Android Development Patterns

Developing for Direct Boot

For some apps that schedule alarms and receive messages, delivering timely notifications is critical. With Android N, we’re introducing the option for apps to run before the user unlocks the device after a reboot, so your users will never miss that important alarm clock in the morning.

In the recently released Android N Developer Preview 2, we’ve changed the names of some methods and Intents related to Direct Boot to better reflect their actual behavior. For example: Context.createDeviceEncryptedStorageContext() is now Context.createDeviceProtectedStorageContext() and PackageManager.MATCH_ENCRYPTION_AWARE is now PackageManager.MATCH_DIRECT_BOOT_AWARE.

Check out our blog post (http://goo.gl/8Z7QWd) to learn more and remember to #BuildBetterApps!

StrictMode for enforcing best practices at runtime

StrictMode isn't just for performance checks - it also offers some runtime checks for ensuring that you're sharing files correctly and encrypting your network traffic.

Watch the video, read the blog (https://medium.com/google-developers/strictmode-for-runtime-analysis-on-android-f8d0a2c5667e) and continue to #BuildBetterApps!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLWz5rJ2EKKc-lJo_RGGXL2Psr8vVCTWjM&v=BxTfwT7mkB4

Better share targets with Direct Share

If sharing is caring, and you care about your users, then clearly you care about Direct Share. (http://goo.gl/6DBcK3) With Marshmallow, Direct Share means that you can define a specific share target so that instead of a share action launching your app, it can instead launch the specific conversation in your app, with the funny meme ready to go in the message text field. That’s basically a two-click share experience, which basically means your users love you. Basically.

So watch the video, check out the sample (http://goo.gl/0LQnVW), and/or read the blog post (https://goo.gl/w1p8c2), but always continue to #BuildBetterApps.

Sharing Content on Android

Building a great user experience within your app is awesome, but Android apps work better together - add sharing of text, HTML text, files, and images to your app with ShareCompat and FileProvider.

Watch the video, read the blog (https://goo.gl/hZmEQi) and continue to #BuildBetterApps!

https://goo.gl/r2EESH

Layouts, attributes, and you

Picking the right layout can make all the difference. But how do they differ? How do you decide? What even is a layout?

Watch the video to learn the basics, then read the blog (https://goo.gl/f97aaO) for details on many of the common layouts you might want to use.

Pick the right layout and continue to #BuildBetterApps

Check out the full playlist (https://goo.gl/UbfS7w) for more!

Preparing for Multi-Window in Android N
5 Pro-tips by +Ian Lake

Not just one, but five pro-tips today on getting your app prepared for multi-window support on Android N. Find out why it is important to use the right Context, handle configuration changes correctly, handle all orientations, build a responsive UI, and support implicit intents in a multi-window world.

Even better: these are things you can do right now to make for a great experience on day 1 without requiring you compile your app with the Android N SDK.

How to Camera2

Camera2 is clearly the best thing since sliced bread. Or sliced...eggs if you’re gluten-free, I guess. But it may not work for you in every situation. So let’s break down the differences between the Camera and Camera2 APIs, and the oft-forgotten Camera Intent.

But, when you realize you still love Camera2 the best, take a look at the list of characteristics, and your heart may flutter a bit.

So watch the video or read the blog post to learn more: https://goo.gl/384i54

https://goo.gl/qsbKUp

MediaBrowserServiceCompat and the modern media playback app
Pro-tip by +Ian Lake

Media playback apps benefit greatly from being tightly integrated into the system and devices such as Android Auto and Android Wear, but these don’t need to one off integrations. Using MediaBrowserServiceCompat you can take advantage of a single communication protocol between your media playback service and your UI, Android Auto, and Android Wear.

Check out our blog post (https://goo.gl/e8udCG) for all the details on how it all works and how you can use it to #BuildBetterApps

Choosing a Button style with purpose and intent
Pro-tip by +Joanna Smith

Users may not notice how nice an app looks, but they always notice when it looks bad. That’s why it’s important to choose the right components for every corner of your app. And when you don’t have a team of designers to make those decisions for you, it can seem overwhelming. So, I’m here to help, and today, that help comes in the form of choosing a button type by understanding the button’s prominence.

So check out the blog post (https://goo.gl/s1rSBG) to learn some of the reasoning designers use to make decisions, and you can have the prettiest buttons ever seen.

Intercepting everything with CoordinatorLayout Behaviors
Pro-tip by +Ian Lake

What sorcery is it that makes the Android Design Support Library work? Does CoordinatorLayout just know everything? No - it relies on Behaviors: special classes tied to views that intercept touch events, window insets, measurement, layout, and nested scrolling. Check out our blog post (https://goo.gl/8xgnB4) for all the details!