Android Developers Blog

Posted by Wolfram Klein, Product Manager, Android TV We’ve been turning it up to 11 all summer long, leading up to the launch of Android 11 on mobile. Now, following right behind the mobile release, we are launching Android 11 on Android TV to bring the latest platform features to the big screen. Android 11 on Android TV introduces performance and privacy improvements, new features tailored for the TV, and updated developer tools, in addition to enabling many of the features we announced during the #11WeeksOfAndroid. Foundational Improvements Android TV continues to bring many of the benefits that come with the core Android update to the TV. With Android 11, performance improvements, like enhanced memory management, and privacy features, like one-time permissions, are introduced to make sure TV devices work quickly and securely. Tailored for the TV Android 11 emphasizes media by bringing support for Auto Low Latency Mode , and low latency media decoding , along with a new...

Posted by Stephanie Cuthbertson, Director, Product Management Android 11 is here! Today we’re pushing the source to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and officially releasing the newest version of Android. We built Android 11 with a focus on three themes: a People -centric approach to communication, Controls to let users quickly get to and control all of their smart devices, and Privacy to give users more ways to control how data on devices is shared. Read more in our Keyword post . For developers, Android 11 has a ton of new capabilities. You’ll want to check out conversation notifications, device and media controls, one-time permissions, enhanced 5G support, IME transitions, and so much more. To help you work and develop faster, we also added new tools like compatibility toggles, ADB incremental installs, app exit reasons API, data access auditing API, Kotlin nullability annotations, and many others. We worked to make Android 11 a great release for you, and we can’t wait to se...

Posted by Stella Loh, Product Manager, Android 5G Getting ready for 5G on Android Connectivity is the lifeblood that makes all of the experiences on our phones come alive, helping us connect, communicate, and express ourselves to the people that we care about. As app developers, this mission is as important now as it’s ever been. You’ve probably heard the buzz around 5G and wondered: what does this mean for my app? As we dive into Media & Games as part of this weeks' #11WeeksofAndroid, two areas where 5G offers a lot of potential, we wanted to spotlight ways for you to think about taking advantage of 5G for your app or game . Transforming your app or game with 5G: unlocking new experiences 5G isn’t just about faster connectivity: it’s about unlocking transformative new experiences, and we want to see how you continue to push the bar. Turn indoor use cases into outdoor use cases: Suddenly, everything you could only do indoors comes alive outside, like high-quality video chat ...

Posted by Dave Burke, VP of Engineering It’s already August and the official Android 11 release is coming very soon! As we put the finishing touches on the new platform, today we’re bringing you Beta 3, our last update in this year’s preview cycle . For developers, now is the time to make sure your apps are ready, before we bring the official release to consumers. You can get Beta 3 today on Pixel 2, 3, 3a, 4, and 4a devices. Just enroll here for an over-the-air update. If you’re already enrolled, you’ll automatically get the update soon. As always, let us know your feedback , and thank you for all of the input you’ve provided so far. Watch for more information on the official Android 11 release coming soon! What’s in Beta 3? Today’s update includes a release candidate build of Android 11 for Pixel devices and the Android Emulator. We reached platform stability at Beta 2 , so all app-facing surfaces and behaviors are final, including SDK and NDK APIs, app-facing system behaviors, an...

Posted by Dirk Dougherty, Android Developer Relations This post is part of a weekly series for 11 Weeks of Android . This week, we spotlighted Android 11 Compatibility ; here’s a look at what you should know. The big news With Beta 2 now in the hands of users and developers , Android 11 is moving quickly toward the final release later in Q3. For developers, now is the time to make sure your apps are ready! With that in mind, this week we highlighted some resources that can help you get started with app compatibility testing and use some of the new tools in Android 11. Here’s a quick rundown of topics that we covered. Platform stability In Android 11 we added a new release milestone called Platform Stability to clearly signal to developers that all APIs and system behaviors are complete. This week, with Beta 2, Android 11 reached Platform Stability, so it’s a great time to do your final compatibility testing and updates. The Beta 2 and Platform Stability blog post goes into more de...

Posted by Eddie Hsu (Technical Program Manager), Brent VerWeyst (Product Manager), Maya Ben Ari (Product Manager), Amith Dsouza (Technical Account Manager), Iliyan Malchev (Project Treble Architect) Over the past few years we’ve introduced new capabilities that enable us to deliver updates more uniformly, quickly, and efficiently to Android devices. These capabilities include: Oreo’s introduction of Project Treble created a system/vendor split for a much cleaner separation of OEM and SoC dependencies from the rest of the code base. This effort sped up the adoption of Android Pie by 2.5X. Every Android device that preloads the Google Play Store has been Treble compliant since that point. In Pie, we started publishing the Generic System Images (GSI) so that developers can use them for app-compat testing on real hardware. Treble compliance means that every device is compatible with our GSIs, even if it does not ship with them. We also worked with our major partners to launch an OEM dev...

Posted by Dave Burke, VP of Engineering A few weeks ago we unwrapped the first Beta of Android 11 with a focus on people, controls, and privacy. As we highlighted in the #Android11Beta Launch , we’re making Android more people-centric and expressive, helping users control their smart devices, and giving them even more control over sensitive permissions. Developers can use APIs like Conversations , Bubbles , Device Controls , and Media Controls , to integrate these experiences into their apps. Today we’re pushing out the second Beta of Android 11 for you to try. This release takes us to the Platform Stability milestone, which means that Android 11’s APIs and behaviors are finalized. For developers, it’s time to get started on your final compatibility updates and publish them in time for the official release later in Q3. This week’s theme in #11 Weeks of Android is Android 11 Compatibility and we’ll be sharing helpful content and materials all week. You can find them on the #11 Weeks ...

This blogpost is a collaboration between Google and Excelliance Tech. Authored by Zhuo Chen with support from Zhihai Wang, Gao Huang from Excelliance Tech. Excelliance Tech improved the stability and compatibility of their LeBian SDK by moving away from non-SDK APIs, toward stable, official APIs. Their collaboration with the Android team during the process also led to a new public API for resource loading that all developers can use - the ResourcesLoader API in Android 11. Helping game developers keep users engaged Games are becoming increasingly complex, and a loading progress bar is not only a countdown to a new adventure, but also a bridge which connects players and developers. Players want the game to load right away, so "loading" has its own priorities: resources that will be used in the first few minutes need to be packed into the APK, while the rest of the content can be downloaded in the background after the game starts. Developers are always creating new content fo...