Now in Android #98
Gemini Pro, Google AI SDK, Google AI Studio, Cast, Rust, and more!
Welcome to Now in Android, the first installment for 2024 of your ongoing guide to what’s new and notable in the world of Android development. In this article we’ll cover Gemini Pro, Google AI SDK, Google AI Studio, Cast, Rust, and more.
Most of the content of this post is available in the form of a video or podcast, so feel free to watch or listen rather than read on. (Or do all three to help you remember! There won’t be a quiz.)
Gemini Pro, Google AI SDK and Google AI Studio 🧠
Following the announcement of developer access to the on-device multimodal Gemini Nano foundation model, we introduced new ways for you to access the off-device Gemini Pro model. Gemini Pro is our best model for scaling across a wide range of text and image reasoning tasks. The Google AI client SDK for Android along with Google AI Studio provides a simplified, streamlined way to integrate the Gemini Pro model, craft prompts, create API keys, and transform ideas into AI apps.
A New Approach to Real-Money Games on Google Play💥
Google Play will begin supporting more Real-Money Game (RMG) app apps this year, including game types and operators not covered by an existing licensing framework. This new approach will provide new business opportunities to developers globally while continuing to prioritize user safety. We’ll launch this expanded RMG support in June to developers for their users in India, Mexico, and Brazil, and plan to expand to users in more countries in the future.
What’s new with Google Cast? 📹
We are launching new features that make it more seamless to cast on Android. The new output switcher makes it easy to move media between various devices as well as cast to nearby devices in a whole new way. There are a number of new features and improvements including Casting from short-form video apps, Persistent Cast icon, Shaka Player and more. Check out the article to learn more.
Videos💡
In Top 5 new features in Android Studio Hedgehog, Sandthya summarizes changes we’ve made to integrate Android Vitals data from the Google Play Console, the new Power Profiler, enhancements to the Running Devices window with support for physical device mirroring, the new UI, and updates to the SDK upgrade assistant.
We have 3 new Android developer story videos for you to check out.
First, you can learn more about how HoYoverse & Netmarble unlocked the multi-lingual opportunity on Google Play.
Next, you can check out how Zee5 develops for multiple form factors in record time using Android Developer resources like Jetpack WindowManager, design guidelines, emulators, and more.
Finally, you can learn more about Álvaro and how his Sky Alert app provides people with life-saving warnings for earthquakes.
Android Developers Blog 📝
Unresponsive Android apps can be really frustrating for users, and when apps are unresponsive for too long, the system posts an “Application Not Responding” (ANR) error. We have a new page at developer.android.com on Diagnosing and fixing ANRs. Check out the link to learn more about how to debug and determine the cause of ANRs.
In Faster Rust Toolchains for Android Chris covers how we’ve worked to ship the fastest version of the Rust toolchain that we can, leveraging multiple forms of profiling and optimization, as well as tuning C/C++, linker, and Rust flags, tailored for the specific needs of the Android codebase.
Next, Alex discussed how to increase your app’s availability across device types — by removing unnecessary feature requirements that prevent users from downloading your app on devices that don’t support those features. You can also learn more about how to automate tracking feature requirements and maximize app availability with badging!
#WeArePlay ended 2023 with stories covering a series of app founders in Indonesia, Singapore, Dubai, and Lisbon. Check out the links to read and learn more!
AndroidX Releases 🚀
We had several new alpha libraries launched in Android Jetpack:
Hilt Version 1.2.0-alpha01 adds overloaded hiltViewModel() and hiltNavGraphViewModels() functions for assisted injection support.
Who doesn’t like emojis? Emoji2 Version 1.5.0-alpha01 contains an updated emoji font to support Emoji 15.1 and also introduces some API changes.
You can see all the AndroidX release notes here.
ADB Podcast🎙
In Android Developers Backstage episode 203, Tor, Romain, and Chet talk about some of the many things that happened this year in the world of Android development, including new devices and form factors, tool improvements, AndroidX features and libraries, and Jetpack Compose releases. And since any tech podcast would be remiss without mentioning AI/ML, they talk about that too.
Now then… 👋
That’s it for this week with Gemini Pro, Google AI SDK, Google AI Studio, Real Money Games, Google Cast updates, developer stories, maximizing app availability, Rust, and more!
Check back soon for your next update from the Android developer universe! 💫
