InfoQ Homepage Android Content on InfoQ
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Android 14 Brings Partial Support for OpenJDK 17, Improved Privacy and Security, and More
Google has announced the first Android 14 beta, which provides support for over 300 OpenJDK 17 classes. Additionally, it implements a number of features aimed to keep malicious apps at bay and extends support for foldable form factors, battery usage optimization, and more.
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How Lyft Detects Android Memory Leaks in Production
While modern tooling for Android and iOS enable memory leak detection using local builds, this is not enough to guarantee an app shows correct memory behavior in production, where it runs on a wide range of devices in diverse conditions. For this reason, Lyft engineers combine A/B testing and memory observability to detect which features leak memory.
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Android Extension SDK Aims to Simplify the Use of Modular System Components
Introduced with Android 10, Modular System Components enable updating end-user devices outside of the normal Android release cycles. The new Extension SDK framework, now public, aims to make their integration simpler for developers.
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Generating Text Inputs for Mobile App Testing Using GPT-3
A group of researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Monash University have presented a new approach to text input generation for mobile app testing based on a pre-trained large language model (LLM). Dubbed QTypist, the approach was evaluated on 106 Android apps and automated test tools, showing a significant improvement of testing performance.
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Google Releases a Guide to Android App Modularization
Google has recently released a guide to Android app modularization. This guide is designed to bring best practices and recommended patterns for developers to build multi-module Android apps, focusing on mitigating problems that arise when the codebase grows, such as scalability, readability, stability and testability.
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Google Launches Relay to Transform and Accelerate Android UI Creation
Recently launched in alpha, Relay is a design-to-code solution aiming to radically transform the way UI designers and UI developers collaborate to create Android UI components by removing the need for UI specs.
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Porting Million Lines of Code from Java to Kotlin at Meta
Meta has been at work to port their Android codebase from Java to Kotlin. In the process, they have learned a number of lessons of general interest and developed a few useful approaches, explains Meta engineer Omer Strulovich.
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Safe Mode is Lyft's Approach to Handling Feature Flags Incidents
Feature flags are a useful tool to conduct A/B experiments and to roll out changes in a controlled way. To make sure that their use does not end up disappointing users when a change causes a crash or degrades the user experience, Lyft created Safe Mode, specifically aimed to prevent crash loops on launch.
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Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile Enters Beta
Created by JetBrains to enable using Kotlin to build iOS and Android apps with native UI from a single codebase, Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile has exited the experimental phase and is now available in beta.
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Android Gradle Plugin 8.0 Improves Build Times, Requires Updating Third-Party Plugins and Libraries
Google has announced the upcoming Android Gradle Plugin (AGP), version 8.0, reduces build times by removing the Transform APIs and replacing them through the Artifacts API and Instrumentation API. All third-party plugins and apps relying on them are required to migrate to the new APIs.
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Meta Launches New Chromium-Based WebView for Android
Meta has been developing its own Chromium-based WebView for Android for a few years and has now started rolling it out to users of its Facebook app. The new WebView, which has not been open-sourced yet, improves security, stability, and performance, says Meta.
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Android Studio Dolphin Extends Jetpack Compose, Wear OS, and Test Automation Integration
The latest release of Android Studio, dubbed Dolphin, improves Jetpack Compose screen previews, extends Wear OS support, and introduces Gradle Managed Virtual Devices to simplify test automation.
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Android Cross Device SDK Aims to Simplify Task Handoff and Multi-Device Experiences
Google has announced a developer preview of its new Cross device SDK for Android, aimed to help developers build cross-device experiences using high-level, intuitive APIs. The new capabilities can be used to create multiplayer games, to carry through productivity tasks across different devices, or to enable group experiences.
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Google Releases CameraX 1.2 Beta with MLKit Integration
Now available in beta, CameraX 1.2 brings out-of-the-box integration with some of MLKit vision APIs and a new feature aimed to reduce shutter button lag when taking pictures.
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Android Adds Experimental Support for Predictive Back Gestures
To help users understand where a back gesture will land them in an Android app, Google has introduced a new predictive back gesture. The new feature allows the user to decide whether they want to complete the gesture or not by showing an animated preview of the gesture outcome.