Posted By Dave Burke, VP of Engineering
Android P is almost here! As we put the finishing touches on the new platform, today we're bringing you Android P Beta 4.
Beta 4 is the last preview milestone before we launch the official Android P platform later this summer. Take this opportunity to test your apps and publish updates, to make sure you offer a great experience for users transitioning to Android P!
Today's Beta 4 update includes a release candidate build with final system behaviors and the official Android P APIs (API level 28), available since Beta 2. It includes everything you need to wrap up your testing in time for the upcoming official Android P release.
With the consumer launch coming soon, it's important to test your app for compatibility with Android P. Just install your current app from Google Play on an Android P Beta device or emulator. As you work through the flows, make sure your app runs and looks great, and that it handles the Android P behavior changes properly.
Also watch for uses of non-SDK interfaces in your app. Android P restricts access to selected non-SDK interfaces, so you should reduce your reliance on them. See our recent post for details..
After you've made any necessary updates, we recommend publishing to Google Play right away without changing the app's platform targeting. This lets you ensure a great experience for Android P users while you work on enhancing your app with Android P APIs and targeting.
When you're ready, dive into Android P and learn about the new features and APIs that you can use in your apps, like multi-camera support, display cutout, enhanced notifications, ImageDecoder, TextClassifier, and others.
To build with the new APIs, just download the official API 28 SDK and tools into Android Studio 3.1, or use the latest version of Android Studio 3.2. Then update your project's compileSdkVersion and targetSdkVersion to API 28. When you change your targeting, make sure your app supports all of the applicable behavior changes.
As soon as you're ready, publish your APK updates that are compiled against, or optionally targeting, API 28. A common strategy is to use Google Play's beta testing feature to get early feedback from a small group of users and then do a staged rollout to production.
Visit the Developer Preview site for details and documentation. Also check out this video and the Google I/O Android playlist for more on what's new in Android P for developers.
How do I get Beta 4?
It's easy - you can get Android P Beta 4 on Pixel devices by enrolling here. If you're already enrolled in our Android Beta program, you'll automatically get the Beta 4 update soon. As always, downloadable system images for Pixel devices are also available. Partners who are participating in the Android P Beta program will also be updating their devices to Beta 4 over the coming weeks.
Stay tuned for the official Android P launch coming soon! You can continue to share your feedback or requests in the meantime, and feel free to use our hotlists for platform issues, app compatibility issues, and third-party SDK issues.
Thanks for your feedback so far, and thank you to everyone who participated in our recent Reddit AMA on r/androiddev!
Posted by Dave Burke, VP of Engineering
Today we're rolling out Beta 3 of Android P, our next milestone in this year's Android P developer preview. With the developer APIs already finalized in the previous update, Beta 3 now takes us very close to what you'll see in the final version of Android P, due later this summer.
Android P Beta 3 includes the latest bug fixes and optimizations for stability and polish, together with the July 2018 security updates. It's a great way to test your apps now to make sure they are ready before the final release. Give Beta 3 a try and let us know what you think!
You can get Android P Beta 3 on Pixel devices by enrolling here. If you're already enrolled and received the Android P Beta 2 on your Pixel device, you'll automatically get the update to Beta 3. Partners who are participating in the Android P Beta program will also be updating their devices to Beta 3 over the coming weeks.
Today's preview update includes the Beta 3 system images for Pixel devices and the Android Emulator, as well as an update to the Android Studio build tools to include D8 as an independent tool. Beta 3 is an early release candidate build of Android with near-final system behaviors and the official Android P APIs (API level 28).
With the Beta 3 system images and updated build tools, you've got everything you need to test your apps or extend them with Android P features like multi-camera support, display cutout, enhanced notifications, ImageDecoder, TextClassifier, and many others. In your testing, make sure to account for App standby buckets, privacy restrictions, and restrictions on non-SDK interfaces.
First, make your app compatible and give your users a seamless transition to Android P. Just install your current app from Google Play on an Android P Beta device or emulator and test -- the app should run and look great, and handle the Android P behavior changes properly. After you've made any necessary updates, we recommend publishing to Google Play right away without changing the app's platform targeting.
If you don't have a supported device, remember that you can instead set up an Android Virtual Device on the Android Emulator for your test environment. If you haven't tried the emulator recently, you'll find that it's incredibly fast, boots in under 6 seconds, and even lets you model next-gen screens -- such as long screens and screens with a display cutout.
Next, update your app's targetSdkVersion to 28 as soon as possible, so Android P users of your app can benefit from the platform's latest security, performance, and stability features. If your app is already targeting API 26+ in line with Google Play's upcoming policies, then changing to target API 28 should be a small jump. When you change your targeting, make sure your app supports all of the applicable behavior changes.
It's also important to test your apps for uses of non-SDK interfaces and reduce your reliance on them. As noted recently, Android P restricts access to selected non-SDK interfaces. Watch for logcat warnings that highlight direct uses of restricted non-SDK interfaces and try the new StrictMode method detectNonSdkApiUsage() to catch accesses programmatically. Where possible, you should move to using public equivalents from the Android SDK or NDK. If there's no public API that meets your use-case, please let us know.
When you're ready, dive into Android P and learn about the new features and APIs that you can use in your apps. To build with the new APIs, just download the official API 28 SDK and tools into Android Studio 3.1, or use the latest version of Android Studio 3.2. Then update your project's compileSdkVersion and targetSdkVersion to API 28.
As soon as you're ready, publish your APK updates that are compiled against, or optionally targeting, API 28. Publishing an update to Google Play during the preview lets you push updates to existing users to test compatibility on their devices.
To make sure that your updated app runs well on Android P as well as older versions, a common strategy is to use Google Play's beta testing feature. With beta testing you can get early feedback from a small group of users -- including Beta 3 users — and then do a staged rollout to production.
Thanks for all of your feedback so far. Please continue to share feedback or requests as we work towards the consumer release later this summer. Feel free to use our hotlists for platform issues, app compatibility issues, and third-party SDK issues.
Also, the Android engineering team will host a Reddit AMA on r/androiddev to answer your technical questions about Android P on July 19 from 11:30-1 PM (Pacific Time). Look out for an announcement on r/androiddev in the coming weeks. We look forward to addressing your questions!
Four weeks ago at Google I/O we released the first beta version of Android P, putting AI at the core of the operating system and focusing on intelligent and simple experiences.
We talked about some of Android's newest features in the keynotes and went deep on the developer APIs during the breakouts. If you missed the livestream, make sure to check out the full playlist of Android talks.
Today we're releasing Android P Beta 2, an update that includes the final Android P APIs, the latest system images, and updated developer tools to help you get ready for the consumer release coming later in the summer.
You can get Android P Beta 2 on Pixel devices by enrolling here. If you're already enrolled and received the Android P Beta 1 on your Pixel device, you'll automatically get the update to Beta 2. Partners that are participating in the Android P Beta program will be updating their devices over the coming weeks.
Android P Beta 2 is the latest update of our upcoming Android P platform and includes the final APIs (API level 28) as well as the official SDK. You can get started building with the Android P features and APIs today. Here are a few we want you to try -- head over to the features overview for more.
We partnered with DeepMind on a feature we call Adaptive Battery that uses machine learning to prioritize system resources for the apps the user cares about most. If your app is optimized for Doze, App Standby, and Background Limits, Adaptive Battery should work well for you right out of the box. Make sure to check out the details in the power documentation to see how it works and where the impacts could be, and test your apps to make sure they are ready.
App Actions is a new way to help you raise the visibility of your app and help drive engagement. Actions take advantage of machine learning on Android to surface your app to the user at just the right time, based on your app's semantic intents and the user's context. Actions work on Android P and earlier versions of the platform and they'll be available soon for you to start using. Sign up here to be notified when Actions are available.
Slices are a new way to surface rich, templated content in places like Google Search and Assistant. They're interactive, and through Android Jetpack they're compatible all the way back to KitKat. Check out the Getting Started guide to learn how to build with Slices -- you can use the SliceViewer tool to see how your Slices look. Over time we plan to expand the number of places that your Slices can appear, including remote display in other apps.
Android P adds platform support for screens with display cutouts, and we've added new APIs to let you deliver a rich, edge-to-edge experience on the latest screens. Cutout support works seamlessly for apps, with the system managing status bar height to separate your content from the cutout. If you have immersive content, you can use the display cutout APIs to check the position and shape of the cutout and request full-screen layout around it.
All developers should check out the docs to learn how to manage the cutout area and avoid common compatibility issues that can affect apps. Make sure to test your app on a device that has a display cutout, such as one of the Android P Beta devices.
Apps with immersive content can display content fullscreen on devices with a display cutout.
If your app uses messaging notifications, take advantage of the changes in MessagingStyle that make notifications even more useful and actionable. You can now show conversations, attach photos and stickers, and even suggest smart replies. You'll soon be able to use ML Kit to generate smart reply suggestions your app.
MessagingStyle notifications with conversations and smart replies [left], images and stickers [right].
With a range of biometric sensors in use for authentication, we've made the experience more consistent across sensor types and apps. Android P introduces a system-managed dialog to prompt the user for any supported type of biometric authentication. Apps no longer need to build their own dialog -- instead they use the BiometricPrompt API to show the standard system dialog. In addition to Fingerprint (including in-display sensors), the API supports Face and Iris authentication.
If your app is drawing its own fingerprint auth dialogs, you should switch to using the BiometricPrompt API as soon as possible.
If your app uses the device camera, try the new multi-camera APIs that let you access streams simultaneously from two or more physical cameras. On devices with dual cameras, you can create innovative features not possible with a single camera -- such as seamless zoom, bokeh, and stereo vision. You can get started today using any of the Android P Beta devices that offers a dual camera.
Audio apps can use the Dynamics Processing API for access to a multi-stage, multi-band dynamics processing effect to modify the audio coming out of Android devices and optimize it according to the preferences of the listener or the ambient conditions. Take a look at the Android P features overview for a complete list of the new features and APIs.
First, make your app compatible and give your users a seamless transition to Android P. Just install your current app from Google Play on a Android P Beta device or emulator and test -- the app should run and look great, and handle Android P behavior change for all apps properly. After you've made any necessary updates, we recommend publishing to Google Play right away without changing the app's platform targeting.
If you don't have a supported device, remember that you can set up an Android Virtual Device on the Android Emulator as your test environment instead. If you haven't tried the emulator recently, you'll find that it's incredibly fast, boots in under 6 seconds, and even lets you model next-gen screens -- such as long screens and screens with display cutout.
Next, update your app's targetSdkVersion to 28 as soon as possible, so Android P users of your app can benefit from the platform's latest security, performance, and stability features. If your app is already targeting API 26+ in line with Google Play's upcoming policies, then changing to target 28 should be a small jump.
It's also important to test your apps for uses of non-SDK interfaces and reduce your reliance on them. As noted previously, in Android P we're starting a gradual process to restrict access to selected non-SDK interfaces. Watch for logcat warnings that highlight direct uses of restricted non-SDK interfaces and try the new StrictMode method detectNonSdkApiUsage() to catch accesses programmatically. Where possible, you should move to using public equivalents from the Android SDK or NDK. If there's no public API that meets your use-case, please let us know.
When you're ready, dive into Android P and learn about the new features and APIs to extend your apps. To build with the new APIs, just download the official API 28 SDK and tools into Android Studio 3.1, or use the latest version of Android Studio 3.2. Then update your project's compileSdkVersion and targetSdkVersion to API 28.
Starting today you can publish your APK updates that are compiled against, or optionally targeting, API 28. Publishing an update to Google Play during the preview lets you push updates to users to test compatibility on existing devices, including devices running Android P Beta 2.
To make sure that your updated app runs well on Android P as well as older versions, a common strategy is to use Google Play's beta testing feature to get early feedback from a small group of users -- including Android P Beta 2 users — and then do a staged rollout to production.
For Pixel devices, you can enroll your device in the Android Beta program and you'll automatically receive the update to Android P Beta 2 over-the-air. If you're already enrolled and received Beta 1, watch for the update coming your way soon. Partners that are participating in the Android P Beta program will be updating their devices over the coming weeks.
You can see the full list of supported partner and Pixel devices at android.com/beta. For each device you'll find specs and links to the manufacturer's dedicated site for downloads, support, and to report issues.
We're looking forward to seeing your apps on Android P!
Today we launched the Wear OS by Google developer preview and brought Android P platform features to wearables. The developer preview includes updated system images on the official Android Emulator and a downloadable system image for the Huawei Watch 2 Bluetooth or Huawei Watch 2 Classic Bluetooth. This initial release is intended for developers only and is not for daily or consumer use. Therefore, it is only available via manual download and flash. Please refer to the release notes for known issues before downloading and flashing your device.
In this release, we would like to highlight the following features that developers should pay attention to:
We expect to provide several updates to this preview before the final production release. Please submit any bugs you find via the Wear OS by Google issue tracker. The earlier you submit them, the higher the likelihood that we can include the fixes in the final release.
The next release of Android Things Developer Preview 6 (DP6) is here with lots of new features and bug fixes. Android Things is Google's platform that enables Android Developers to create Internet of Things (IoT) devices with support for powerful applications such as video and audio processing and on-board machine learning with TensorFlow. For the specifics on what is new, visit the release notes. Here are a few of the highlights of what is in DP6.
DP6 includes a new IoT launcher that allows the user to see the current state of the device and change settings using a touch screen or USB input devices. Settings such as configuring the WiFi, finding the build ID, and checking for updates is now something that can be done interactively, making it even easier to get started. This launcher is visible when no other developer-provided IOT_LAUNCHER Activity is present.
Android Things uses the open-source SwiftShader library, a CPU-based implementation of the OpenGL ES APIs. This enables common OpenGL support across all platforms, even those with no GPU hardware. However, many simple 2D UIs render faster if the drawing is done directly to the framebuffer and OpenGL emulation is not used. In DP6, OpenGL rendering is disabled by default to ensure that most apps run with the fastest UI possible. If you need OpenGL support for 3D rendering, WebView, or TextureView, then explicitly enable it in your AndroidManifest.xml according to the documentation:
<activity ... android:hardwareAccelerated="true">
DP6 is now based on the latest Android 8.1 developer preview, with API level 27. Most of the standard Android samples now work on DP6. For example, the Camera2Basic sample using the Camera2 API and TextureView now works on both NXP and Raspberry Pi based devices (with the hardwareAccelerated flag set to true). Google Play Services has been updated to support SDK version 11.6, supporting all the latest features.
We heard from developers that flashing and configuring a board using fastboot can be tedious, so the Android Things Console now brings a new and simpler way of flashing device images. Instead of using fastboot and adb commands manually, a new interactive command-line android-things-setup-utility is now provided. This tool makes it much easier to get started with Android Things, and automates the download and flashing process.
android-things-setup-utility
DP6 introduces the new partition scheme that will be used for the upcoming production release. Due to the new partition layout, the over-the-air update (OTA) system cannot update existing DP5.1 or earlier devices. Developers will need to go to the Android Things Console, and download and flash a new DP6 build. The Console UI has also been changed for DP6 features, and will only allow you to create new builds based on DP6. If you have any older existing builds, they are still available for download but will not support OTA updates. Developers are encouraged to move all work to DP6.
The interactive IoT launcher shown at boot now includes an I/O pinout section where you can discover the labels of all the pins. The pin naming used by the i.MX7 has been changed, and you should update your code to use this new naming convention. See the i.MX7 documentation for the complete list of pin names.
New APIs have been added to Android Things that control the configuration of the local device and device updates. UpdateManager gives developers control over when updates and reboots can be performed, ensuring the device is available for the user when needed. DeviceManager controls factory reset, reboot, and device locales. APIs are also provided for settings such as ScreenManager to control the screen, and TimeManager to control the clock and time zone.
We now provide a command-line tool pio that gives developers access to the Peripheral API via the adb shell. Developers can interactively test GPIO, PWM, UART, I2C, SPI, and future interfaces from an adb shell, which is useful for debugging and automated testing.
pio
DP6 includes significant changes and improvements to the platform. Please send us your feedback by filing bug reports and feature requests, as well as asking any questions on Stack Overflow. To start using DP6, use the Android Things Console to download system images and flash existing devices, or use the android-things-setup-utility. More information about the changes are available in the release notes. You can also join Google's IoT Developers Community on Google+, a great resource to get updates and discuss ideas. Also, we have our new hackster.io community, where everyone can share the amazing projects they have built. We look forward to seeing what you build with Android Things!
Today, we're releasing Developer Preview 5 (DP5) of Android Things, which includes the major change of being based on the upcoming Android O release. Android Things is Google's platform to enable Android Developers to create Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and seamlessly scale from prototype to production.
Android O is currently under Developer Preview for phones and tablets, and DP5 is now based on this upcoming release (previous releases were based on Android N). This means that your future Android Things applications should target API 26 to work correctly on the platform with our support libraries.
DP5 now adds support for the new NXP SprIoT i.MX6UL design, as listed in our developer kits documentation. With Intel discontinuing the Edison and Joule hardware designs, these platforms are moving to legacy support. They will not continue to receive the latest platform updates, but developers may continue to access the DP4.1 system images from the Android Things Console.
An important goal of Android Things is to help developers seamlessly scale from prototype to production. When we exit Developer Preview, we will differentiate between hardware platforms targeted for prototyping-only and hardware reference designs that can scale to production. Production-ready hardware will satisfy Google's security requirements and include long term support from the silicon manufacturers. We will have more to share later on.
With the move to the Android O codebase, there are new API features from Android as well as specific features for Android Things. For those developers using UserDriver APIs, you will need to add new permissions to your AndroidManifest.xml. The documentation contains details about the permissions needed for each driver type. DP5 also now supports OpenGL ES 2.0 and WebView on the Raspberry Pi 3, which was a highly requested feature from developers. We have also implemented dynamic pin muxing for the Raspberry Pi 3, with pins being configured at runtime depending on what features are being used.
The samples for Android Things are now available directly in Android Studio for browsing and importing. You can now go to File, New, Import Samples, and search for Things to see everything that is available. We have a wide range of samples, demonstrating how to interact with buttons, sensors, LEDs, and displays, as well as implementing Google Assistant and TensorFlow.
We recently launched the Android Things Console, which provides the ability to support over-the-air updates (OTA) to Android Things devices. We have recently made a number of UX improvements to the console to improve usability and functionality. DP5 is now available within the Android Things Console, but the DP5 update will not be pushed automatically to devices without your intervention. You will need to update your application for DP5, then create a new update and push it via the console yourself.
With Android Things being updated to Android O, significant changes have been made to the platform. Please send us your feedback by filing bug reports and feature requests, and asking any questions on Stack Overflow. To start using DP5, use the Android Things Console to download system images and update existing devices. More information about the changes are available in the release notes. You can also join Google's IoT Developers Community on Google+, a great resource to get updates and discuss ideas. Also, we have our new hackster.io community, where everyone can share the amazing projects they have built!
As we put the finishing touches on the Android O platform, today we're rolling out Developer Preview 4 to help you make sure your apps are ready.
This is the final preview before we launch the official Android O platform to consumers later this summer. Take this opportunity to wrap up your testing and publish your updates soon, to give users a smooth transition to Android O.
If you have a device that's enrolled in the Android Beta Program, you'll receive an update to Developer Preview 4 in the next few days. If you haven't enrolled your device yet, just visit the Android Beta site to enroll and get the update.
Watch for more information on the official Android O release soon!
Developer Preview 4 is a release candidate build of Android O that you can use to complete your development and testing in time for the upcoming official release. It includes the final system behaviors, the latest bug fixes and optimizations, and the final APIs (API level 26) already available since Developer Preview 3.
We're releasing the Developer Preview 4 device system images today, together with the stable version of the Android 26.0.0 Support Library. Incremental updates to the SDK, tools, and Android Emulator system images are on the way over the next few days.
We're also introducing a new version of Android Testing Support Library that includes new features like Android Test Orchestrator, Multiprocess Espresso, and more. Watch for details coming soon.
Today's Developer Preview 4 system images give you an excellent way to test your current apps on the near-final version of Android O. By testing now, you can make sure your app offers the experience you want as users start to upgrade to the official Android O platform.
Just enroll a supported device in the Android Beta Program to get today's update over-the-air, install your current app from Google Play, and test the user flows. The app should run and look great, and should handle the Android O behavior changes properly -- in particular, pay attention to background location limits, notification channels, and changes in networking, security, and identifiers.
Once you've resolved any issues, publish your app updates with the current targeting level, so that they're available as users start to receive Android O.
Users running the latest versions of Android are typically among the most active in terms of downloading apps, consuming content, and making purchases. They're also more vocal about support for the latest Android features in their favorite apps. With Android O, users are anticipating features like notification channels and dots, shortcut pinning, picture-in-picture, autofill, and others. These features could also help increase engagement with your app as more users upgrade to Android O over time.
Enhancing your apps with Android O features can help you drive engagement with users, offer new interactions, give them more control and security, and improve performance. Features like adaptive icons, downloadable fonts, and autosizing TextView can simplify your development and minimize your APK size. Battery is also a top concern for users, so they'll appreciate your app being optimized for background execution limits and other important changes in vital system behavior for O apps.
Visit the O Developer Preview site to learn about all of the new features and APIs and how to build them into your apps.
When you're ready to build for Android O, we recommend updating to the latest version of Android Studio 3.0, available for download from the canary channel. Aside from improved app performance profiling tools, support for the Kotlin programming language, and Gradle build optimizations, Android Studio 3.0 makes it easier to develop with Instant Apps, XML Fonts, Downloadable Fonts, and Adaptive Icons.
We also recommend updating to the stable version of the Android Support Library 26.0.0, available now from Google's Maven repository, and to the latest SDK, tools, and emulator system images, available over the next few days.
You can update your project's compileSdkVersion to API 26 to compile against the official Android O APIs. We also recommend updating your app's targetSdkVersion to API 26 to opt-in and test your app with Android O specific behavior changes. See the migration guide for details on how to setup your environment to build with Android O.
Google Play is open for apps compiled against or targeting API 26. When you're ready, you can publish your APK updates in your alpha, beta, or production channels.
Make sure that your updated app runs well on Android O as well as older versions. We recommend using Google Play's beta testing feature to get early feedback from a small group of users. Then do a staged rollout. We're looking forward to seeing your app updates!
It's simple to get Developer Preview 4 if you haven't already! Just visit android.com/beta and opt-in your eligible phone or tablet. As always, you can also download and flash this update manually. The O Developer Preview is available for Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel C, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus Player, and the Android Emulator. Enrolled devices will automatically update when we release the official version of Android O.
Thanks for all of your input throughout the preview. Continue to share your feedback and requests, we love it!
Today we are launching a preview of the Android Things Console. This console allows developers to manage the software running on their fleet of Android Things IoT devices, including creating factory images, as well as updating the operating system and developer-provided APKs. Devices need to run a system image downloaded via the Android Things Console in order to receive future updates, such as the upcoming Developer Preview 5. Google provides all of the infrastructure for over-the-air (OTA) updates, so developers can focus on their specific application and not have to build their own implementation – getting their IoT devices to enter the market faster and more securely than before.
Let's take a tour of the console, and see the features it offers.
The developer first defines a product, which includes selecting a name and the type of System-on-Module (SoM) that the device is based on. Many developers want to use Google Play Services when building IoT devices, and this is configured here as an optional feature. The size of the OEM partition is also configured, and must be large enough to include the size of any future APK growth.
A device needs an initial base firmware to receive future updates for the correct product from your console. For starters, you can simply use "Create Build Configuration" to build a default factory image with an empty bundle that is configured for your product. This factory image can then be downloaded and flashed to your device, and you can start developing on it by sideloading an APK.
Later on, once you have prepared an application that you would like to deploy to all the devices in your product, you can upload a bundle to the console. This bundle is a ZIP file that contains a main APK file, user space drivers as a service in an APK, and any additional APKs launched by the main APK. A bootanimation.zip file is also supported, which will be displayed during boot up. The uploaded bundle ZIP file is then used to produce a complete system image that can be deployed to devices. More information about the bundle ZIP file contents is available in the documentation.
This tab allows the developer to select which system image should be pushed to the fleet of product devices. The developer selects one, and then "Push to Devices" starts the process. The update will then be securely pushed to all of the devices, installed to one of the A/B partitions, and made active when the device is rebooted. If any failures are detected, the device automatically rolls back to the previous known working version, so future updates are still possible. Developers will be able to test new releases of Android Things in advance and decide whether devices should be updated automatically.
The Android Things Console is currently a preview, and we are working on many more features and customizations. We encourage all Android Things developers to check out the Android Things Console and provide feedback. You can do this by filing bug reports and feature requests, and asking any questions on Stack Overflow. To learn more about the Android Things Console, read the detailed documentation. We also encourage everyone to join Google's IoT Developers Community on Google+, a great resource to get updates and discuss ideas.
Today, we're releasing a new Developer Preview 4.1 (DP4.1) of Android Things, with updates for new supported hardware and bug fixes to the platform. Android Things is Google's platform to enable Android Developers to create Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and seamlessly scale from prototype to production.
A new Pico i.MX6UL revision B board has been released, which supports many common external peripherals from partners such as Adafruit and Pimoroni. There were some prototype Pico i.MX6UL boards made available to some early beta testers, and these are not compatible with DP4.1.
DP4.1 also includes some performance improvements since DP4, such as boot time optimizations that improve the startup time of i.MX7D based hardware. This Developer Preview also includes a version of Google Play Services, specifically optimized for IoT devices. This new IoT variant is a lot smaller and optimized for use with Android Things, and requires the use of play-services 11.0.0 or later in your build.gradle. For more information about the supported features in the IoT variant of Google Play Services, see the information page.
Android Things had a large presence at Google I/O this year, with 7 talks covering different aspects of Android Things for developers, and these are available as videos in a playlist for those who could not attend:
Google I/O also had a codelab area, where attendees could sit down and test out Android Things development with some simple guided training guides. These codelabs are available for anyone to try at https://codelabs.developers.google.com/?cat=IoT
Thank you to all the developers who submitted feedback for the previous developer previews. Please continue sending us your feedback by filing bug reports and feature requests, and asking any questions on stackoverflow. To download images for DP4.1, visit the Android Things download page and find the changes in the release notes. You can also join Google's IoT Developers Community on Google+, a great resource to get updates and discuss ideas, with over 5,600 members.
Three weeks ago at Google I/O, we announced the second developer preview of Android O along with key themes, Fluid Experiences and Vitals, and highlighted our work towards a modular base with Project Treble. It was also an important milestone for us with the release of the first beta-quality candidate. We talked a lot about what's new in Android during the keynote and breakout sessions—if you missed the livestream, be sure to check out the full archive of talks here.
Today we're rolling out Developer Preview 3 with the final Android O APIs, the latest system images, and an update to Android Studio to help you get ready for the consumer release later in the summer. Watch for one more preview update coming in July that will bring you the near-final system images.
If you've already enrolled your device in the Android Beta Program, you'll receive an update to Developer Preview 3 shortly.
With the consumer launch approaching in the coming months, a critical first step is making your current app compatible with Android O. This will give your users a seamless transition to the new platform as it arrives on their devices.
If you haven't tested your app for compatibility yet, getting started is straightforward -- just enroll a supported device in Android Beta and get the latest update over-the-air, then install your current app from Google Play and test. The app should run and look great, and it should handle the Android O behavior changes properly -- in particular pay attention to background limits and changes in networking, security, and identifiers.
After you've made any necessary updates, we recommend publishing the compatible version of your app to Google Play right away -- without changing the app's platform targeting.
Extending your apps with Android O features can help you drive more engagement, offer new interactions, give users more control and security, and even improve your app's performance.
Notification channels and dots give you more ways to surface new content to users and bring them back into your app. Picture-in-picture keeps your app onscreen while users are multitasking, and autofill makes it simple for them to enter forms data and helps keep their data secure. Also check out adaptive icons, XML font resources, downloadable fonts and emoji, autosizing TextView, AAudio API, and many others. You'll also want plan your support for background execution limits and other important changes in vital system behavior for O apps.
Today's preview update includes the latest version of the Android O platform with the final API level 26 and hundreds of bugfixes and optimizations. You can download the final API 26 SDK from the SDK Manager in Android Studio, and Android Support Library 26.0.0 beta 2 from Google's Maven repository.
Together, these give you everything you need to develop and test your apps with the official Android O APIs. Once you've installed the final SDK, you can update your project's compileSdkVersion to API 26 to compile against the official Android O APIs. We also recommend updating your app's targetSdkVersion to API 26 to opt-in and test your app with Android O specific behavior changes. See the migration guide for details on how to set up your environment to build with Android O.
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APIs have changed since the second developer preview, so if you have existing code using Android O preview APIs, take a look at the diff report to see where your code might be affected.
If you're developing for Android O, we recommend updating to the latest version of Android Studio 3.0, now available in the canary channel. Aside from great new features like improved app performance profiling tools, support for the Kotlin programming language, and Gradle build optimizations, Android Studio 3.0 includes build support for Instant Apps, an Adaptive Icon Wizard, and support for XML Fonts, and Downloadable Fonts.
If you don't plan to use those features, you now have the option of developing for Android O using Android Studio 2.3.3 from the stable channel. Note that the tools for working with adaptive icons and downloadable fonts, and XML fonts are not available in Android Studio 2.3.3.
Now that the APIs are final, you can publish APK updates compiling with, and optionally targeting, API 26 to your alpha, beta, or even production channels in Google Play. Publishing your O-targeted app during the preview lets you test compatibility on existing devices and push updates to devices running API 26 -- such as users who are enrolled in the Android Beta program.
To make sure that your updated app runs well on Android O as well as older versions, a common strategy is to use Google Play's beta testing feature to get early feedback from a small group of users -- including developer preview users — and then do a staged rollout as you release the updated app to all users.
Through the Android Beta program, developers and early adopters worldwide will soon be getting Developer Preview 3 on their devices. If you aren't yet enrolled, just visit android.com/beta and opt-in your eligible Android phone or tablet. As always, you can also download and flash this update manually. The O Developer Preview is available for Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel C, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, and Nexus Player.
Thanks so much for all of your feedback so far. Please continue to share feedback or requests as we work towards the consumer release later this summer. We're looking forward to seeing your apps on Android O!
Posted by: Dave Burke, VP of Engineering
With billions of Android devices around the world, Android has surpassed our wildest expectations. Today at Google I/O, we showcased a number of ways we’re pushing Android forward, with the O Release, new tools for developers to help create more performant apps, and an early preview of a project we call Android Go -- a new experience that we’re building for entry-level devices.
