What’s new in Android @ I/O’19
Google I/O is one of the biggest conferences around the world. Google announced a ton of stuff it’s been working on over the last year, from a dark theme to kotlin first Android development. It had 59 sessions specifically to Android.
Don’t have time to watch it all? That’s okay — I summed up the biggest stuff for you.
Kotlin-first Development
Google announced that “Android development will become increasingly Kotlin-first. Kotlin now sits at number 4 in Stack Overflow’s list of programming languages preferred by developers. Many new Jetpack APIs and features will be offered first in Kotlin.”
JetPack Compose
Jetpack Compose is an unbundled toolkit designed to simplify UI development. It combines a reactive programming model with the conciseness and ease of use of the Kotlin programming language. Compose’s UI components are fully declarative and allow developers to create layouts by simply describing what the UI should look like in their code.
Sharing Shortcuts API
Android Q comes with the improved version of the Direct Share API that allows developers to provide direct recipients with shortcuts. Share Sheet UI looks pretty clean & easy to use. You can learn more about it here.
Notifications
Notifications are now grouped into two simple channels: interruptive and gentle.
Interruptive notifications sit at the top of your notification shade — you’ll get sound and vibration when they arrive, and they’ll sit at the top of your notification shade and lock screen.
Gentle notifications come in more subtly — likely without sound, and sometimes with no vibration, and are grouped below a separator in the notification shade to indicate they’re less important. You can always change the priority of the notification type.
Hey, Did I mention that Notification can now have enhanced replies and deep link actions too? Super Cool! Isn’t it? 😉
Bubbles
Bubbles are built into the Notification system. They float on top of other app content and follow the user wherever they go. Bubbles can be expanded to reveal app functionality and information and can be collapsed when not being used. Read more about Bubbles here.
Dark Theme
Android Q offers a new Dark theme that applies to both the Android system UI and apps running on the device. It can reduce power usage, improve visibility for users with low vision and easy to use in a low-light environment. Read more about Dark Theme here.
Gestural Navigations
Android Q will support two navigation modes — Gestures and Buttons. Fully Gestural Navigation is going to be the only way to use gestures on Android unless your OEM adds its own version. Also, Google will also continue to support the classic 3-button navigation bar.
It’s a lot to cover. Here are the few things that You must go through if you’re interested:
- Best Text Practices
- Magnifier API
- Camera X API
- Privacy change in Android
- Updates in Architecture components
- Understanding Android Run Time for faster apps
- Understanding Kotlin Coroutines
There you have it! These are some of the most interesting sessions at Google I/O. You can find all the recorded sessions, click here.
Do tell me your favorite session at Google I/O in comments :)
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