learning pathways in their Android Study Jams. In particular, the group worked on the following topics:

• Adding an additional screen to an app
• Learning how the Jetpack Navigation Component makes it easier to manage navigation in an app
• Learning the best practices of app architecture

With these new skills, the group is now able to start working on building more advanced apps that allow users to navigate between multiple screens.

(Gif of Cupcake app)

How to join a Google Developer Student Club and Android Study Jams

If you're a university student looking to learn more about programming alongside a community of your peers, sign up for a Google Developer Student Club near you here. As a part of the community, you'll have access to special learning opportunities, including Android Study Jams, on many of Google's developer products.

If you want to lead your own Android Study Jams or explore other free resources for learning Android development, click here.

25 Feb 2021 2:42pm GMT

Choetech has carved out a market for selling affordable chargers and mobile accessories. We've reviewed a few of their gadgets on Talk Android, and they've always managed to be well worth their asking price. Today we're taking some of their newer truly wireless earbuds for a spin. At just $29, they're incredibly affordable, but Choetech […]

Come comment on this article: Choetech True Wireless Earbuds review: Decent budget option

25 Feb 2021 2:28am GMT

At the present time, Samsung is the king of the hill, moon, and er, Galaxy when it comes to folding smartphones. Sure, there are a couple of brands attempting to compete such as Motorola with its Moto Razr 5G (review) and Huawei's Mate X2 that has certain software issues, but Samsung learned a lot of […]

Come comment on this article: Samsung is reportedly making foldable displays for Google, OPPO, and Xiaomi

24 Feb 2021 10:53pm GMT

Cloud gaming is the latest battleground for Google, Amazon, Apple, Nvidia, and Microsoft, with each of the brands mentioned fighting for supremacy. The newest addition is Amazon's Luna that launched initially via an invite-only early-access program in late 2020 but is now expanding its reach to Fire TV users in the US. While still limited […]

Come comment on this article: Amazon's Luna cloud gaming service is rolling out to Fire TV users in the US

24 Feb 2021 6:15pm GMT

Have you ever thought that your phone was just too darn fast? Probably not, but it's far more likely that you've noticed that your battery is close to running on empty and even Ultra-Power-Saver mode isn't really helping. If so, Samsung has your back with its new Thermal Guardian function that gives you the ability […]

Come comment on this article: Samsung's Thermal Guardian app will let you throttle your phone's processor (or run it a little hotter)

24 Feb 2021 5:37pm GMT

Posted by Anna-Chiara Bellini, Product Manager, Nick Butcher, Developer Relations

Today, we're launching the beta release of Jetpack Compose, our new UI toolkit designed to make it faster and easier to build native apps across all Android platforms. Compose offers modern, declarative Kotlin APIs, helping you build beautiful, responsive apps with way less code. Built to integrate with existing Android apps and Jetpack libraries, you can adopt Compose at your own pace by combining Android Views and Compose.

With this beta release, Compose is API complete and has all the features you need to build production-ready apps. Beta also means API stable, so we won't change or remove APIs. Now is a great time to start learning Compose and begin planning for how you will use it in an upcoming project or feature once it reaches 1.0 later this year.

What's In Beta

Our team has been developing Compose in the open with feedback and participation from the community. Since open sourcing development in 2019, we've had 30 public releases, addressed over 700 external bugs, and accepted over 200 external contributions. We love seeing what you've been building with Compose and have used your feedback and feature requests to refine our APIs and prioritize our work. Since the alpha release, we've added and improved a number of new features:

• 🆕 Coroutines support
• 🆕 Accessibility support for Talkback - support for other technologies will be in Stable
• 🆕 Easy to use Animations, with a completely new API since alpha.
• Interoperability with Views
• Material UI Components, all with @Sampled code
• Lazy Lists - Jetpack Compose's take on RecyclerView
• DSL-based Constraint Layout
• Modifiers
• Testing
• Theming and Graphics, with easy support for Dark and Light mode
• Input and gestures
• Text and editable text
• Window management

For the beta release, we've been focused on ensuring API completeness; that all foundational APIs are in place for us to continue to build upon for 1.0 and beyond. We'll work on stabilizing these APIs up to our 1.0 release with particular focus on app performance and accessibility.

Compose Beta is supported by the latest Canary of Android Studio Arctic Fox, which features many new tools:

Live Literals on Android Emulator

Layout Inspector for Jetpack Compose

Works with your existing app

Jetpack Compose is designed to work seamlessly with Android Views, letting you adopt at your own pace. You can embed Compose UIs within Android Views and use Views within Compose. We lay out a number of adoption strategies in our interoperability documentation.

In addition to View interop, we integrate with common libraries to help you to add Compose to your existing applications-no need to rewrite or re-architect your app. We offer integrations with:

• Navigation
• ViewModel
• LiveData / Rx / Flow
• Paging
• Hilt

The MDC-Android Compose Theme Adapter and Accompanist libraries provide integrations with Material and AppCompat XML themes so you don't need to duplicate theme definitions. Accompanist also offers wrappers for common image loading libraries.

Thinking in Compose

Jetpack Compose is a declarative UI toolkit, a paradigm shift from the current View system, where you describe what your UI should look like for a given application state, not how to produce it. Compose takes care of updating your UI when your app state changes, so you don't have to manipulate your UI into the desired state which can be tedious and error prone.

Built entirely in Kotlin, Compose takes advantage of its great language features to offer powerful, succinct, intuitive APIs. Coroutines for example enable us to write much simpler async APIs such as describing gestures, animation or scrolling. This makes it easier to write code that combines async events, like a gesture which hands off to an animation, all with cancellation and clean-up provided by structured concurrency.

Learning Compose

To help you and your team learn all about Jetpack Compose, we've updated our learning pathway; a curated list of videos, hands-on codelabs and key docs to get you started. Today we're releasing new & updated documentation guides, a number of screencasts and a new Animation Codelab to help dive deeper into how to build with Compose. From guidance on architecture, accessibility and testing, to deep dives into animation, lists or thinking in Compose, we have guides to help you get up to speed.

We also offer 8 official sample applications if you want to jump straight in and see Compose in action. We have simple to complex samples, each showcasing different APIs and use cases. Check the readme for more details.

#AndroidDevChallenge: learn Compose and win prizes

If you're ready to get started with Compose-and also want to win some prizes along the way, check out the #AndroidDevChallenge. For the next four weeks, we'll have weekly challenges designed to give your very own insights into Jetpack Compose, so you can fly through your projects. Compete to win new prizes for each challenge, with over one thousand prizes to win including a Google Pixel 5. You can read more about the first weekly challenge - starting today - right here.

With Jetpack Compose reaching Beta-with stable APIs and feature complete for 1.0-it's a great time to start learning Jetpack Compose and planning how you might use it in an upcoming project. We'd love to hear your feedback on adopting Compose in your app or join the discussion in the Kotlin Slack #compose channel.

24 Feb 2021 5:30pm GMT

Posted by The Jetpack Compose Team

Jetpack Compose is Android's modern toolkit for building native UI. It enables you to quickly bring your app to life with less code, powerful tools, and intuitive Kotlin APIs. With the Beta of Jetpack Compose released today, this is the perfect time to learn Compose and get ready to adopt it. To help you get started with Jetpack Compose we are launching a new #AndroidDevChallenge!

For the next four weeks, the #AndroidDevChallenge will be launching a series of weekly challenges to help you build better apps faster with Jetpack Compose. Oriented around "lift off insights," each challenge focuses on a new area of Compose, from animations to Material Theming, composables to lists and more! Compete to win new prizes for each challenge, with over one thousand prizes to win including a Pixel 5. ¹ The first challenge starts today!

The challenges

Every week brings a new challenge with its own rules and tasks. Every Wednesday starting today we'll publish a blog post containing the full description of what you need to do and how long you have to complete the task. Each challenge will help you get familiar with the compose mental model and different Compose APIs - from basic Composables like Text and List, to state, animations and more.

Your solution to each challenge must be implemented in a GitHub repository. Make a copy of this Github repository template and follow the instructions in the README. The template contains a basic Hello World! in Compose and a continuous integration setup.

Week #1 - Puppy adoption app

Let's start the #AndroidDevChallenge with a bang bark: build a puppy adoption app! The app should contain an overview screen that displays a list of puppies, and a detail screen showing each puppy's details. You have until March 2nd, 23:59 PST to submit your entry. ²

Your UI must be fully built in Compose. Your submission will only be judged based on your app's UI layer. To help you with the implementation, check out the Compose documentation on layouts, lists, text and navigation. For some paws-on learning try out the Compose pathway, with codelabs covering several topics useful in completing this challenge.

Are you a 🐱rather than a 🐶 person? Submissions for any type of pet adoption app are welcomed.

We look forward to seeing what you build!

This week's prize

Our first challenge kicks off with a prize that makes for the perfect sidekick as you're flying through Compose: a limited edition trophy of our Jetpack Compose superhero, made of LEGO bricks. The first 500 people to successfully complete this challenge and submit their entry can add this trophy to their collection of Android figurines, showing off how you're a winner for the first week's #AndroidDevChallenge.

Week #1 prize: Jetpack Compose superhero

Help make Jetpack Compose better

Community is at the heart of Jetpack Compose and your feedback helps us build a better product:

• File issues with Jetpack Compose on the official issue tracker.
• Sign up to be part of the Jetpack Compose research studies.

¹ There will be new prizes for each week's challenge; for weeks when a Google Pixel 5 is a prize, we will offer a similarly valued electronics gift card for winners that reside in a country where a Google Pixel 5 is unavailable. See the official rules for more information.
² Please review the link for the full official rules associated with the entry.

24 Feb 2021 5:28pm GMT

Bringing something a little different to the world of power banks is Aukey with its 20,000 Portable Charger that not only has a built-in kickstand but also boasts wireless charging. This means you can rest your phone on the high-capacity power bank and charge your phone wirelessly while catching the big game with no cables […]

Come comment on this article: [Deal] Save over 20% on Aukey's 20000mAh Wireless Portable Charger with a built-in kickstand

24 Feb 2021 3:32pm GMT

It's a move that has been on the cards ever since Google announced YouTube Music and the date is finally official - the search giant will delete all information associated with Play Music on February 24. Emails have been sent out to those with Play Music libraries, giving users the heads-up that this is the […]

Come comment on this article: How to transfer your Google Play Music library to YouTube Music before it's deleted

24 Feb 2021 2:28pm GMT

Google has announced the addition of six new features for Android that will be available either via app updates on the Play Store or Google Services, instead of waiting for a software update to roll out. The new features includes dark mode for Google Maps, Text Scheduling, Password Checkup, new commands for Google Assistant, a […]

Come comment on this article: Google adds 6 new features to Android including Dark Mode on Google Maps and Scheduled Texts

24 Feb 2021 1:42pm GMT

Keeping your smartphone secure in a convenient spot in the car is made so much easier when you use a high-quality car mount such as iOttie's best-selling Easy One Touch range of phone holders that are currently discounted by 20% on Amazon. Whether you want to attach the car mount to your cup holder, air […]

Come comment on this article: [Deal] Save 20% on these best-selling Car Mounts from iOttie

23 Feb 2021 6:55pm GMT

Motorola is back with yet another affordable handset in the form of the Moto e7i Power, a budget smartphone with a 6.5-inch HD+ display and a big 5,000mAh battery. Running Android 10 Go and sporting a UNISOC processor, the Moto e7i Power will go on sale in the UK for £79. With 2GB of RAM […]

Come comment on this article: Motorola's entry-level Moto e7i Power hits the UK with a £79 price tag

23 Feb 2021 5:09pm GMT

Posted by The Jetpack Compose Team

In less than 24 hours, we're giving you a backstage pass to Jetpack Compose, Android's modern toolkit for building native UIs, on #TheAndroidShow. Hosted by Kari Byron, you'll hear the latest on Jetpack Compose from the people who built it, plus a fireside interview with Android's Dave Burke.

The show kicks off live at 9AM PT!

Broadcasting live on February 24th at 9AM PT, you'll be able to watch the show at goo.gle/TheAndroidShow, where you'll also be able to find more information and links to all of the things we covered in the show. Or if you prefer, you can watch directly on YouTube or Twitter.

There's still time to ask your Jetpack Compose questions, use #TheAndroidShow

Got a burning Jetpack Compose question? Want to learn about annotating a function type with @ Composable? Or how to add a static parameter to Composable functions at the compiler level? Tweet us your Jetpack Compose questions now, using #TheAndroidShow. We've assembled a team of experts, ready to answer your questions live on #TheAndroidShow; tune in on February 24 to see if we cover your question!

23 Feb 2021 5:05pm GMT

Posted by Chet Haase, Developer Relations Engineer

We recently finished another series of MAD Skills videos - this time on Motion Layout. We covered ways in which you can use the API and the design tool to create rich, custom, and complex animations for your users.

Check out the episodes below to increase your knowledge and skills in different areas of the Motion Layout API and design tool. And watch the live Q&A episode, featuring engineers on the Motion Layout and Developer Relations teams.

Episode 1 - ConstraintSet Animations

This video explores how ConstraintSets are used to define different states of your UI that you animate between. Along the way, Sean shows how to use Motion Editor in Android Studio to create and edit these transitions.

Episode 2 - Keyframes

This episode shows how to use Keyframes in a MotionLayout animation to customize the animation by altering the values of various properties over time. For example, you can use keyframes to change the path an object takes between start and end, instead of following just the default linear path it would follow otherwise.

Episode 3 - Multiple ConstraintSets

In this third episode, Sean shows how you can add ConstraintSets, beyond the default two (start + end) to create more complex animations, or transitions that flow through multiple states between the start and end.

Episode 4 - Building a Collapsible Header

In the fourth episode, explains how to build a collapsible toolbar using Motion Layout, which is a common place where this API shines. Along the way, you'll learn how to animate custom attributes using MotionLayout.

Episode 5 - Live Q&A

The final episode of the series was a live Q&A, streamed and recorded on February 18th. It's too late to see it or ask your questions live, but check out the recording to watch the conversation between me (asking the Qs) and Sean, John, and Nicolas (supplying the As).

More Motion Layout Resources

There are plenty of other resources to learn more about how to use Motion Layout, besides this MAD Skills series, including:

• MotionTags: This series of screencasts on specific areas of the Motion Layout API just wrapped up.
• Motion Layout Guide: This guide on our developer site provides a great jumping-off point with an overview of the API, code snippets showing how to get started, and examples of how to do various kinds of animations with Motion Layout.
• Examples: This doc has several visual examples, alongside the XML it took to create them.
• ADB podcast: I had a conversation with John, Nicolas, and Sean (not coincidentally, the same people who joined me for the livestream Q&A on MotionLayout) a few weeks ago. If you want to hear more about MotionLayout and ConstraintLayout, check it out on the podcast site or in your favorite podcast app.

But Wait, There's More!

The Motion Layout series may have ended, but there's still plenty still to come in the MAD Skills series. Be sure to check the MAD Skills playlist on YouTube, the articles on Medium, or this handy landing page that points to all of it.

22 Feb 2021 6:00pm GMT

Posted by Dave Burke, VP of Engineering

Every day, Android apps help billions of people work, play, communicate, and create on a wide range of devices from phones and laptops to tablets, TVs, and cars. As more people come to rely on the experiences you build, their expectations can rise just as fast. It's one of the reasons we share Android releases with you early: your feedback helps us build a better platform for your apps and all of the people who use them. Today, we're releasing the first Developer Preview of Android 12, the next version of Android, for your testing and feedback.

With each version, we're working to make the OS smarter, easier to use, and better performing, with privacy and security at the core. In Android 12 we're also working to give you new tools for building great experiences for users. Starting with things like compatible media transcoding, which helps your app to work with the latest video formats if you don't already support them, and easier copy/paste of rich content into your apps, like images and videos. We're also adding privacy protections and optimizing performance to keep your apps responsive.

Today's first preview is just the start for Android 12, and we'll have lots more to share as we move through the release. Read on for a taste of what's new in Android 12, and visit the Android 12 developer site for details on downloads for Pixel and release timeline. As always, it's crucial to get your feedback early, to help us incorporate it into the final product, so let us know what you think!

Alongside the work we're doing in Android 12, later this month we'll have more to share on another important tool that helps you create great user experiences more easily: Jetpack Compose, our modern toolkit for building native UI. Join us on #TheAndroidShow for a behind-the-scenes look at Jetpack Compose, livestreamed on February 24 at 9AM PT, and tweet your Jetpack Compose questions using #TheAndroidShow to have them answered live on the show.

Trust and safety

Privacy is at the heart of everything we do, and in Android 12 we're continuing to focus on giving users more transparency and control while keeping their devices and data secure. In today's release we've added new controls over identifiers that can be used for tracking, safer defaults for app components, and more. These changes may affect your apps, so we recommend testing as soon as possible. Watch for more privacy and security features coming in later preview releases.

Modern SameSite cookie behaviors in WebView - In line with changes to Chrome and other browsers, WebView includes new SameSite cookie behaviors to provide additional security and privacy and give users more transparency and control over how cookies can be used across sites. More here.

Restricted Netlink MAC - We're continuing to help developers migrate to privacy-protecting resettable identifiers. In a multi-release effort to ease migration of device-scoped Netlink MAC, in Android 11 we restricted access to it based on API level 30, and in Android 12 we're applying the restriction for all apps - regardless of targetSDK level. More here.

Safer exporting of components - To prevent apps from inadvertently exporting activities, services, and receivers, we're changing the default handling of the android:exported attribute to be more explicit. With this change, components that declare one or more intent filters must now explicitly declare an android:exported attribute. You should inspect your components in the manifest in order to avoid installation errors related to this change. More here.

Safer handling of Intents - To make handling PendingIntents more secure, Android 12 requires apps to explicitly declare a mutability flag, either FLAG_MUTABLE or the new FLAG_IMMUTABLE, for each PendingIntent. More here.

You can read more about these and other privacy and security changes here.

Better user experience tools

In Android 12 we're investing in key areas to help deliver a polished experience and better performance for users. Here are some of the updates so far.

Compatible media transcoding - With the prevalence of HEVC hardware encoders on mobile devices, camera apps are increasingly capturing in HEVC format, which offers significant improvements in quality and compression over older codecs. Most apps should support HEVC, but for apps that can't, we're introducing compatible media transcoding.

With this feature, an app that doesn't support HEVC can have the platform automatically transcode the file into AVC, a format that is widely compatible. The transcoding process takes time, depending on the video and hardware properties of the device. As an example, a one minute 1080p video at 30fps takes around 9 seconds to transcode on a Pixel 4. You can opt-in to use the transcoding service by just declaring the media formats that your apps don't support. For developers, we strongly recommend that your apps support HEVC, and if that's not possible, enable compatible media transcoding. The feature will be active on all devices using HEVC format for video capture. We'd love to hear your feedback on this feature. More here.

AVIF image support - To give you higher image quality with more efficient compression, Android 12 introduces platform support for AV1 Image File Format (AVIF). AVIF is a container format for images and sequences of images encoded using AV1. Like other modern image formats, AVIF takes advantage of the intra-frame encoded content from video compression. This dramatically improves image quality for the same file size when compared to older image formats, such as JPEG.

AVIF (18.2kB)

JPEG (20.7kB)

Credit: Image comparison from AVIF has landed by Jake Archibald

Foreground service optimizations - Foreground services are an important way for apps to manage certain types of user-facing tasks, but when overused they can affect performance and even lead to app kills. To ensure a better experience for users, we will be blocking foreground service starts from the background for apps that are targeting the new platform. To make it easier to transition away from this pattern, we're introducing a new expedited job in JobScheduler that gets elevated process priority, network access, and runs immediately regardless of power constraints like Battery Saver or Doze. For back-compatibility, we've also built expedited jobs into the latest release of Jetpack WorkManager library. Also, to reduce distraction for users, we're now delaying the display of some foreground service notifications by up to 10 seconds. This gives short-lived tasks a chance to complete before their notifications are shown. More here.

Rich content insertion - Users love images, videos and other expressive content, but inserting and moving this content in apps is not always easy. To make it simple for your apps to receive rich content, we're introducing a new unified API that lets you accept content from any source: clipboard, keyboard, or drag and drop. You can attach a new interface, OnReceiveContentListener, to UI components and get a callback when content is inserted through any mechanism. This callback becomes the single place for your code to handle insertion of all content, from plain and styled text to markup, images, videos, audio files, and more. For back-compatibility, we've added the unified API to AndroidX. More here.

Audio-coupled haptic effect - In Android 12 apps can provide audio-coupled haptic feedback through the phone's vibrator. The vibration strength and frequency are derived from an audio session, allowing you to create more immersive game and audio experiences. For example, a video calling app could use custom ringtones to identify the caller through haptic feedback, or you could simulate rough terrain in a racing game. More here.

Immersive mode API improvements for gesture nav - We've simplified immersive mode so that gesture navigation is easier and more consistent, for example when watching a video, reading a book, or playing a game. We're still protecting apps from accidental gestures when in full-screen experiences related to gaming, but in all other full-screen or immersive experiences (e.g. video viewers, reading, photo gallery), for apps targeting the new platform, we're changing the default to allow users to navigate their phone with one swipe. More here.

Notification UI updates - We're refreshing notification designs to make them more modern, easier to use, and more functional. In this first preview you'll notice changes from the drawer and controls to the templates themselves. We're also optimizing transitions and animations across the system to make them more smooth. As part of the updates, for apps targeting Android 12 we're decorating notifications with custom content with icon and expand affordances to match all other notifications. More here.

Faster, more responsive notifications - When users tap a notification, they expect to jump immediately into the app - the faster the better. To meet that expectation, developers should make sure that notification taps trigger Activity starts directly, rather than using "trampolines" - an intermediary broadcast receiver or service - to start the Activity. Notification trampolines can cause significant delays and affect the user experience. To keep notifications responsive, Android 12 will block notification trampolines by preventing them from launching their target Activities, and we're asking developers to migrate away from this pattern. The change applies only to apps targeting the new platform, but for all apps we'll display a toast to make trampolines visible to you and to users. More here.

Improved Binder IPC calls - As part of our work on performance, we've put a focus on reducing system variability. We've taken a look at latency and workload distribution, and made optimizations that reduce the median experience from the tail end, or 99% percentile use case. In doing so, we've targeted improvements to system binder calls adding lightweight caching strategies and focusing on removing lock contention to improve latency distribution. This has yielded roughly a 2x performance increase on Binder calls overall, with significant improvements in specific calls, for example a 47x improvement in refContentProvider(), 15x in releaseWakeLock(), and 7.9x in JobScheduler.schedule().

App compatibility

We're working to make updates faster and smoother by prioritizing app compatibility as we roll out new platform versions. In Android 12 we've made most app-facing changes opt-in to give you more time, and we've updated our tools and processes to help you get ready sooner. We've also added new functionality to Google Play system updates to give your apps a better environment on Android 12 devices.

More of Android updated through Google Play - We're continuing to expand our investment in Google Play system updates (Project Mainline) to give apps a more consistent, secure environment across devices. In Android 12 we've added the Android Runtime (ART) module that lets us push updates to the core runtime and libraries on devices running Android 12. We can improve runtime performance and correctness, manage memory more efficiently, and make Kotlin operations faster - all without requiring a full system update. We've also expanded the functionality of existing modules - for example, we're delivering our compatible media transcoding feature inside an updatable module.

Optimizing for tablets, foldables, and TVs - With more people than ever using apps on large-screen devices like foldables, tablets, and TVs, now is a great time to make sure your app or game is ready. Get started by optimizing for tablets and building apps for foldables. And, for the biggest screen in the home, the first Android 12 preview for Android TV is also available. In addition to bringing the latest Android features to the TV with this preview, you will also be able to test your apps on the all-new Google TV experience. Learn more on the Android TV Developers site and get started with your ADT-3 developer kit.

Updated lists of non-SDK interfaces - We've restricted additional non-SDK interfaces, and as always your feedback and requests for public API equivalents are welcome.

Easier testing and debugging of changes - To make it easier for you to test the opt-in changes that can affect your app, we've made many of them toggleable. WIth the toggles you can force-enable or disable the changes individually from Developer options or adb. Check out the details here.

App compatibility toggles in Developer Options.

Platform stability milestone - Like last year, we're letting you know our Platform Stability milestone well in advance, to give you more time to plan for app compatibility work. At this milestone we'll deliver not only final SDK/NDK APIs, but also final internal APIs and app-facing system behaviors. We're expecting to reach Platform Stability by August 2021, and you'll have several weeks before the official release to do your final testing. The release timeline details are here.

Get started with Android 12

The Developer Preview has everything you need to try the Android 12 features, test your apps, and give us feedback. You can get started today by flashing a device system image to a Pixel 3 / 3 XL, Pixel 3a / 3a XL, Pixel 4 / 4 XL, Pixel 4a / 4a 5G, or Pixel 5 device. If you don't have a Pixel device, you can use the 64-bit system images with the Android Emulator in Android Studio.

When you're set up, here are some of the things you should do:

• Try the new features and APIs - your feedback is critical during the early part of the developer preview. Report issues in our tracker or give us direct feedback by survey for selected features from the feedback and requests page.
• Test your current app for compatibility - the goal here is to learn whether your app is affected by default behavior changes in Android 12. Just install your current published app onto a device or emulator running Android 12 and test.
• Test your app with opt-in changes - Android 12 has opt-in behavior changes that only affect your app when it's targeting the new platform. It's extremely important to understand and assess these changes early. To make it easier to test, you can toggle the changes on and off individually.

We'll update the preview system images and SDK regularly throughout the Android 12 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. You can flash a factory image to your Pixel device, or you can sideload an OTA image to a Pixel device running Android 11, in which case you won't need to unlock your bootloader or wipe data. Either way, once you've manually installed a preview build, you'll automatically get future updates over-the-air for all later previews and Betas. More here.

As we get closer to a final product, we'll be inviting consumers to try it out as well, and we'll open up enrollments through Android Beta at that time. Stay tuned for details, but for now please note that Android Beta is not currently available for Android 12.

For complete information, visit the Android 12 developer site.

18 Feb 2021 6:00pm GMT

Posted by Hoi Lam, Android App Quality

Since the launch of Android more than 10 years ago, the platform and the user's expectations have grown. There are improvements from user experience through material design to the importance and advancement in privacy. We know you want your apps to offer a great user experience. At the same time, we also know that it's not always straightforward to know which area to tackle first. That's why we are launching a new App Quality section in our developer site to help you keep up-to-date with key aspects of app quality and provide related resources.

In the first release, we have updated the Core App Quality checklist to take into account recent Android releases as well as the current trends of the app ecosystem. Here are some highlights in this update:

• Visual Experience - We highlight the best practice of using Material Design Components in place of platform components such as buttons. This will give your app a modern look as well as making features such as dark theme easy to implement. In addition to advice on back stack, we have expanded it to preserving the state of the app. This is becoming more important as edge-to-edge screens and gesture navigation are becoming commonplace, even in entry level phones.
• Functionality - There are three areas where we have updated our guidance. For media applications, we have updated our recommendations around the playback experience as well as support for HEVC video compression for video encoding. For sharing between apps, we highlight the importance of using the Android Sharesheet. This will be critical going forward as apps will have limited visibility to other installed apps in API level 30 by default. Lastly, we expanded our recommendations around background services. Helping users to conserve battery is a priority for Android, and we will continue to share updates on this topic.
• Performance & Stability - We have added tooling now available such as Android vitals in the Google Play Console. One important point to highlight here is Application Not Responding (ANR). ANRs are caused by threading issues and are something developers can fixed. The ANR troubleshooting guide can help you diagnose and resolve any ANRs that exist in the app.
• Privacy & Security - We have summarized our latest recommendations to take into account the latest safeguards from runtime permission to securely using WebView. We have also expanded to include privacy norms that users come to expect from protecting private data to not using any non-resettable hardware Ids.
• Google Play - In this section, we highlight some of the most important policies for developers and link you to more information on the guidelines.

Going forward, we aim to update this list on a quarterly basis to make sure this is up-to-date. In addition, we will be updating the quality checklists for other form factors.

We are working on additional tools and best practices to make it easier for you to build quality applications on Android. We can't wait to introduce these new improvements to you. Stay tuned!

11 Feb 2021 5:23pm GMT

Posted by Ting-Yuan Huang‎, Software Engineer and David Winer, Product Manager

Today we are excited to announce the alpha of Kotlin Symbol Processing (KSP), an all-new tool for building lightweight compiler plugins in Kotlin. KSP offers similar functionality to KAPT, however it's up to 2x faster, offers direct access to Kotlin compiler features, and is being developed with multiplatform compatibility in mind.

KSP is compatible with the Kotlin 1.4.30 release and onwards. You can check out the open source code and documentation in the KSP GitHub repository.

Why KSP?

The #1 request we hear from Kotlin developers is to make build speeds faster. Many developers iterate on and deploy apps dozens of times a day, so having to sit around waiting for a slow build can be very time consuming. One of the biggest challenges with compiling Kotlin code is that Kotlin doesn't have a native annotation processing system. Annotation processors like Room are ubiquitous on Android and rely on Java annotation processing compatibility through the Kotlin Annotation Processing Tool (KAPT). KAPT can be slow to run, though, since it requires generating intermediate Java stubs that can then be ingested by the Java annotation processing system.

When designing KSP, we thought about what annotation processing would look like for Kotlin if we built it from the ground up. KSP offers a powerful and yet simple API for parsing Kotlin code directly, dramatically reducing the build speed tax imposed by KAPT's stub generation. Indeed, initial benchmarks with the Room library show that KSP is approximately 2x faster than KAPT.

Getting started

To see what KSP looks like in action, download the KSP playground project from GitHub. In it you'll find:

• Library: A toy test-processor library that implements the builder pattern as a KSP processor
• Consuming project: A workload directory that shows how to use the builder processor in a real-world Kotlin project

All of the logic for implementing the builder is in test-processor - for the consumer (workload), the only difference between using KAPT and KSP is a two-line build file change:

This is the goal of KSP: most Android app developers don't need to worry about its internals; other than this one line change, a library that supports KSP looks just like a normal annotation processor, only it's up to 2x faster. That said, using KAPT and KSP in the same module will likely slow down your build initially, so during this alpha period, it is best to use KSP and KAPT in separate modules.

As more annotation processors adopt KSP, we expect most of your modules to be able to use KSP as a near drop-in replacement for KAPT. For now, you can check out which annotation processors offer KSP support in this table. If a library that supports or is implementing support for KSP is missing from the table, please submit a pull request with your suggestion!

If you are an author of a library that currently uses annotation processing, you can find more information on how to make your library compatible with KSP in the quickstart and README guides.

For library authors, now that KSP is in alpha, it's a great time to start looking closely at it and giving us feedback on the API in the KSP issue tracker. In addition, we regularly post release updates in the #ksp channel on Kotlin Slack. Since the developer preview last June, we've closed over 100 bugs and issues, dozens of which have been reported by the amazing community of Kotlin library developers.

Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

10 Feb 2021 5:00pm GMT

Posted by Kat Kuan, Developer Advocate, Android

We strive to make Android development content accessible to all, so that anyone can become an Android developer. Over the years, millions of students at all different levels have consumed our learning content and worked through courses and codelabs to advance their skills. We continue to update and release new content as the ever-changing industry continues to evolve.

As demand for skilled Android developers increases in the job marketplace, there is an even greater need for educators to train the next generation of Android developers. That is why we created these resources to help support and empower educators.

New Android Development with Kotlin instructor-led curriculum

Today we're announcing the launch of our new instructor-led curriculum for Android Development with Kotlin. This is for classroom learning (virtual or in-person) with an instructor delivering lectures on important Android concepts, and students receiving hands-on practice through codelabs. The official course materials are now available and can be freely modified by instructors to adapt to their students' needs.

This is a major update to the curriculum we released in 2018. The updates account for the most recent changes in the Android platform, from the release of the Android Jetpack libraries to Android development becoming Kotlin-first. The Kotlin programming language helps developers become more productive with more concise syntax and improved code safety. Over 60% of professional Android developers already use Kotlin, and it's Google's recommended programming language for new developers building Android apps. While instructors do not need Android or Kotlin experience to teach the curriculum, prior programming experience is recommended.

We've partnered with universities and skilling partners in India such as Shivaji University, I. K. Gujral Punjab Technical University, Chandigarh University, Ganpat University, Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge (TASK), and Information and Communication Technology Academy of Kerala, who will be some of the first to offer this curriculum to their students in the Spring, with more universities to follow in the Fall and coming semesters. With the curriculum now available publicly, educators are welcome to start teaching Android development.

"As it's mostly a hands-on course, students learn implementations which helps them in their placements in Mobile app companies." -Dr. Kavita S. Oza, Shivaji University

Android Study Jams content now available for all developers

Outside a formal classroom, learning in a peer group has also been shown as an effective way to learn Android. That is why we're also making the Android Study Jams program available to all developers today. Android Study Jams enables a group of people to come together and learn Android development through hands-on codelabs in an online curriculum. An instructor is not needed to deliver lectures, but it is recommended to have a facilitator to organize the group meetings. No programming experience is needed to get started. Over 38,000 students in Google Developer Student Clubs around the globe have already participated in this program.

"Introducing people to Kotlin and being by their side at this first step which could touch their lives created great happiness and excitement for us." - Ceren Tunay and Serkan Alc, Developer Student Club Turkey

With many paths to learning, it is always interesting to see the different journeys of students who become Android developers, and exciting to see the resulting personal success, innovative apps, and entrepreneurial pursuits they have. The following video highlights two developers and how learning Android development has shaped their careers.

For more details on these new offerings, check out the Android Development Resources for Educators.

For independent learners, we also offer self-paced learning content, Udacity courses and Nanodegrees, YouTube videos, and more resources on developer.android.com. Keep us posted on how your learning journey goes!

09 Feb 2021 5:17pm GMT

Posted by Luli Perkins, Developer Relations Program Manager

We kicked off the #AndroidDevJourney to give members of our community the opportunity to share their stories through our social platforms. Each Saturday from January through June we'll feature a new developer on our Twitter account. We have received an overwhelming number of inspirational stories and hope you enjoy reading through the ones we've selected below.

For a chance to be featured in our February spotlight series, tweet us your story using #AndroidDevJourney.

Niharika Arora

Tell me about your journey in becoming an Android Developer and how you got started.

My journey started in the field of Android when I was in my 4th year of undergrad studies. I got an internship in a startup named GreenAppleSolutions. There I got a chance to work on an Android project from scratch and luckily my first project went live on the Play Store. During this whole internship, I found Android so interesting because everything you code, you can see the results live in front of you on your device. I started loving Android and decided to take Android as my career path.

What's one shortcut, tip, or hack you can't live without?

I am a big fan of Android Lint, which has saved me many times from manually finding deprecated calls/APIs. It has also helped me in following the best practices and making my code more optimized, secure, and highly performant.

What's the one piece of advice you wish someone would have given you when you started on your journey?

Actually, there are two,

• Clearing a small doubt is equally as important even if you think that is a stupid one. Ask as many queries as you can till the time you are satisfied with the answer.
• Reading tutorials is good, but start exploring the documentations in depth. Initially, it might look too much to start with, but it will build you up to be a good developer in the long run.

Walmyr Carvalho

Tell me about your journey in becoming an Android Developer and how you got started.

Funny thing! I started working with mobile on iOS, in 2010, but then in 2011 my college final project was an app for civil construction and nobody on the team had a Mac, so we did it for Android (We got a 10, btw!)! At that time I was teaching technology to some government people and wasn't into coding that much, but then after project in 2011 I got my first job as Junior Android Developer and it got me so hooked on the platform that I couldn't leave!

I was able to work with Java on Eclipse + ADT, Holo, ActionBarSherlock, the beginnings of Material Design and was attending Google I/O '13 when Google announced Android Studio, which was a very humbling but insightful experience to me, not only because of the learning but also the people I met that helped me a lot as well!

Since then, I've been working with mobile and, mostly, with Android for more than 10 years now, helping a lot of Brazilian tech companies and unicorns with their Android projects and since 2016 I'm one of the Google Developer Experts for Android around here.

Also, I love development and design communities, so I try to be involved with that as much as I can. I'm a former organizer of GDG São Paulo and the creator and organizer of Kotlin Meetup São Paulo and Android Dev BR - the biggest brazilian/lusophone Android community in the world, with more than 7.500 members!

Lastly, I'm also involved with the national startup community, as a mentor for ACE Startups and Google For Startups Accelerator programs in Brazil.

What's one Android development shortcut, tip, or hack you can't live without?

There's a simple but powerful shortcut on Android Studio that I use a lot, which is the multi-cursor occurrence selection, which can be achieved using Ctrl + G (macOS) / Alt + J (Windows + Linux) for incremental occurrences selection and/or Ctrl + Cmd + G / Shift + Ctrl + Alt + J to select all occurrences once. Seems silly, but this shortcut helps me so much to get going on my code, especially when it comes to refactoring. I use it everyday!

What's the one piece of advice you wish someone would have given you when you started on your journey?

I think I would resume my advice in two words: learn and share.

Learn as much as you can, not only with the amazing content available on official documentation, and from the community, but also learn from your own mistakes through consistent practice. There's a lot of content available for free on the internet, and also both Google and GDEs (Google Developer Experts) like me can get you going, so keep practicing and get your knowledge online!

And once you learn, share with other people! If I'm where I am today is because I was able to share what I couldn't find when I was learning, so please, share your knowledge! The Android community is amazing and super helpful, you can reach literally the creators of the APIs and libraries you use on Twitter, Reddit and many other places. Write an article, record a podcast or a video, there are many formats that you could use.

The internet is such a powerful tool for learning and sharing and I really recommend you to do that there, and I'm definitely here to help if needed! :)

Nate Washington

Tell me about your journey in becoming an Android Developer and how you got started.

I became an Android developer in 2015, while working on my first business idea. I couldn't afford to go back to school, so I decided to try my hand at starting a business instead. I launched a web application, but my customers insisted on having a native app for their needs as well. I originally looked for someone with more experience, but ultimately decided to just teach myself how to build an Android app. Fast forward to 2017, and my cofounder Christian and I launched the Android app for our company, Qoins, on the Google Play Store. Since then, we've served tens of thousands of Android customers and raised a few rounds of funding.

What's one Android development shortcut, tip, or hack you can't live without?

Being able to test my Android builds on virtual devices is a lifesaver. There are a lot of different scenarios to account for when building Android apps for thousands of different devices. Tools such as Firebase Test Labs, as well as other virtual device services allow me to create specific scenarios for hands-on testing that I can't achieve with the physical Android devices that I own.

What's the one piece of advice you wish someone would have given you when you started on your journey?

Making mistakes is OK; it's all part of the process.

Yuki Anzai

Tell me about your journey in becoming an Android Developer and how you got started.

My journey began when I got my very first Android device, the HTC Magic, at Google Developer Day 2009. At that time, I was a college student and writing my personal application with JavaFX, so I had experience and familiarity with Java. Then I soon started to port my app to Android. After graduation I worked at a software company and wanted to develop Android apps as my job. But there seemed no opportunity at that company. So I created my own small company that is the agency to develop Android apps.

What's one Android development shortcut, tip, or hack you can't live without?

There are many. If I had to pick one, it would be Android Studio. I always appreciate the awesomeness of Android Studio because I started Android app development with Eclipse. (Also I can't live without Kotlin, RecyclerView, ConstraintLayout ...)

The shortcut of Android Studio that I can't live without is Command + B （Declaration or Usages. This allows us to jump between the declaration and usages. It's very useful to read source codes including Android platform and libraries codes.

What's the one piece of advice you wish someone would have given you when you started on your journey?

Read official documents. Read source codes of platform, libraries that you use. One of the ways to accelerate learning is to create an app through first to end (until release to the market).

Don't rely on libraries too much especially that affect the whole structure of your app. Your app might live longer than libraries.

Madona Syombua

Tell me about your journey in becoming an Android Developer and how you got started.

My Android Journey started back in early 2014; before that, I worked as a junior Java developer for a small firm building inventory systems. However, that did not interest me, and I kept looking for something great to do with my Java knowledge. I bought my first phone, a Nokia, and saw apps in the phone and wondered how they made those apps. I researched and learned that apps were actually written in Java, and that's how my journey began.

I recall building my first application, Simple Math, with only activities since fragments were not there; what an improvement we've had over the years. Simple Math had 500 downloads with a 4.5 rating, and this really motivated me to build more applications. I later won the Grow With Google Scholarship (2018), which boosted my career. During this one-year scholarship, I launched my second application, Budgeting Buddy, on the Google Play Store and has a 4.5 rating with over five thousand downloads. I currently work for Streem as an Android Engineer, and I indeed love how far Android has come and how the technology and maintenance have improved over the years. Especially the Emulator.

What's one Android development shortcut, tip, or hack you can't live without.

A shortcut I can't live without is [options + Command + L ] and [Options + Command + O]; this really helps me during my pull request process. An amazing hack that I have learned to appreciate is the git local history option, WOW lifesaver. Sometimes you might forget what you had changed, but this hack always saves my life.

What's the one piece of advice you wish someone would have given you when you started on your journey?

Actually, when I transitioned into mobile completely, I felt the learning curve was something I would have to accommodate In my life, which has really helped me a lot. Always staying in front of the game by always learning what is new, what is being recommended, and why it is needed. For instance, having Room was an amazing advancement, now dagger Hilt, and many more. So if I can turn this around and advise new developers, be ready to learn and you will enjoy Android Development.

The Android Developer community prides itself in its inclusivity and welcomes developers from all backgrounds and stages of life. If you're feeling inspired and want to learn more about how to become a part of our community, here are a few resources to help get you started.

Dive into developer.android.com

Follow us on Twitter

Subscribe to our YouTube channel

The Google Developer Groups program gives developers the opportunity to meet local developers with similar interests in technology. A GDG meetup event includes talks on a wide range of technical topics where you can learn new skills through hands-on workshops.

Join a chapter near you here.

Founded in 2014, Google's Women Techmakers is dedicated to helping all women thrive in tech through community, visibility and resources. With a member base of over 100,000 women developers, we're working with communities across the globe to build a world where all women can thrive in tech.

Become a member here.

The Google Developers Experts program is a global network of highly experienced technology experts, influencers and thought leaders who actively support developers, companies and tech communities by speaking at events, publishing content, and building innovative apps. Experts actively contribute to and support the developer and startup ecosystems around the world, helping them build and launch highly innovative apps.

Learn more about the program here.

Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

30 Jan 2021 6:19pm GMT

Posted by Eric Bahna, Product Manager

In December, we opened the Google Play Store for publishing new Android Auto apps to closed testing. Today, you can reach more drivers by publishing navigation, parking, and charging apps to open testing tracks in the Google Play Store. With open testing, there's no limit to the number of users who can download your app and you don't need to manage lists of email addresses. This is an important milestone that gets us closer to making these apps available to all users in production. Get started with the Android for Cars App Library and choose an open testing track in the Play Console.

TomTom AmiGO, one of our early access partners

To give you a peek at what's ahead, we're working on adding the library to Android Jetpack! This will give you more consistency with other Jetpack APIs and visibility into new features. When the Jetpack library is ready, migrating your app from the existing library will be straightforward - change the namespace and tweak some API calls. After we stabilize the library in Jetpack, we'll prepare the Google Play Store to publish these new apps to production tracks.

You can get started today - you don't need to wait for the Jetpack library.

1. Design your app's experience using our developer guide and app quality guidelines.
2. Develop using today's beta library so you can get user feedback from now.
3. Test using the desktop head unit.
4. Publish to the Google Play Store, now up to open testing tracks.

We're excited to see what you've built and take it for a spin!

28 Jan 2021 5:08pm GMT

Posted by Florina Muntenescu, Developer Relations Engineer

We just wrapped up another series of MAD Skills videos and articles - this time on Kotlin and Jetpack. We covered different ways in which we made Android code more expressive and concise, safer, and easy to run asynchronous code with Kotlin.

Check out the episodes below to level up your Kotlin and Jetpack knowledge! Each episode covers a specific set of APIs, talking both about how to use the APIs but also showing how APIs work under the hood. All the episodes have accompanying blog posts and most of them link to either a sample or a codelab to make it easier to follow and dig deeper into the content. We also had a live Q&A featuring Jetpack and Kotlin engineers.

Episode 1 - Using KTX libraries

In this episode we looked at how you can make your Android and Jetpack coding easy, pleasant and Kotlin-idiomatic with Jetpack KTX extensions. Currently, more than 20 libraries have a KTX version. This episode covers some of the most important ones: core-ktx that provides idiomatic Kotlin functionality for APIs coming from the Android platform, plus a few Jetpack KTX libraries that allow us to have a better user experience when working with APIs like LiveData and ViewModel.

Check out the video or the article:

Episode 2 - Simplifying APIs with coroutines and Flow

Episode 2, covers how to simplify APIs using coroutines and Flow as well as how to build your own adapter using suspendCancellableCoroutine and callbackFlow APIs. To get hands-on with this topic, check out the Building a Kotlin extensions library codelab.

Watch the video or read the article:

Episode 3 - Using and testing Room Kotlin APIs

This episode opens the door to Room, peeking in to see how to create Room tables and databases in Kotlin and how to implement one-shot suspend operations like insert, and observable queries using Flow. When using coroutines and Flow, Room moves all the database operations onto the background thread for you. Check out the video or blog post to find out how to implement and test Room queries. For more hands-on work - check out the Room with a view codelab.

Episode 4 - Using WorkManager Kotlin APIs

Episode 4 makes your job easier with WorkManager, for scheduling asynchronous tasks for immediate or deferred execution that are expected to run even if the app is closed or the device restarts. In this episode we go over the basics of WorkManager and look a bit more in depth at the Kotlin APIs, like CoroutineWorker.

Find the video here and the article here, but nothing compares to practical experience so go through the WorkManager codelab.

Episode 5 - Community tip

Episode 5 is by Magda Miu - a Google Developer Expert on Android who shared her experience of leveraging foundational Kotlin APIs with CameraX. Check it out here:

Episode 6 - Live Q&A

In the final episode we launched into a live Q&A, hosted by Chet Haase, with guests Yigit Boyar - Architecture Components tech lead, David Winer - Kotlin product manager, and developer relations engineers Manuel Vivo and myself. We answered questions from you on YouTube, Twitter and elsewhere.

15 Jan 2021 2:08pm GMT

Posted by Iliyan Malchev (Project Treble Architect), Amith Dsouza (Technical Account Manager) , and Veerendra Bhora (Strategic Partnerships Manager)

Extending Android updates on Qualcomm's Mobile Platforms

In the past few years, the latest Android OS has been adopted earlier by OEMs and deployed in larger numbers to our users. The growth in adoption has been driven by OEMs delivering faster OS updates, taking advantage of the architecture introduced by Project Treble.

At the time Android 11 launched there were 667M active users on Android 10, 82% of whom got their Android 10 build via an over the air (OTA) update. Despite the events throughout 2020, there is a continued momentum among our partners to either launch their devices on Android 11 or offer Android 11 OTAs on their devices earlier.

Our efforts till now have been focussed on making OS updates easier and faster to deploy. The other side of this coin is supporting updates for a longer period of time, and today we'd like to provide an overview of the changes we are making to help our partners achieve this.

Project Treble was an ambitious re-architecture of Android that created a split between the OS framework and device-specific low-level software (called the vendor implementation) through a well-defined, stable vendor interface. As a part of this split, the Android OS framework guarantees backward compatibility with the vendor implementation, which is checked through a standardized compliance test suite - VTS. With each Android release, Project Treble publishes Generic System Images (GSIs) that are built from AOSP sources, and are guaranteed to be backwards-compatible with the previous 3 versions of vendor implementations, in addition of course to the current release-for a total span of four years. Devices launching with the new Android release must have vendor implementations compatible with that GSI. This is the primary vehicle for reducing fragmentation within the OS framework. While we allow and encourage our partners to modify the framework itself, the modifications post-Treble must be done in a way that reduces upgrade costs from one version to the next.

Besides the reuse of a vendor implementation across OS updates, the Treble architecture also facilitates the re-use of the same OS framework code across different vendor implementations.

Another important change introduced by Project Treble is that new vendor-impacting requirements for Android devices are never retroactive. They apply only to devices launching on that Android version and not to devices upgrading from an older version. The term vendor-impacting here refers to requirements for new HALs, or for the shipping of a newer Linux kernel, to the device's vendor implementation. A good example might be a new revision of the camera HAL to support multiple rear camera sensors. Since the Android framework guarantees compatibility with the older HALs, we enable older vendor implementations to be reused by OEMs for upgrades without the considerable cost of updating them with new requirements.

This principle, combined with the backwards-compatibility guarantee, gives device manufacturers (OEMs) the flexibility to support upgrades both faster (since they have to upgrade just the framework, which would cover all of their devices, including those with older versions of the vendor implementation), as well as at a lower cost (since they do not have to touch the older vendor implementations).

However, seen from a System-on-Chip manufacturers' perspective, this design introduces additional complexity. For each SoC model, the SoC manufacturers now needed to create multiple combinations of vendor implementations to support OEMs who would use that chipset to launch new devices and deploy OS upgrades on previously launched devices.

The result is that three years beyond the launch of a chipset, the SoC vendor would have to support up to 6 combinations of OS framework software and vendor implementations. The engineering costs associated with this support limited the duration for which SoC vendors offered Android OS software support on a chipset. For every single chipset, the software support timeline would look like this:

Considering that SoC providers have dozens of SoC models at any point of time, the full picture looks closer to this:

The crux of the problem was that, while device requirements were never retroactive, the requirements for SoCs were. For example on Android Pie, SoCs had to support two versions of the Camera HAL API on a chipset if it was used to support new device launches and upgrades.

From this perspective, the solution was simple: we had to extend the no-retroactivity principle to the SoCs as well as to devices. With this change, the SoC provider would be able to support Android with the same vendor implementations on their SoCs for device launches as well as upgrades.

During the past year, we have been working hard to implement this solution. Building on our deep collaboration with our colleagues at Qualcomm, today we're announcing the results of this work. Going forward, all new Qualcomm mobile platforms that take advantage of the no-retroactivity principle for SoCs will support 4 Android OS versions and 4 years of security updates. All Qualcomm customers will be able to take advantage of this stability to further lower both the costs of upgrades as well as launches and can now support their devices for longer periods of time.

Going one step further, we're also reusing the same OS framework software across multiple Qualcomm chipsets. This dramatically lowers the number of OS framework and vendor implementation combinations that Qualcomm has to support across their mobile platforms and results in lowered engineering, development, and deployment costs. The diagram below indicates how significant the simplification is. From a software-support perspective, it's an altogether different situation:

This change is taking effect with all SoCs launching with Android 11 and later. By working closely with Qualcomm to offer an extended period of OS and security updates, we are looking forward to delivering the best of Android to our users faster, and with greater security for an extended period of time.

16 Dec 2020 6:03pm GMT

Posted by Eric Bahna, Product Manager

In October, we published the Android for Cars App Library to beta so you could start bringing your navigation, parking, and charging apps to Android Auto. Thanks for sending your feedback with our issue tracker, so we know where to improve and clarify things. Now we're ready to take the next step in delivering great in-car experiences.

Today, you can publish your apps to closed testing tracks in the Google Play Store. This is a great way to get feedback on how well your app meets the app quality guidelines, plus get your in-car experience in front of your first Android Auto users.

Three of our early access partners: T map, PlugShare,and 2GIS

We're preparing the Play Store for open testing tracks soon. You can get your app ready today by publishing to closed testing. We're eager to see what you've built!

16 Dec 2020 4:53pm GMT

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