Posted by Jocelyn Becker, Senior Program Manager, Android Training
As one of our most popular Udacity courses, the Developing Android Apps course was recently updated to ensure developers have the resources to build high quality apps. This course, which has already helped more than half a million developers learn to build Android apps, has been through the car wash and come out sparkling clean and updated.
Google and Udacity have worked together to update the course to include the very latest changes in Android and Android Studio, including how to use the new Constraint Layout editor, and how to use Firebase Job Dispatcher. Learn best practices for building Android apps using Android 7.0 (Nougat) while keeping your apps backwards compatible in older versions, learning at your own pace in your own time.
You sent us feedback that some of the lessons were a little difficult to get through, so we've restructured the lessons and added smaller apps for you to build as you progress through the course. So not only will you build the Sunshine weather app as a complete, integrated application that spans the entire course, but you'll also create an app in each lesson to help you learn individual concepts.
Combined package for Developing Android Apps course and Associate Android Developer Certification
This updated course teaches the skills that are tested by the Associate Android Developer certification exam. Udacity is offering a package that combines the updated Developing Android Apps course with a voucher for the Associate Android Developer certification exam. If you pass this exam, you will earn the Associate Android Developer Certification and show that you are competent and skilled in tasks that an entry-level Android developer typically performs. Enroll in Udacity's Fast Track to get prepared and take the Associate Android developer exam at: https://www.udacity.com/course/nd818.
Posted by Matteo Vallone, Google Play Partner Development Manager
To build awareness of the awesome innovation and art that indie game developers are bringing to users on Google Play, we have invested heavily over the past year in programs like Indie Corner, as well as events like the Google Play Indie Games Festivals in North America and Korea.
As part of that sustained effort, we also want to celebrate the passion and innovation of indie game developers with the introduction of the first-ever Google Play Indie Games Contest in Europe. The contest will recognize the best indie talent in several countries and offer prizes that will help you get your game noticed by industry experts and gamers worldwide.
Prizes for the finalists and winners:
Entering the contest:
If you're based in Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France (coming soon), Germany, Iceland, Israel, Netherlands, Norway, Poland (coming soon), Romania, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, or UK (excl. Northern Ireland), have 15 or less full time employees, and published a new game on Google Play after 1 January 2016, you may now be eligible to enter the contest. If you're planning on publishing a new game soon, you can also enter by submitting a private beta. Check out all the details in the terms and conditions. Submissions close on 31 December 2016.
The process:
Up to 20 finalists will get to showcase their games at an open event at the Saatchi Gallery in London on the 16th February 2017. At the event, the top 10 will be selected by the event attendees and the Google Play team. The top 10 will then get the opportunity to pitch to a jury of industry experts, from which the final winner and runners up will be selected.
Even if someone is NOT entering the contest:
Even if you're not eligible to enter the contest, you can still register to attend the final showcase event in London on 16 February 2017, check out some great indie games, and have fun with various industry experts and indie developers. We will also be hosting a workshop for all indie games developers from across EMEA in the new Google office in Kings Cross the next day, so this will be a packed week.
Get started:
Enter the Indie Games Contest now and visit the contest site to find out more about the contest, the event, and the workshop.
Posted by Michael Winser, Product Lead, Google Apps and Wesley Chun, Developer Advocate, Google Apps
Last week, we clarified the expectations and responsibilities when accessing Google user data via OAuth 2.0. Today, we’re announcing that in order to better protect users, we are increasing account security for enterprise Gmail users effective October 5, 2016. At this time, a new policy will take effect whereby users in a Google Apps domain, while changing their passwords on or after this date, will result in the revocation of the OAuth 2.0 tokens of apps that access their mailboxes using Gmail-based authorization scopes. Please note that users will not notice any specific changes on this date and their applications will continue to work. It is only when a user changes their password from that point moving forward that their Gmail-related tokens become invalid.
Developers should modify their applications to handle HTTP 400 or 401 error codes resulting from revoked tokens and prompt their users to go through the OAuth flow again to re-authorize those apps, such that they can access the user’s mailbox again (additional details below). Late last year, we announced a similar, planned change to our security policy that impacted a broader set of authorization scopes. We later decided not to move forward with that change for Apps customers and began working on a less impactful update as described above.
What is a revoked token?
A revoked OAuth 2.0 token no longer provides access to a user’s resources. Any attempt to use a revoked token in API calls will result in an error. Any existing token strings will no longer have any value and should be discarded. Applications accessing Google APIs should be modified to handle failed API calls.
Token revocation itself is not a new feature. Users have always been able to revoke access to applications in Security Checkup, and Google Apps admins have the ability to do the same in the Admin console. In addition, tokens that were not used for extended periods of time have always been subject to expiration or revocation. This change in our security policy will likely increase the rate of revoked tokens that applications see, since in some cases the process will now take place automatically.
What APIs and scopes are impacted?
To achieve the security benefits of this policy change with minimal admin confusion and end-user disruption, we’ve decided to limit its application to mail scopes only and to exclude Apps Script tokens. Apps installed via the Google Apps Marketplace are also not subject to the token revocation. Once this change is in effect, third-party mail apps like Apple Mail and Thunderbird―as well as other applications that use multiple scopes that include at least one mail scope―will stop accessing data upon password reset until a new OAuth 2.0 token has been granted. Your application will need to detect this scenario, notify the user that your application has lost access to their account data, and prompt them to go through the OAuth 2.0 flow again.
Mobile mail applications are also included in this policy change. For example, users who use the native mail application on iOS will have to re-authorize with their Google account credentials when their password has been changed. This new behavior for third-party mail apps on mobile aligns with the current behavior of the Gmail apps on iOS and Android, which also require re-authorization upon password reset.
How can I determine if my token was revoked?
Both short-lived access tokens and long-lived refresh tokens will be revoked when a user changes their password. Using a revoked access token to access an API or to generate a new access token will result in either HTTP 400 or 401 errors. If your application uses a library to access the API or handle the OAuth flow, then these errors will likely be thrown as exceptions. Consult the library’s documentation for information on how to catch these exceptions. NOTE: because HTTP 400 errors may be caused by a variety of reasons, expect the payload from a 400 due to a revoked token to be similar to the following:
{ "error_description": "Token has been revoked.", "error": "invalid_grant" }
How should my application handle revoked tokens?
This change emphasizes that token revocation should be considered a normal condition, not an error scenario. Your application should expect and detect the condition, and your UI should be optimized for restoring tokens.
To ensure that your application works correctly, we recommend doing the following:
If your application uses incremental authorization to accrue multiple scopes in the same token, you should track which features and scopes a given user has enabled. The end result is that if your app requested and obtained authorization for multiple scopes, and at least one of them is a mail scope, that token will be revoked, meaning you will need to prompt your user to re-authorize for all scopes originally granted.
Many applications use tokens to perform background or server-to-server API calls. Users expect this background activity to continue reliably. Since this policy change also affects those apps, this makes prompt notification requesting re-authorization even more important.
What is the timeline for this change?
To summarize, properly configured applications should be expected to handle invalid tokens in general, whether they be from expiration, non-existence, and revocation as normal conditions. We encourage developers to make any necessary changes to give their users the best experience possible. The policy change is planned to take effect on October 5, 2016.
Please see this Help Center article and FAQ for more details and the full list of mail scopes. Moving forward, any additional scopes to be added to the policy will be communicated in advance. We will provide those details as they become available.
Sam Thorogood, Developer Programs Engineer
Today, we're announcing that the open source version of Google's Santa Tracker has been updated with the Android and web experiences that ran in December 2015. We extended, enhanced and upgraded our code, and you can see how we used our developer products - including Firebase and Polymer - to build a fun, educational and engaging experience.
To get started, you can check out the code on GitHub at google/santa-tracker-web and google/santa-tracker-android. Both repositories include instructions so you can build your own version.
Santa Tracker isn’t just about watching Santa’s progress as he delivers presents on December 24. Visitors can also have fun with the winter-inspired experiences, games and educational content by exploring Santa's Village while Santa prepares for his big journey throughout the holidays.
Below is a summary of what we’ve released as open source.
We hope that this update inspires you to make your own magical experiences based on all the interesting and exciting components that came together to make Santa Tracker!
Originally posted on Android Developers blog
Posted by Sam Dutton, Ankur Kotwal, Developer Advocates; Liz Yepsen, Program Manager
‘TOP-UP WARNING.’ ‘NO CONNECTION.’ ‘INSUFFICIENT BANDWIDTH TO PLAY THIS RESOURCE.’
These are common warnings for many smartphone users around the world.
To build products that work for billions of users, developers must address key challenges: limited or intermittent connectivity, device compatibility, varying screen sizes, high data costs, short-lived batteries. We first presented developers.google.com/billions and related Android and Web resources at Google I/O last month, and today you can watch the video presentations about Android or the Web.
These best practices can help developers reach billions by delivering exceptional performance across a range of connections, data plans, and devices. g.co/dev/billions will help you:
Seamlessly transition between slow, intermediate, and offline environments
Your users move from place to place, from speedy wireless to patchy or expensive data. Manage these transitions by storing data, queueing requests, optimizing image handling, and performing core functions entirely offline.
Provide the right content for the right context
Keep context in mind - how and where do your users consume your content? Selecting text and media that works well across different viewport sizes, keeping text short (for scrolling on the go), providing a simple UI that doesn’t distract from content, and removing redundant content can all increase perception of your app’s quality while giving real performance gains like reduced data transfer. Once these practices are in place, localization options can grow audience reach and increase engagement.
Optimize for mobile hardware
Ensure your app or Web content is served and runs well for your widest possible addressable market, covering all actively used OS versions, while still following best practices, by testing on virtual or actual devices in target markets. Native Android apps should set minimum and target SDKs. Also, remember low cost phones have smaller amounts of RAM; apps should therefore adjust usage accordingly and minimize background running. For in-depth information on minimizing APK size, check out this series of Medium posts. On the Web, optimize JavaScript CPU usage, avoid raster image rendering, and minimize resource requests. Find out more here.
Reduce battery consumption
Low cost phones usually have shorter battery life. Users are sensitive to battery consumption levels and excessive consumption can lead to a high uninstall rate or avoidance of your site. Benchmark your battery usage against sessions on other pages or apps, or using tools such as Battery Historian, and avoid long-running processes which drain batteries.
Conserve data usage
Whatever you’re building, conserve data usage in three simple steps: understand loading requirements, reduce the amount of data required for interaction, and streamline navigation so users get what they want quickly. Conserving data on behalf of your users (and with native apps, offering configurable network usage) helps retain data-sensitive users -- especially those on prepaid plans or contracts with limited data -- as even “unlimited” plans can become expensive when roaming or if unexpected fees are applied.
Have another insight, or a success launching in low-connectivity conditions or on low-cost devices? Let us know on our G+ post.
Posted by Shanea King-Roberson, Lead Program Manager Twitter: @shaneakr Instagram: @theshanea
Do you have an idea for an app but you don’t know where to start? There are over 1 billion Android devices worldwide, providing a way for you to deliver your ideas to the right people at the right time. Google, in partnership with Udacity, is making Android development accessible and understandable to everyone, so that regardless of your background, you can learn to build apps that improve the lives of people around you.
Enroll in the new Android Basics Nanodegree. This series of courses and services teaches you how to build simple Android apps--even if you have little or no programming experience. Take a look at some of the apps built by our students:
The app "ROP Tutorial" built by student Arpy Vanyan raises awareness of a potentially blinding eye disorder called Retinopathy of Prematurity that can affect newborn babies.
And user Charles Tommo created an app called “Dr Malaria” that teaches people ways to prevent malaria.
With courses designed by Google, you can learn skills that are applicable to building apps that solve real world problems. You can learn at your own pace to use Android Studio (Google’s official tool for Android app development) to design app user interfaces and implement user interactions using the Java programming language.
The courses walk you through step-by-step on how to build an order form for a coffee shop, an app to track pets in a shelter, an app that teaches vocabulary words from the Native American Miwok tribe, and an app on recent earthquakes in the world. At the end of the course, you will have an entire portfolio of apps to share with your friends and family.
Upon completing the Android Basics Nanodegree, you also have the opportunity to continue your learning with the Career-track Android Nanodegree (for intermediate developers). The first 50 participants to finish the Android Basics Nanodegree have a chance to win a scholarship for the Career-track Android Nanodegree. Please visit udacity.com/legal/scholarship for additional details and eligibility requirements. You now have a complete learning path to help you become a technology entrepreneur or most importantly, build very cool Android apps, for yourself, your communities, and even the world.
All of the individual courses that make up this Nanodegree are available online for no charge at udacity.com/google. In addition, Udacity provides paid services, including access to coaches, guidance on your project, help staying on track, career counseling, and a certificate upon completion for a fee.
You will be exposed to introductory computer science concepts in the Java programming language, as you learn the following skills.
To enroll in the Android Basics Nanodegree program, click here.
See you in class!
Posted by Laurence Moroney, developer advocate
One of the great benefits of Android development is in the flexibility provided by the sheer number of APIs available in the framework, support libraries, Google Play services and elsewhere. While variety is the spice of life, it can lead to some tough decisions when developing -- and good guidance about repeatable patterns for development tasks is always welcome!
With that in mind, Joanna Smith and Ian Lake started Android Development Patterns to help developers not just know how to use an API but also which APIs to choose to begin with.
You can learn more about Android Development Patterns by watching the videos on YouTube, reading this blog post, or checking out the Google Developers page on Medium.
Posted by Laurence Moroney, Developer Advocate
In this episode of Coffee with a Googler, Laurence Moroney meets with Ian Lake to talk about some of the new features in Android N, including updates to Doze, giving greater power savings, and expanding on what was available in Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
They also discuss how the multi-window support works in Android N, and what’s needed to prepare for it to ensure the best integration. Check out the video to see the entire conversation, including discussion on the new notifications in Android N. Learn more at developer.android.com/preview.
In October, we published a blog post about how Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) works with Doze in Android 6.0 Marshmallow to bring performance and usability improvements to the user. In this scenario, normal priority messages allow the device to stay in Doze, while high priority messages take the device out of Doze. For a great example of this capability and best practices on Android, we’ve spoken with the engineering team at Twitter.
Twitter has researched extensively which messages should get high priority -- given that this priority can awaken a device in Doze. To meet their particular need, Twitter wanted Direct Messages to be delivered on high priority, where mentions would be at normal priority.
Luke Millar, Android Engineering Manager at Twitter commented "With Android M we have a greater ability to be good citizens when it comes to conserving battery life. This feature lets us specify which notifications will wake up a device in Doze and which ones won't. Normally, we tell GCM to wait to deliver push notifications until the next time the user's phone wakes up. However, users expect to receive some push notifications immediately, like notifications for Direct Messages, so we set those as high priority. It's nice being able to specify when and how those notifications make it to our users."
To test Doze, Twitter’s engineers followed the steps outlined on the Android Developers site. These guide you to use adb commands to simulate doze on either a physical or virtual device. Following this method, Twitter was able to successfully test how their messaging priorities would work in a real-world environment.
One other best practice that Twitter used was in transmitting larger payloads, such as when delivering Twitter Highlights. In this case, they opted to pass metadata in the notification, which was then used to sync the application to get the requested Highlights. In other words, they didn’t transmit the contents of Highlights in a notification, instead triggering a sync mechanism to update the contents of the app.
For more details on using GCM with your app in standby environments, check out the documentation. You can learn more about Google Cloud Messaging and how to use it for notifications in your Android, iOS and Web Applications at the Google Developers site here.
Posted by Stewart Miles, Fun Propulsion Labs*
To celebrate the holiday season at Fun Propulsion Labs, we're trading our sushi mats and baking pans for candy canes and snowballs. Please join us for a special holiday-themed version of Pie Noon and Zooshi! Zooshi and Pie Noon are open source, cross-platform games built from a suite of libraries that eager C++ developers can use to build their own projects.
You can download and run Zooshi's Santa mode on Google Play and find the latest open source release on our GitHub page. The holiday version of Pie Noon is available on Google Play as Snowdown in Santa Tracker and on our GitHub page. Happy Holidays!
* Fun Propulsion Labs is a team within Google that's dedicated to advancing gaming on Android and other platforms.
Posted by Leon Nicholls, Developer Programs Engineer
Remote Display on Google Cast allows your app to display both on your mobile and Cast device at the same time. Processing is a programming language that allows artists and hobbyists to create advanced graphics and interactive exhibitions. By putting these two things together we were able to quickly create stunning visual art and display it on the big screen just by bringing our phone to the party or gallery. This article describes how we added support for the Google Cast Remote Display APIs to Processing for Android and how you can too.
Processing has its own IDE and has many contributed libraries that hide the technical details of various input, output and rendering technologies. Users of Processing with just basic programming skills can create complicated graphical scenes and visualizations.
To write a program in the Processing IDE you create a “sketch” which involves adding code to life-cycle callbacks that initialize and draw the scene. You can run the sketch as a Java program on your desktop. You can also enable support for Processing for Android and then run the same sketch as an app on your Android mobile device. It also supports touch events and sensor data to interact with the generated apps.
Instead of just viewing the graphics on the small screen of the Android device, we can do better by projecting the graphics on a TV screen. Google Cast Remote Display APIs makes it easy to bring graphically intensive apps to Google Cast receivers by using the GPUs, CPUs and sensors available on the mobile devices you already have.
Adding support for Remote Display involved modifying the Processing for Android Mode source code. To compile the Android Mode you first need to compile the source code of the Processing IDE. We started with the source code of the current stable release version 2.2.1 of the Processing IDE and compiled it using its Ant build script (detailed instructions are included along with the code download). We then downloaded the Android SDK and source code for the Android Mode 0232. After some minor changes to its build config to support the latest Android SDK version, we used Ant to build the Android Mode zip file. The zip file was unzipped into the Processing IDE modes directory.
We then used the IDE to open one of the Processing example sketches and exported it as an Android project. In the generated project we replaced the processing-core.jar library with the source code for Android Mode. We also added a Gradle build config to the project and then imported the project into Android Studio.
The main Activity for a Processing app is a descendent of the Android Mode PApplet class. The PApplet class uses a GLSurfaceView for rendering 2D and 3D graphics. We needed to change the code to use that same GLSurfaceView for the Remote Display API.
It is a requirement in the Google Cast Design Checklist for the Cast button to be visible on all screens. We changed PApplet to be an ActionBarActivity so that we can show the Cast button in the action bar. The Cast button was added by using a MediaRouteActionProvider. To only list Google Cast devices that support Remote Display, we used a MediaRouteSelector with an App ID we obtained from the Google Cast SDK Developer Console for a Remote Display Receiver.
Next, we created a class called PresentationService that extends CastRemoteDisplayLocalService. The service allows the app to keep the remote display running even when it goes into the background. The service requires a CastPresentation instance for displaying its content. The CastPresentation instance uses the GLSurfaceView from the PApplet class for its content view. However, setting the CastPresentation content view requires some changes to PApplet so that the GLSurfaceView isn’t initialized in its onCreate, but waits until the service onRemoteDisplaySessionStarted callback is invoked.
When the user selects a Cast device in the Cast button menu and the MediaRouter onRouteSelected event is called, the service is started with CastRemoteDisplayLocalService.startService. When the user disconnects from a Cast device using the Cast button, MediaRouter onRouteUnselected event is called and the service is stopped by using CastRemoteDisplayLocalService.stopService.
For the mobile display, we display an image bitmap and forward the PApplet touch events to the existing surfaceTouchEvent method. When you run the Android app, you can use touch gestures on the display of the mobile device to control the interaction on the TV. Take a look at this video of some of the Processing apps running on a Chromecast.
Most of the new code is contained in the PresentationService and RemoteDisplayHelper classes. Your mobile device needs to have at least Android KitKat and Google Play services version 7.5.71.
Now you can try the Remote Display APIs in your Processing apps. Instead of changing the generated code every time you export your Android Mode project, we recommend that you use our project as a base and simply copy your generated Android code and libraries to our project. Then simply modify the project build file and update the manifest to start the app with your sketch’s main Activity.
To see a more detailed description on how to use the Remote Display APIs, read our developer documentation. We are eager to see what Processing artists can do with this code in their projects.
Posted by Ranjith Jayaram, Product Manager
If you’re looking to drive usage and grow a mobile app, you’re probably testing out referrals, recommendations, and the user onboarding experience. These product flows are resource-intensive to design, build, and optimize. What if you could use a set of tools that help your users share your app, and get more of the right people to download and use your app? What if you could craft a more personalized onboarding experience in your new user’s journey?
Now in beta, App Invites let mobile app developers increase their reach, deep link new users to custom experiences, and tap into your users’ device and Google-wide contacts as a source to drive referrals. This is available for both iOS and Android app developers. We’re launching with UrbanSitter, Yummly, The CW, Coinbase and Picsart apps.
Here’s what some of our early partners had to say:
App Invites is available on both Android and iOS. Here’s what’s in the beta toolkit:
With App Invites, our goal is to take the hard work out of building user referral and onboarding flows and build a toolkit that works across platforms, so that you can focus on your core app experience. Visit https://developers.google.com/app-invites/?utm_campaign=app-invites-529&utm;_source=gdbc&utm;_medium=blog to get started To learn about opportunities to re-engage app users using goo.gl deep links, check out this post.
Posted by Jason Titus, Senior Director of Engineering
This morning, we kicked off our 8th annual Google I/O conference, joined by 5,600 developers at Moscone Center, 530 I/O Extended communities around the world, and millions via the I/O Live stream. This year’s event is focused on delivering incredible experiences on mobile and helping developers build successful businesses through these key themes: Develop, Engage, and Earn.
During the keynote, we had a number of announcements that covered the evolution of the mobile platform, tools for Android, iOS, and Web developers, and the push towards more immersive mobile experiences with VR. Here’s a closer look at the news:
Posted by Fabian Schlup, Software Engineer
Starting now, goo.gl short links function as a single link you can use to all your content — whether that content is in your Android app, iOS app, or website. Once you’ve taken the necessary steps to set up App Indexing for Android and iOS, goo.gl URLs will send users straight to the right page in your app if they have it installed, and everyone else to your website. This will provide additional opportunities for your app users to re-engage with your app.
This feature works for both new short URLs and retroactively, so any existing goo.gl short links to your content will now also direct users to your app.
Zillow shares a short URL on Twitter that automatically links to their native app.
You can also make full use of this feature by integrating the URL Shortener API into your app’s share flow, so users can share links that automatically redirect to your native app cross-platform. This will also allow others to embed links in their websites and apps which deep link directly to your app.
Take Google Maps as an example. With the new cross-platform goo.gl links, the Maps share button generates one link that provides the best possible sharing experience for everyone. When opened, the link auto-detects the user’s platform and if they have Maps installed. If the user has the app installed, the short link opens the content directly in the Android or iOS Maps app. If the user doesn’t have the app installed or is on desktop, the short link opens the page on the Maps website.
Try it out for yourself! Don’t forget to use a phone with the Google Maps app installed: http://goo.gl/maps/xlWFj.
To set up app deep linking on goo.gl:
We hope you enjoy this new functionality and happy cross-platform sharing!
Posted by Ankur Kotwal, Software Engineer
The holiday spirit is about giving and though we’re early into April, we’re still in that spirit. Today, we’re announcing that Google's Santa Tracker is now open source on GitHub at google/santa-tracker-web and google/santa-tracker-android. Now you can see how we’ve used many of our developer products to build a fun and engaging experience that runs across the web and Android.
Santa Tracker isn’t just about watching Santa’s progress as he delivers presents on December 24. Visitors can also have fun with the winter-inspired games and an interactive North Pole village while Santa prepares for his big journey throughout the holidays.
Now that the source code is also available, developers can see many of the parts that come together to make Santa Tracker. We hope that developers are inspired to make their own magical experiences.
Posted by Wouter van Oortmerssen, Fun Propulsion Labs at Google*
Originally posted to the Google Open Source blog
After months in development, the FlatBuffers 1.1 update is here. Originally released in June 2014, it’s a highly efficient open source cross-platform serialization library that allows you to read data without parsing/unpacking or allocating additional memory. It supports schema evolution (forwards/backwards compatibility) and optional JSON conversion. We primarily created it for games written in C++ where performance is critical, but it’s also useful more broadly. This update brings:
Download the latest release from our github page and join our discussion list for more details.
*Fun Propulsion Labs is a team within Google that's dedicated to advancing gaming on Android and other platforms.
When we started building for the first mobile devices, mobile meant less: less screen space, slower connection, fewer features. A mobile experience was often a lesser experience. But mobile devices have evolved—they have become more powerful, faster, and more intuitive—so must our approach to design.
And as Google, including the Android platform, expands into new form factors, we’re introducing one consistent design that spans devices across mobile, desktop, and beyond. Today at Google I/O, we introduced material design, which uses tactile surfaces, bold graphic design, and fluid motion to create beautiful, intuitive experiences.
In material design, surface and shadow establish a physical structure to explain what can be touched and what can move. Content is front and center, using principles of modern print design. Motion is meaningful, clarifying relationships and teaching with delightful details.
We needed something that felt at home on the smallest watch, the largest TV, and every screen in between. We used it for Android Wear, our project to extend Android wearables, as well as Android TV, and Android Auto. So as you create applications and services for this expansive new range of devices, we’ve created one unified set of style guidelines that works across any platform. We’re releasing the first version of these guidelines as part of our preview today. You can find them on google.com/design.
Bringing material design to Android is a big part of the L-Release of Android, the version we previewed today. We’ve added the new Material theme, which you can apply to your apps for a new style: it lets you easily infuse your own color palette into your app, and offers new system widgets, screen transitions and animated touch feedback. We’ve also added the ability to specify a view’s elevation, allowing you to raise UI elements and cast dynamic, real-time shadows in your apps.
Last year at I/O we announced Polymer, an ambitious UI toolkit for the web. As a developer, you’ll now have access to all the capabilities of material design via Polymer, bringing tangibility, bold graphics, and smooth animations to your applications on the web.
If you’d like to learn more about material design, please take a look at our guidelines. Join us as we continue to design and iterate at +Google Design.
