Android 16 has reached Platform Stability with Beta 3. The API floor is locked, app-facing behaviors are closing, and now you can push Android 16-targeted apps to the Play Retailer.
The Android 16 beta now helps Auracast broadcast audio with appropriate LE Audio listening to aids on Pixel 9 gadgets, It introduces define textual content, changing excessive distinction textual content, which attracts a bigger contrasting space round textual content to tremendously enhance legibility for customers with low imaginative and prescient, and provides the power to check the Native Community Safety function, which provides customers extra management over which apps can entry gadgets on their native community.
Be certain to check your apps for compatibility now, as the discharge is coming to non-beta customers quickly with modifications to JobScheduler, broadcasts, ART, Intents, accessibility, Bluetooth, and extra.
Android Studio now has Gemini in Android Studio for companies by way of Gemini Code Help to satisfy the privateness, safety, and administration wants of organizations.
With Gemini Code Help, your code stays safe with an information governance coverage, you keep management and possession of your knowledge and IP, and also you profit from generative AI IP indemnification, safeguarding in opposition to copyright infringement claims associated to AI-generated code.
With a Code Help Enterprise license, you may connect with your GitHub, GitLab, or BitBucket repositories to get help personalized to your group’s codebases. Gemini in Android Studio additionally offers tailor-made help for Android builders, with options like construct and sync error assist, Gemini-powered App High quality Insights, and assist with Logcat crashes.
Gemini in Android Studio now helps multimodal inputs, permitting you to connect photographs on to prompts. To do this out, obtain the most recent Android Studio canary.
With the picture attachment icon within the Gemini chat window, you may connect JPEG or PNG recordsdata to prompts. You may convert wireframes or mockups into Jetpack Compose code, acquire insights into structure or knowledge movement diagrams, and troubleshoot UI bugs by importing screenshots and asking Gemini for options.
Samsung’s One UI 7 provides better personalization and an optimized, extra distinguished widget expertise. Widgets put your model and key options entrance and heart on the consumer’s system, main to raised consumer engagement and extra. Google Play now has a devoted widgets search filter to assist extra simply establish apps with widgets, new widget badges on App Element Pages and a curated widgets editorial web page to assist apps with widgets acquire visibility and attain a wider viewers.
We simply completed the Widget Highlight week, masking our new widget High quality Tiers, Canonical Layouts, the brand new Figma Widget Design Equipment, Jetpack Look, and the Coding Widgets structure video plus codelab that will help you design and construct superb widgets.
Android and Google Play had a bunch of bulletins on the annual Sport Builders Convention (GDC) final month in San Francisco.
Android introduced that Vulkan is now the official graphics API, unlocking options like ray tracing and multithreading. In case your sport makes use of OpenGL, Android will use ANGLE to translate OpenGL to Vulkan.
The Android Dynamic Efficiency Framework (ADPF) has been up to date to offer longer and smoother gameplay classes. ADPF is designed to work throughout a spread of gadgets and provides built-in assist with sport engines.
Play Console will embody Low Reminiscence Killers (LMK) in Android Vitals, offering insights into reminiscence constraints that may trigger your sport to crash.
There’s a pilot program to simplify bringing PC video games to cell, with video games comparable to DREDGE and TABS Cellular rising their cell viewers utilizing this program.
Google Play is bettering its platform for PC video games, offering higher consumer experiences and new methods for builders to interact PC gamers.
You need to use the Play Video games PC SDK for native PC video games on Google Play Video games, offering instruments like in-app buy integration and safety safety. You may distribute by way of the Play Console, the place you may handle each cell and PC sport builds. There’s a new earnback program that permits you to earn as much as an extra 15% while you convey your PC video games to Google Play Video games on PC.
Cellular video games can be obtainable on PC by default, with the choice to decide out. Video games may have a playability badge indicating their compatibility with PC. We’re partnering with OEMs to make Google Play Video games accessible from the beginning menu on new gadgets this yr. New options comparable to customized controls at the moment are obtainable to assist gamers tailor their setup, and multi-account and multi-instance assist are being added.
As well as, Play Factors can be simpler to trace and extra rewarding on PC, with as much as 10x factors boosters, and Google is engaged on an answer that will help you run consumer acquisition campaigns for each emulated cell and native PC titles inside Google Play Video games on PC.
We introduced the Android XR developer preview, a unified platform for XR growth utilizing acquainted instruments and Open Requirements. You need to use Android Studio, Jetpack libraries, and Compose for XR (for simplified UI growth). Unity builders get assist for Unity’s editor and XR packages. Apps can be distributed by way of the Play Retailer. Key options embody eye, voice, and hand multimodal enter, Android accessibility options, computerized adaptation of your current large-screen appropriate apps, Jetpack XR SDK with ARCore, and Unity assist based mostly on OpenXR.
Google is enhancing security and safety on Google Play and Android by offering instruments that make it simpler so that you can construct safe apps.
Listed here are a few of the methods Google is bettering the app ecosystem:
- Play Console pre-review checks now embody the power to examine privateness coverage hyperlinks and login credential necessities. Extra pre-review checks are deliberate for this yr.
- Notifications in Android Studio warn you to related insurance policies as you code. This yr, the notifications will develop to cowl a wider vary of insurance policies.
- Google is bettering its coverage expertise to present you clearer updates and extra time for substantial modifications.
- The Google Play Developer Assist Neighborhood can be expanded to incorporate extra languages, comparable to Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese.
- Apps utilizing the Play Integrity API options are seeing an 80% drop in unauthorized utilization on common in comparison with different apps.
- Google will improve the Play Integrity API with stronger safety for much more customers and is bettering the expertise that powers the API on all gadgets working Android 13 (API degree 33) and above.
- Badges can be added to extra app classes sooner or later.
- Credential Supervisor API is now in Beta for Digital IDs.
- Google Play Defend dwell risk detection is increasing its safety to focus on malicious functions that attempt to impersonate monetary apps.
The Google Play group lined how one can prioritize media privateness in your app, recommending requesting solely important permissions, and utilizing the Android Picture Picker as a substitute of requesting broad storage entry. Be clear with customers about why your app wants entry to their pictures and movies should you’re utilizing a customized picker.
#WeArePlay talked about how Reminiscence Lane Video games helps folks with dementia, and the way they’re providing deeply private video games in a number of languages. Co-founder Bruce was impressed by his mom and co-founder Peter’s mom, who, regardless of having vascular dementia, lit up when outdated household pictures.
The creators try for frustration-free sport design and Generative AI could also be used to create personalised and localized sport content material, with the aim to supply deeply private video games in a number of languages.
Nevin lined widespread media processing operations with Jetpack Media 3 Transformer, together with widespread enhancing operations comparable to:
- Transcoding: Re-encode an enter file right into a specified output format.
- Trimming: Set Transformer as much as trim the enter video from a begin to finish level.
- Muting: Mute the audio within the exported video file.
- Resizing: Resize the enter video by scaling it down (or up) to a specified top and width.
Transformer prioritizes transmuxing (repackaging video streams with out re-encoding) for fundamental video edits the place potential. When not potential, Transformer falls again to transcoding (decoding video samples into uncooked knowledge, then re-encoding them for storage in a brand new container).
Jolanda confirmed easy methods to implement clean transitions for foldable gadgets getting into tabletop mode utilizing CameraX and Compose. Key takeaways embody:
- Leveraging Adaptive APIs: Replace dependencies to make the most of the most recent animation and adaptive APIs, together with Compose 1.8 and material3-adaptive.
- Using Rulers: Use Compose 1.7.0’s rulers (accessible by way of currentWindowAdaptiveInfo()) to find out hinge place for structure changes.
- Animating Bounds: Make use of Modifier.animateBounds() inside a LookaheadScope to animate composable bounds throughout mode transitions (flat to tabletop).
- Utilizing Animated Visibility: Think about using AnimatedVisibility to create a dynamic management panel that may be positioned relative to the hinge.
Since Android 16 requires you to make WebViews edge-to-edge, Ash lined greatest practices for doing so, comparable to:
- For those who don’t personal the WebView content material, wrap the WebView and pad it.
- For those who do personal the content material, use the `viewport-fit=cowl` meta tag, CSS variables for secure space insets, and JavaScript to inject padding. Deal with IME insets to keep away from keyboard overlap.
Cyril over at Amo lined how they leveraged Jetpack Compose to create a pleasant consumer expertise by way of touch-based suggestions utilizing graphics, haptics, and sound. Bump’s implementation of customized audio, shader-based animations, and interactive map parts are all constructed with the Android SDK, Jetpack Compose, Kotlin, and Google Play Companies.
Google Play’s April 2025 coverage updates affect Android builders in a number of key areas:
- Information Apps: New insurance policies require Information and Journal apps to finish a self-declaration type, replace Play Retailer listings, usually replace content material with named sources, and keep away from affiliate internet marketing/advert income focus.
- Monetary Companies (Line of Credit score): Apps facilitating traces of credit score at the moment are included below private mortgage insurance policies, prohibiting entry to delicate consumer knowledge and requiring adherence to stricter permission insurance policies.
- Person Knowledge: New greatest practices emphasize compliance with knowledge safety legal guidelines (e.g., GDPR) and supply sources for doing so. Common compliance checks are beneficial.
- Photographs & Movies: Reminder that apps accessing pictures and movies require a declaration type by Could 28, 2025, and should solely entry them for direct performance functions.
Christopher, Nam, and Carmen lined how the Android group is working to enhance Android app startup efficiency, specializing in bridging the efficiency hole between preliminary launch and subsequent runs. Key takeaways embody:
- Baseline Profiles & Dex Optimization: Essential for bettering startup time.
- Keep away from JIT Compilation: Establish and strategically load costly dependencies to reduce just-in-time compilation.
- Perfetto Traces: Use Perfetto to debug efficiency points and confirm optimization modifications.
SDK Runtime
We’ve obtained two new movies masking the SDK Runtime, a brand new method to work with third occasion code in your app.
Anatomy of the SDK Runtime covers how the SDK Runtime within the Privateness Sandbox isolates third-party SDKs into their very own sandboxes, enhancing consumer privateness and app safety. Key takeaways:
- SDKs run in their very own course of, separate from the primary app.
- Android SDK Bundles (ASBs) are the distribution format.
- Growth targets Android 11+, with Jetpack offering backward compatibility.
- SDKs have restricted permissions and communication.
- Jetpack simplifies inter-process communication.
Introduction to the SDK Runtime covers the options and advantages of the tech each for you and to your app’s customers. The SDK Runtime isolates third-party Software program Growth Kits (SDKs) — widespread sources of app performance like advertisements or analytics — right into a separate setting. Advantages of this embody:
- Enhanced Privateness: Restricts SDK entry to delicate consumer knowledge.
- Improved Safety: Helps forestall malicious SDK habits and advert fraud.
- Elevated Stability: Reduces app crashes brought on by third-party code.
- Quicker Updates: Permits for faster deployment of SDK safety patches.
Try the brand new runtime to assist construct safer and personal experiences.
The Google Play “Better of 2024” awards highlighted Infinite Painter which diminished inking latency by 5x utilizing the graphics core and enter movement prediction Jetpack libraries.
Compose for Android TV permits you to reuse current enterprise logic and structure out of your cell apps to speed up TV app growth, and this Compose for TV video from Paul exhibits you the way. The beneficial strategy is to separate enterprise logic from UI-specific view fashions, enabling the creation of devoted TV UIs utilizing TV-specific Compose parts (from the TV materials artifact) with focus administration options like `onFocusChanged` and `bringIntoViewSpec`. Constructing a modular structure with shared UI parts, area fashions, and knowledge layers enhances code reuse throughout type components.
There’s a bunch of latest stuff in AndroidX, headlining:
Media3 model 1.6.0 is now obtainable, which incorporates bug fixes, efficiency enhancements, and new options.
- ExoPlayer now helps HLS interstitials for advert insertion in HLS streams.
- You may allow experimental assist for pre-warming decoders on the
DefaultRenderersFactory. - A brand new
media3-ui-composemodule is on the market for constructing Compose UIs for playback. MediaExtractorCompatis a drop-in substitute for the frameworkMediaExtractorhowever applied utilizing Media3’s extractors.- You need to use the brand new
ExperimentalFrameExtractorclass to retrieve video frames. - Dolby Imaginative and prescient streams at the moment are supported for transcoding/transmuxing on gadgets that assist this format.
Jetpack WindowManager 1.4 is now steady, introducing new options for constructing adaptive apps.
- WindowSizeClass API is up to date to assist customized values.
- Exercise stack pinning offers a method to hold an exercise stack at all times on display screen.
- Pane enlargement allows you to create a visible separation between two actions in split-screen mode.
- Dialog full-screen dim allows you to select to dim simply the container the place the dialog seems or the whole process window.
- Enhanced posture assist permits you to entry the
WindowInfoTracker#supportedPosturesAPI to find out if a tool helps tabletop mode.
The Well being Join Jetpack SDK is now in beta. The beta launch consists of necessary recording strategies and system sorts for extra correct and insightful knowledge.
New permissions let your app entry Well being Join knowledge whereas working within the background, if the consumer grants consent. The PERMISSION_READ_HEALTH_DATA_HISTORY permission allows entry to consumer knowledge past the default 30-day window.
Well being Join now additionally provides expanded knowledge sorts, comparable to Train Routes and pores and skin temperature.
Android app builders ought to observe that Lifecycle 2.9.0-alpha08 introduces ViewModelScenario for simpler unit testing of ViewModels. This new software simplifies testing ViewModel lifecycle and state restoration, together with SavedStateHandle performance, and ensures ViewModel.onCleared() is correctly referred to as. ViewModelScenario can also be KMP appropriate, facilitating cross-platform growth.
Different Highlights:
androidx.core:core-i18n:1.0.0:
- A big new library designed to simplify internationalization (i18n) in Android apps. It provides improved date/time formatting that respects consumer settings (in contrast to
android.icu.textual content.MessageFormat) and offers a backport ofandroid.icu.textual content.MessageFormatthat integrates nicely with the brand new date/time formatting. That is essential if you wish to assist numerous locales and consumer preferences for date and time show.
androidx.webkit:webkit:1.14.0-alpha01:
- Introduces the
PaymentRequestAPI to permit Android native cost apps to be invoked from aWebView, however builders should explicitly allow it and add a<queries>tag to their manifest. It additionally introduces experimental APIs for enhancedWebViewnavigation monitoring andWebViewCompat#saveStateto handle WebView state saving.
androidx.datastore:datastore-:1.2.0-alpha01:
- Provides a datastore-guava module to show APIs pleasant to Java and Guava
ListenableFuturecustomers by way ofGuavaDataStore. Additionally helpsDataStoreutilization throughoutDirectBootmode, requiring creation inside Machine Protected storage.
androidx.put on:wear-phone-interactions:1.1.0:
- Features a important bug repair for Put on OS 5 (API 34+) apps focusing on API 35+. Replace earlier than* focusing on API 35 to keep away from runtime exceptions.
androidx.dynamicanimation:dynamicanimation:1.1.0:
- The
DynamicAnimationlibrary is now steady.
androidx.exercise:exercise:1.11.0-beta01:
- Added
MediaCapabilitiesAPI toPickVisualMediaRequestto let functions specify its media capabilities.
androidx.video games libraries:
- Upgrades to Gradle 8.8.1 and Java 17, fixes bugs.
games-frame-pacingconsists of varied bug fixes.
Tor, Chet, Romain, Theresa, and Naheed took a deep dive into what Google’s doing round app security, together with the SDK Index, pre-review checks, and Security Labels that will help you construct safe apps and shield customers from suspicious exercise, tying into the Strengthening our app ecosystem weblog publish.
That’s it for this version, with third beta of Android 16, Gemini in Android Studio for Enterprise and Gemini Multimodal, Widgets, GDC bulletins, security and safety updates on Play, Android XR, Media, Digital camera, a ton of AndroidX updates, and far more.
Verify again quickly to your subsequent replace from the Android developer universe!
