Over the past few years, our team has focused on improving the development experience for building Android apps with Android Studio. Since the launch of Android Studio, we have been impressed with the excitement and positive feedback. As the official Android IDE, Android Studio gives you access to a powerful and comprehensive suite of tools to evolve your app across Android platforms, whether it's on the phone, wrist, car or TV.
Android Developer Story: Shifty Jelly drives double-digit growth with material design and expansion to the car and wearables
Pocket Casts is a leading podcasting app on Google Play built by Australian-based mobile development company Shifty Jelly. The company recently achieved $1 million in sales for the first time, reaching more than 500K users.
Fitness Apps on Android Wear
Go for a run, improve your game, and explore the great outdoors with Android Wear! Developers are creating a diverse array of fitness apps that provide everything from pace and heart rate while running, to golf tips on your favorite course, to trail maps for hiking. Let�s take a look features of the open and flexible Wear platform they use to create great user experiences.
Growing Android TV engagement with search and recommendations
When it comes to TV, content is king. But to enjoy great content, you first need to find it. We created Android TV with that in mind: a truly smart TV should deliver interesting content to users. Today, EPIX� joins a growing list of apps that use the Android TV platform to make it easy to enjoy movies, TV shows, sports highlights, music videos and more.
More Material Design with Topeka for Android
Material design is a new system for visual, interaction and motion design. We originally launched the Topeka web app as an Open Source example of material design on the web.
Updates to Unity, C++, and iOS tools for Play game services
Posted by Benjamin Frenkel, Product Manager
To further support all you game developers, we've updated our popular developer tools to give you a consistent set of game services across platforms for a better, more stable experience, with a particular focus on improvements to the Play game services Unity plugin. In addition, we added support for the Nearby Connections API, launched earlier this year at GDC, to our C++ SDK and Unity plugin.
Let�s take a look a closer look!
We�ve added full support for Events and Quests in the Unity plugin. If you�re a Unity developer, you can now incorporate Quests into your games and take full advantage of Player Analytics natively within the Unity IDE.
We�ve also listened to feedback from our community of Unity plugin users and made stability improvements to Play game services Multiplayer, Saved Games, and to sign-in. You�ll now have a much better experience integrating with these Play game services, with fewer crashes and glitches.
We have added support for the Nearby Connections API to our C++ SDK and Unity plugin. You can now easily build awesome second screen and local multiplayer experiences, like this Beach Bugging Racing example, with the development tools you are most comfortable with.
We�ve also made major improvements to our Play game services CocoaPods, which simplify dependency management and building App Store packages from Xcode. The CocoaPods will improve building for iOS with the Play game services iOS and C++ SDKs, and the Unity plugin. We also improved the stability of multiplayer on iOS, eliminating many of the issues around accepting match invitations.
To further support all you game developers, we've updated our popular developer tools to give you a consistent set of game services across platforms for a better, more stable experience, with a particular focus on improvements to the Play game services Unity plugin. In addition, we added support for the Nearby Connections API, launched earlier this year at GDC, to our C++ SDK and Unity plugin.
Let�s take a look a closer look!
Unity plugin feature parity and stability improvements
We�ve added full support for Events and Quests in the Unity plugin. If you�re a Unity developer, you can now incorporate Quests into your games and take full advantage of Player Analytics natively within the Unity IDE.
We�ve also listened to feedback from our community of Unity plugin users and made stability improvements to Play game services Multiplayer, Saved Games, and to sign-in. You�ll now have a much better experience integrating with these Play game services, with fewer crashes and glitches.
C++ SDK and Unity support for the Nearby Connections API
We have added support for the Nearby Connections API to our C++ SDK and Unity plugin. You can now easily build awesome second screen and local multiplayer experiences, like this Beach Bugging Racing example, with the development tools you are most comfortable with.
Easier and more stable iOS builds with CocoaPods
We�ve also made major improvements to our Play game services CocoaPods, which simplify dependency management and building App Store packages from Xcode. The CocoaPods will improve building for iOS with the Play game services iOS and C++ SDKs, and the Unity plugin. We also improved the stability of multiplayer on iOS, eliminating many of the issues around accepting match invitations.
Android Developer Story: Trello Increases engagement with material design
Posted by Laura Della Torre, Google Play team
Trello is a visual collaboration tool that gives teams a shared perspective on projects. It�s built around the concept of a traditional office whiteboard. Simplicity and flexibility are core to the product, so the Trello team recently redesigned their Android app using the material design guidelines to double down on that effort.
According to Fyza Hashim, Designer at Trello, material design had an immediate impact on streamlining app-design and -development at the company. She added that, �Because the guidelines are so thorough and well thought out, you don�t have to go back and forth with developers.�
Sharing is a key component of Trello, so material design helped continue the same cohesive design and intuitive experience on both web and mobile. This makes sharing even easier. As a result, Trello has also seen double digit growth in user engagement with more and more sessions added per week.
Watch the video where we caught up with Michael Pryor, CEO; Hamid Palo, Mobile Lead; and Fyza at the Trello offices in New York to learn more.
Material design � learn more about material design and how it helps you create beautiful, engaging apps.
Introducing new Android training programs with Udacity
Posted by Peter Lubbers, Senior Program Manager, Google Developer Training
We know how important it is for you to efficiently develop the skills to build better Android apps and be successful in your jobs. To meet your training needs, we�ve partnered with Udacity to create Android training courses, ranging from beginner to more advanced content.
Last week at Google I/O we announced the Android Nanodegree, an education credential that is designed for busy people to learn new skills and advance their careers in a short amount of time from anywhere at any time. The nanodegree ties together our Android courses, and provides you with a certificate that may help you be a more marketable Android developer.
Training courses
All training courses are developed and taught by expert Google instructors from the Developer Platform team. In addition to updating our popular Developing Android Apps course and releasing Advanced Android App Development, we now have courses for everyone from beginning programmers to advanced developers who want to configure their Gradle build settings. And then there's all the fun stuff in between�designing great-looking, high performance apps, making your apps run on watches, TVs, and in cars, and using Google services like Maps, Ads, Analytics, and Fit.
Each course is available individually, without charge, at udacity.com/google. Our instructors are waiting for you:
Android Nanodegree
You can also enroll in the new Android Nanodegree for a monthly subscription fee, which gives you access to coaches who will review your code, provide guidance on your project, answer questions about the class, and help keep you on track when you need it.
More importantly, you will learn by doing, focusing only on where you need to grow. Since the Nanodegree is based on your skills and the projects in your portfolio, you do not need to complete the courses that address the skills you already have. You can focus on writing the code and building the projects that meet the requirements for the Nanodegree credential.
We�ll also be inviting 50 Android Nanodegree graduates to Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California, for a three day intensive Android Career Summit in November. Participants will have the opportunity to experience Google�s company culture and attend workshops focused on developing their personal career paths. Participants will then leverage the skills learned from Udacity�s Android Nanodegree during a two-day hackathon.
To help you learn more about this program and and courses within it, Google and Udacity are partnering up for an "Ask the Experts" live streamed series. In the first episode on Wednesday, June 3rd at 2pm PDT, Join Sebastian Thrun, Peter Lubbers and Jocelyn Becker who will be answering your questions on the Nanodegree. RSVP here and ask and vote for questions here.
Android training in Arabic
We also believe that everyone has the right to learn how to develop Android apps. Today, there is a great need for developers in countries outside of the United States as software powers every industry from food and transportation to healthcare and retail. As a first step in getting the Android Nanodegree localized and targeted for individual countries, we have worked with the Government of Egypt and Udacity to create end-to-end translations of our top Android courses into Arabic (including fully dubbed video). Google will offer 2,000 scholarships to students to get a certificate for completing the Arabic version of the Android Fundamentals course. Google will also host job fairs and sessions for students with local employers and the Egyptian Government. For more information, see www.udacity.com/egypt.
Complete Android course catalog
Here are the currently-planned courses in the Android Nanodegree:
- Android App Development for Beginners: How to Make an Android App, with Katherine Kuan
- Developing Android Apps: Android Fundamentals, with Reto Meier, Katherine Kuan, Dan Galpin and Alex Lucas
- Advanced Android app development: Productionize and Publish Your Apps, with Dan Galpin, Ian Lake and Joanna Smith
- Google Play services: Use Google APIs to Improve Your Apps (Maps, Location, and more!), with Jocelyn Becker, Magnus Hyttsten and Laurence Moroney
- Android Ubiquitous Computing: Extend Apps to Wearables, TV and Auto, with Timothy Jordan, Wayne Piekarski and Joshua Gordon
- Android Performance: Optimizing Apps for Speed and Usability, with Colt McAnlis
- Android Design for Developers: Make Your Apps Material, with Nick Butcher and Roman Nurik
- Gradle for Android and Java: Build Better Apps Though Automation with Gradle
So get learning now at udacity.com/android
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