Now in Android #103
Android 15 Beta, Gemini in Android Studio, Google Drive improvements, and more!
Welcome to Now in Android, your ongoing guide to what’s new and notable in the world of Android development.
Most of the content of this post is available in the form of a video or podcast, so feel free to watch or listen rather than read on. (Or do all three to help you remember! There won’t be a quiz.)
The First Beta of Android 15 🧑💻
The Android 15 beta is now available for both developers and early adopters. You can now enroll any supported Pixel device to get this and future Android 15 updates over-the-air.
Key features of the Android 15 beta include default edge-to-edge app display, smoother NFC experiences, inter-character text justification, app archiving, app-managed profiling, better support for Braille displays, key management for end-to-end encryption, and secured background activity launches. Apps will be edge-to-edge by default on Android 15+ devices after they target SDK 35. Therefore, make sure to follow best practices on implementing edge-to-edge.
The Android 15 developer site has more information about the beta. We’re looking forward to hearing what you think, and thank you in advance for your continued help in making Android a platform that works for everyone.
Google Drive cut code and development time in half with Jetpack Compose and new architecture 📹
Checkout this Android Developer Story on how Google Drive cut code and development time in half with Jetpack Compose and new architecture.
Google Drive’s developers revamped the app’s home screen using Jetpack Compose, Android’s modern toolkit for creating native UI. The team faced challenges with the app’s previous architecture, which would have delayed updates. By embracing Kotlin and Jetpack Compose, they streamlined development, reducing code complexity and improving efficiency. The adoption of Android’s recommended architecture further enhanced the process, facilitating quicker testing and development. As a result, the Drive team was able to develop the app’s new home screen in less than half the time that they expected. The team plans to leverage Compose for future improvements, aiming for better UI development and maintenance.
Follow the Google Drive team’s example and improve your app’s architecture by using Android’s official architecture guidance and optimizing your UI development with Jetpack Compose.
Android Studio uses Gemini Pro to make Android development faster and easier ✔️
We’re happy to announce the integration of the Gemini 1.0 Pro model into Android Studio. 🎉
Gemini, now replacing Studio Bot, functions as an AI-powered coding assistant within the IDE. Gemini offers features like code generation, code completion, answering development queries, finding resources, and more. You can interact with Gemini using natural language queries and receive context-aware responses. Additionally, Android Studio provides tools for you to utilize Gemini’s capabilities in your own applications through the Gemini API starter template.
Gemini is available today in Android Studio Jellyfish developer preview in over 180 countries and territories. Try Gemini in Android Studio today and and be sure to provide feedback to help provide further improvements!
Dependency injection in Compose 📚
To learn more about dependency injection in Compose check out Jonathan Koren’s blog post, where he discusses the significance of dependency injection in Android development with Jetpack Compose.
He focuses on the integration of Hilt, an Android library built on Dagger, and highlights the benefits of dependency injection such as separation of concerns, testability, and ease of maintenance.
The article elaborates on dependency provision and scoping — two important features of Hilt — and how these functionalities differ between traditional Android apps and apps built with Compose. It then provides some recommendations for how and where to inject dependencies in Compose apps, taking into account the differences in lifecycle management and the way composable functions behave.
We hope these techniques and ideas will help you get the most out of both Compose and Hilt in your apps!
Now then… 👋
That’s it for this week with the first beta of Android 15, the Google Drive developer story, Android Studio updates and dependency injection in Compose.
Be sure to tune into Google I/O where you can dive deeper into topics that interest you with over 100 sessions, workshops, codelabs, and demos.
Check back soon for your next update from the Android developer universe! 💫