08 Jul 2026
Android Developers Blog
Evolving how LLMs are measured for Android: the next era of Android Bench

Back in March, we introduced Android Bench-our LLM leaderboard for real-world Android development tasks. Our goal was to provide transparency around model capabilities in Android development and to encourage model improvements, to give you more helpful AI options for your everyday workflow. Since then, we have enhanced the benchmark based on your feedback, including evaluating open-weight models and adding cost and efficiency dimensions to the leaderboard.
But AI capabilities are ever-evolving, and measurement needs to follow suit. As part of our July release, we have adopted the Harbor framework, which includes an updated version of the benchmarking agent used to evaluate models.
Along with this change to our evaluation, in this July release we're adding 8 new models (Claude Fable 5, Claude Sonnet 5, Claude Opus 4.8, GLM 5.2, Kimi K2.7 Code, MiniMax M3, Qwen 3.7 Plus and Qwen 3.7 Max) to the leaderboard. We're also sharing opportunities for you, the Android developer community, to contribute to the benchmark.Upgrading our methodology with the Harbor framework
When we designed Android Bench, we anchored our methodology on leading industry standards available at the time. We used mini-swe-agent v1, a general-purpose benchmarking agent, and adapted it to the nuances of Android development to provide a baseline measurement for the capabilities of models for common Android development tasks.
To continue providing you with state-of-the-art evaluations that accurately measure the latest model capabilities on Android development, we are standardizing our benchmark to the Harbor framework. Harbor defines standards and integrations that make it easy for anyone to run the benchmark, evaluate their preferred set-up, or share results - providing you with additional transparency and visibility.
This upgrade enables us to more rigorously evaluate models and their capabilities, and we re-ran the benchmark on all models to establish an updated baseline. This means there is a minor shift in scoring, but you will still be able to view historical scores within the archive on our website.
We want to ensure Android Bench is helpful for you, so we will continuously update it as our evaluations and the industry mature.
Expanding the leaderboard with 8 new models
As part of our commitment to keeping the leaderboard fresh, we have added Claude Fable 5, Claude Sonnet 5, Claude Opus 4.8, GLM 5.2, Kimi K2.7 Code, MiniMax M3, Qwen 3.7 Plus and Qwen 3.7 Max to the Android Bench leaderboard.
You will see that Claude Fable 5 is at the top of the leaderboard with a score of 84.5, followed by GPT 5.5 with 80.2, with Claude Sonnet 5 in 3rd with a score of 76.2.
When just comparing Open-weight models, GLM 5.2 is at the top with 72.2, followed by Kimi K2.7 Code with a score of 70.4.
You can check out model performance and efficiency metrics on the updated leaderboard to see how these new and previous models navigate Android-specific challenges like Jetpack Compose migrations, wearable networking, and platform API updates.
Opening Android Bench to community contributions
From the beginning, we've valued an open and transparent approach, which is why we made our original methodology and test harness publicly available on GitHub. You've asked for a way to provide feedback on our dataset, so now we're taking collaboration a step further by giving you, the Android developer community, a chance to shape Android Bench.
Starting today, you can contribute to Android Bench in two ways:
- Design and submit your own Android development tasks to evaluate how models handle the scenarios that matter to you.
- Run and share benchmark evaluations firsthand, testing your preferred models against our dataset or your own custom tasks.
We will be reviewing the submitted tasks and will be assessing if they get added to the benchmark. We hope to build a benchmark that truly reflects the diverse, day-to-day realities of the global Android developer community.
Looking ahead
With more and more options for agentic development, maintaining a cutting-edge benchmark ensures that the AI assistance you rely on keeps getting smarter, more helpful, and more effective. Head over to our GitHub repository to check out the tasks. We invite you to submit a task to our team for review, and you can check out Harbor Hub to explore the dataset or submit evaluations.
As always, you can find the updated leaderboard, or read the methodology on our website.
Android Bench, LLM leaderboard, Harbor framework, Android development, Claude Fable 5, GPT 5.5, Claude Sonnet 5, GLM 5.2, Kimi K2.7 Code, MiniMax M3, Qwen 3.7 Plus, Qwen 3.7 Max, AI benchmarking, Jetpack Compose migration, wearable networking, mobile AI agent, Zoe Lopez-Latorre, model evaluation, open-weight models, developer community contributions.08 Jul 2026 1:00pm GMT
06 Jul 2026
Android Developers Blog
Google Play launches the first Indie Games Fund in Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa is home to some of the world's most creative storytelling. To help bring those stories to a global audience, today, we're proud to announce the debut of Google Play's Indie Games Fund in Africa.
The region's unique creativity has fueled a vibrant game development scene, helping drive what is quickly becoming one of the most exciting, resilient, and fast-growing gaming markets. It's a space defined by immense talent. However, access to capital is a persistent hurdle, and a significant investment gap often holds back incredibly promising local studios.
With this inaugural fund, we're committing $1 million USD to help address that gap. This fund will empower 10 indie game studios across Sub-Saharan Africa to scale their businesses and realize their full potential.
Funding and support for selected studios
This program is designed to drive long-term growth, where it can make the biggest impact. Selected studios will receive a share of the $1 million fund, with individual investments ranging from $50,000 to $200,000 to help elevate their games. Alongside this financial backing, recipients will benefit from dedicated mentorship and hands-on technical support. Together, these awards are designed to help them scale their businesses and reach a global audience.
Who can apply?
The program is open to indie game developers based in Sub-Saharan Africa (see the list of eligible countries) who have launched a game-whether it's on Google Play, another mobile platform, PC, or console.
Review the eligibility criteria and apply now. Applications close at 12 noon UTC on July 31, 2026.
06 Jul 2026 1:00pm GMT
29 Jun 2026
Android Developers Blog
Eclipsa Video: HDR That Looks Right on Every Screen

We've all been there: You're scrolling through your favorite social media feed in a dim room, and suddenly an HDR video pops up. It's so intensely bright that you have to squint, or maybe you find yourself turning down your screen brightness just to read the caption. Other times, a video that looks vibrant on your phone looks flat, dark, or washed out when you watch it on your living room TV.
While High Dynamic Range (HDR) technology was designed to make videos look richer and more lifelike, the lack of unified industry guidelines means that the exact same clip can render in unexpected and jarring ways depending on the display you're using.
To solve this, we're introducing Eclipsa Video-a new standard built to make your favorite videos look consistent, balanced, and comfortable on every screen. Eclipsa Video builds on the open SMPTE ST 2094-50 specification, which Google developed in collaboration with Apple and NBCUniversal.
More consistency, comfort, and creative control
Eclipsa Video moves past individual display guesswork. Instead of leaving it up to your device to interpret a video's brightness on its own, our format carries precise guidelines that tell compatible displays exactly how to render the image.
Designed to scale with your hardware, Eclipsa Video provides three core benefits:
- A consistent baseline: Eclipsa Video introduces a shared rulebook for screens. It establishes a consistent benchmark for normal brightness-known as the HDR reference white. This ensures standard text, app interfaces, and standard-range colors remain vibrant and readable without causing uncomfortable screen glare.
- Adaptive headroom: Screens have different physical brightness limits, or "headroom." Eclipsa Video guides how displays handle highlights dynamically. Bright details remain brilliant on a premium television, while being scaled intelligently on a mobile screen to prevent sudden blinding transitions.
- Preserved creative intent: Rather than applying a single static setting to an entire video, Eclipsa Video carries adaptive, frame-by-frame instructions. Think of it as a set of digital notes from the creator traveling with the video, ensuring the exact colors, contrast, and mood they graded are preserved on your display.

Built natively into Android 17
Starting with Android 17, support for Eclipsa Video is built directly into the platform. This means a more comfortable, true-to-life HDR experience is coming natively to the phones, tablets, and TVs you rely on every day. The video you capture carries its creative intent with it, and the video you watch is shown exactly the way it was meant to be seen.
Guidelines for developers & creators
We're inviting the developer and creator ecosystem to help build a more reliable HDR environment:
- Get started with implementation: Learn how to configure playback and capture in your apps with our official guide.
- ExoPlayer & Media3 integration: Standard playback handling built directly into Jetpack Media3, allowing ExoPlayer to support Eclipsa Video metadata automatically with no additional player configuration.
- Explore open source tools: View and inspect SMPTE ST 2094-50 metadata and dynamic gain curves in real time using HDR Explorer.
What's next
Eclipsa Video is rolling out now, and you'll see more apps and devices supporting it over time. Because it's an open standard, any app developer or hardware manufacturer can integrate it to elevate the viewing experience.
Try out the new tools in Android 17, explore the open-source metadata, and let us know what you think on our developer channels. We can't wait to see what you create.
Notes & Availability
1. Device Compatibility: Eclipsa Video playback and capture are supported natively on devices running Android 17 (API level 37) and above with HDR displays passing Eclipsa Compliance tests.
2. Developer Resources: The SMPTE ST 2094-50 Specification is openly accessible for technical evaluation.
29 Jun 2026 8:00pm GMT




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