Android N: New taste for Android Developers

Google’s newly launched Android N Developer Preview, a program gives everything that a developer needs to optimize and test applications for the upcoming version of Android. It is free, and can get started immediately just by downloading the N Developer Preview tools.

Recently, Google quietly released a developer preview of Android N, available even before I/O event. As unpredicted as the original release is, Google upgraded APIs and SDK for Android N as it usually does. Developers can download the SDK and install the Android N in their Nexus device today itself. By the way, every year it is always heard that Android fans who install the developer preview finds some trouble with a phone or tablets. But this release is dedicated to developers and yet, not been released to the public use. This is a release preview so, it has not complete features and chances to break the device. Proceed with caution!

What’s new to Android N?

Multi-window – A latest manifest characteristic called android:resizableActivity is available for applications targeting N and further. If this attribute is rightly set, an activity can be launched in split-screen modes on tablets and devices. Life cycle changes for multi-window are alike to be switched to portrait mode from the landscape: an activity can manage the configuration change itself, or it can enable the system to pause the activity and recreate it with the fresh dimensions. Adding to this, activities can also run into a picture-in-picture mode on devices like TVs, and is an excellent feature for applications which play video; if you are a developer and planning for upgradations or new a Android Application development, make sure to set the latest android:supportsPictureInPicture to take true benefit of this.

Multi-tasking will be the next possibility: Like Personal computers, you will be now able to have split windows on your device. It simply means you can watch your favorite video in one window and can also chat with the friends on another.

Notification enhancements: In Android N, notifications are redesigned to make them faster and simpler to use.

• • Template updates: Notification templates are updated to put a new emphasis on avatar and hero image. Developers will be able to take benefit of the updated templates in their code with minimum adjustments.
  • Bundled notifications: The device can group notifications together, for instance, display the group and by message type. If notifications are implemented for Android Wear, already been familiar with this model.
  • Direct reply: For real-time communication applications, the Android supports inline replies so that users can quickly respond directly within the notification interface. Originally added in Android wear, now works in tablets and devices.
  • Custom views: Two latest APIs allow to leverage system decorations, such as notification actions and headers while using custom views in notifications.

Efficiency – New release Doze in Marshmallow that will save battery when a device is stationary. In N, it saves battery while the screen turns off. Also, investment in Project Svelte, an effort to lessen the memory requirement of Android which helps to run much broader range devices, in N by making background work more productive. Using JobScheduler for background work is the right track, if not, N is best to switch with. JobScheduler is getting, even more, capable, so now it can be practice to react to things like changes to content providers.

What we can expect:

• • Improved Battery Performance
  • Optimized Memory Usage
  • Background Task Management

Enhanced Java 8 language support – Google upgrades Android N’s support for the Java 8 language. That is a great deal as it will enable developers to get benefits of Java 8’s features and yet target devices running systems as old as Gingerbread. For instance, Java 8 functions decline boilerplate code. On the flip side, another Java 8 tools, such as streams and functional interfaces, can be employed to target Android N devices.

What to expect?

• • Quick Turnaround Time
  • Shorter coding
  • Improved functionality
  • Date/Time changes
  • Functional Interfaces

Conveniently, Google also launched the Android Beta Program that will facilitate developers to install the preview version of Android N directly into their devices over the air. Google hopes simplifying the preview install process will boost more developers to check it out. As 9series believes in quick adaptability, the team has quickly accepted Android N and started working with that.