Some of New Features On Android ‘O’ For developers
There are many new features that you can put to work when you create your apps for Android O, Such as:
Adaptive Icons, Android O introduces adaptive launcher icons, which can display a variety of shapes across different device models. For example, a launcher icon can display a circular shape on one OEM device, and display a squircle on another device. see sample code here: https://developer.android.com/preview/features/adaptive-icons.html
Display Notifications in Channels, see sample code here: https://github.com/googlesamples/android-NotificationChannels/#readme
AutoFill in EditText, see sample code here: https://github.com/googlesamples/android-AutofillFramework/#readme
Display video as Pictur-in-Picture, see sample code code here: https://github.com/googlesamples/android-PictureInPicture/#readme
Downloadable font, see sample code here: https://github.com/googlesamples/android-DownloadableFonts/#readme
Fonts as resources, you can now imbed fonts as resources. You place it in a font directory under the resources directory and you create an XML file that will be used as a font family name. Then in your components that display text you can refer to that font as a resource using the font family attribute. see sample code here https://developer.android.com/preview/features/fonts-in-xml.html
Textview Autosizing, TextView components now have a feature called Autosizing. You define an amount of space you want to fill and then there are a couple of different strategies you can use to cause the TextView to select a font that’s appropriate for that size, see sample code here https://developer.android.com/preview/features/autosizing-textview.html
Pinnable Launcher Shortcuts, There’s another useful new feature call Pinnable Launcher Shortcuts. On the pixel devices which were introduced with Android seven the use could touch and hold on a launcher icon and if a developer had created them shortcuts would appear. Now with Android O, the user can click and drag those shortcuts to create shortcut icons.
Wi-Fi Aware or Neighbourhood Awareness Networking, Devices that support Wi-Fi Aware can communicate with each other on a peer to peer basis and this is without the use of a Wi-Fi router. There are many ways that this feature can be put to work.
Bluetooth Improvement:
- Support for the AVRCP 1.4 standard, which enables song-library browsing.
- Support for the Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) 5.0 standard.
- Integration of the Sony LDAC codec into the Bluetooth stack.
Companion device pairing, Android O provides APIs that allow you to customise the pairing request dialog when trying to pair with companion devices over Bluetooth, BLE, and Wi-Fi. For more information see this: https://developer.android.com/preview/features/companion-device-pairing.html
Smart Text Selection, On compatible devices, Android O enables apps to help users interact with text in more meaningful ways. When users long-press on a word in an entity-a recognised format like an address or restaurant name, for example-the system selects the whole entity. The user sees a floating toolbar that might include an app that can handle the selected text entity. For example, if the system recognizes an address, it can direct the user towards the Maps app.
Conclusion:
Android O may not look like a massive change to the framework or the operating system but these are some of the many new features that are available to you as an Android developer to see full and up to date list click here https://developer.android.com/preview/api-overview.html
References and Resources:
Google Developers,
https://developer.android.com
Linked In Learning,
https://www.linkedin.com/learning/android-o-first-look-for-developers