We launched the second Developer Preview of Android 16, forward of the deliberate launch in Q2 of 2025. Android 16 introduces main and minor API releases to permit us to drive sooner innovation with extra frequent API releases. We’re planning each a serious and minor API launch in 2025, and solely the Q2 main launch will embody app-impacting deliberate habits adjustments; the minor launch introduces new options with out these adjustments, so you possibly can focus your app testing on main releases.
This developer preview focuses on efficiency optimization, developer instruments, haptic suggestions enhancements, activity administration, adaptive refresh charge enhancements and extra.
Android 16 Developer Preview 2 introduces System Triggered Profiling to assist builders accumulate profiling information throughout important eventualities like app startups or ANR occasions. It improves developer instruments with enhanced job introspection, permitting apps to establish a number of explanation why jobs are pending and debug activity scheduling extra successfully. Haptic suggestions enhancements embody new APIs to outline detailed amplitude and frequency curves for extra nuanced tactile responses throughout units.
Moreover, adaptive refresh charge enhancements refine app habits on units with variable refresh charges, optimizing efficiency and decreasing energy consumption. Predictive again additions embody new APIs to assist play corresponding ahead-of-time animations when the again gesture is invoked.
Get began at the moment by testing your app with Android 16 within the emulator or by flashing a system picture onto a Pixel system.
We launched the Developer Preview of the Android XR SDK, a toolkit to create immersive prolonged actuality (XR) experiences on Android.
The SDK helps builders:
- Spatialize Functions: Add 3D parts, spatial panels, and spatial audio.
- Construct Immersive Environments: Create digital or augmented areas.
- Allow Pure Interactions: Assist hand and eye monitoring for intuitive engagement.
- It contains Jetpack XR SDK for Compose and Materials Design in XR, Unity Integration for real-time 3D improvement, WebXR for immersive net experiences, and OpenXR 1.1 for native C/C++ improvement. The Play Retailer can even help XR apps, with current apps spatialized routinely.
At XR Unlocked ’24, we shared find out how to design intuitive and interesting apps for Android XR. We lined XR design rules, concerns, and sensible approaches to interplay and UI that leverage the distinctive capabilities of the platform and provide help to elevate your app’s design.
Then, Ryan, Spencer, Tricia, and Luke mentioned find out how to construct immersive experiences with Open XR and Unity by constructing on high of supporting business requirements and instruments acquainted to XR builders. They explored OpenXR APIs, our partnership with Unity, and the experimental launch of Unity for Android XR, together with options and roadmap.
Moreover, in the event you questioned find out how to adapt current Android apps for Android XR units, Yasmine, Patrick, and Stevan lined new instruments and sources accessible. You can begin constructing with the Android XR SDK and see your adjustments come to life within the Android XR Emulator inside Android Studio. Additionally, you possibly can learn to use what you already know to ship nice experiences to your customers.
The week of January seventh is a Highlight Week on Android Digital camera and Media, providing sources that can assist you uplevel the media experiences in your app. Try this weblog put up for all the pieces that we lined through the week!
Tuesday targeted on the most recent releases in CameraX and Media3, together with steering on constructing digital camera apps with Compose.
Wednesday emphasised creating premium consumer experiences, corresponding to using the Media Efficiency Class and enabling HDR video seize. We featured Google Drive’s implementation of Extremely HDR pictures and Instagram’s enhancement of in-app picture seize with Evening Mode.
Thursday addressed adapting digital camera and media apps for big screens and the brand new Android XR platform, masking media experiences on massive units, implementing tabletop mode for digital camera purposes, and making ready apps for XR with concerns for spatial audio and video.
Friday delved into media creation, exploring Media3’s Transformer module for media processing, showcasing the 1 Second On a regular basis app, and introducing a brand new API for capturing concurrent digital camera streams. Android GDE Tom Colvin additionally shared how he constructed a hand gesture recognizer app with CameraX and MediaPipe.
Ben Weiss collaborated with Reddit to discover how they leveraged Baseline Profiles, the R8 compiler, and Jetpack Compose to cut back startup occasions, improve rendering efficiency, optimize bytecode, and modernize legacy UI, bettering each consumer and developer experiences.
Scott Nien showcased the expanded HDR capabilities, preview stabilization, and versatile results framework in CameraX 1.4.0. He additionally demonstrated find out how to seamlessly combine CameraX with Jetpack Compose, empowering builders to leverage Android’s digital camera capabilities for creating distinctive app experiences.
Donovan McMurray detailed how Instagram improved its Android app with Evening Mode, enabling customers to seize higher-quality images in low-light settings. This characteristic leverages Android’s Digital camera Extensions API to faucet into device-specific capabilities, guaranteeing a constant and scalable expertise throughout units.
Jolanda Verhoef demonstrated find out how to combine the camera-compose APIs into your app, showcasing the pleasant UI experiences they permit. In Half 1, she lined constructing a primary digital camera preview utilizing the brand new camera-compose artifact, together with permission dealing with and primary integration. In Half 2, she carried out a visible tap-to-focus characteristic utilizing the Compose gesture system, graphics, and coroutines.
Nevin Mital demonstrated how Google Maps leveraged MPC to roll out a UI transparency characteristic solely to higher-performing units and offered steering on implementing MPC in your apps with the Core Efficiency library.
Yacine Rezgui walked you thru the important steps to organize your apps for 16 KB web page measurement units, unlocking efficiency enhancements, enabling future improvements, and delivering smoother, extra immersive app experiences to customers.
Steven Jenkins introduced the steady launch of Android Studio’s Ladybug Characteristic Drop, introducing 5 Gemini in Android Studio options, Animation Preview help for Put on Tiles, and an App Hyperlinks Assistant to simplify app improvement. These enhancements are designed to enhance developer productiveness and help the creation of high-quality Android purposes.
There have been numerous alpha releases.
That can assist you construct for Android XR, now we have added:
For Digital camera and Media, now we have added:
Transition Model 1.6.0-alpha01 units the disjoint mother or father for ViewOverlays used to animate its transitions.
Television-Materials 1.1.0-alpha01 adjustments FocusEnterExitScope.cancelFocus() to cancelFocusChange() and replaces FocusProperties.enter and FocusProperties.exit with onEnter and onExit.
Don’t fret, there’s stability — there have been additionally some steady releases.
AndroidX Core 1.16.0-alpha01 has a repair for inset dispatching for Views.
ViewPager 1.1.0 is steady and provides help for Android 12 stretch over scroll edge impact and nullability annotations in ViewPager.
Exercise 1.10.0 is steady and provides a brand new LocalActivity composition native that gives the Exercise for the present scope and PhotoPicker permits selecting pictures so as and selecting which tab must be initially seen.
RecyclerView 1.4.0 is steady and has Adaptive refresh charge help.
That’s it for this week, with the Second Developer Preview of Android 16, Android XR, the Highlight Week on Android Digital camera and Media, the Android Studio Ladybug Characteristic Drop and extra!
Verify again quickly to your subsequent replace from the Android developer universe! 💫
