Google has begun to deploy Android's "L" everywhere.Therefore, the design has been particularly important to the design.
Google has a different way with the new version of Android.Before the announcement of the official release, the development preview version, which is named "L", will be released and the developers will prepare for the official release.
According to Google's top Android development, Dave Burke, Android L is the largest release so far.Considering the number of updates, I have to agree.
It's been a while since I promised that, but Google has said that Android will be incorporated into everything.Google is positioning Android L as a platform, such as a smart TV, vehicles and wearable devices, and trying to bring the developers and consumers to bring the next generation of mobile computing.
Android L has a new compiler for analyzing and optimizing battery consumption and moving Android on various platforms, in addition to changing design design.If you are an Android developer, you need to know:
Why "L"?
Google has been named from sweets to Android versions.2.2 is like "FROYO", 4.4 is "Kitkat".The next version is not officially named, but what is "L"? Lollipop? Or lemon Meringue pie?No one knows it except for the human being.
Material design and graphic
Google has set the Android design policy to a wide range of universal and wide devices.This "material design" provides intuitive look and feel that meets all shapes and sizes screens, and also provides Android with a good response.
Related article: Google released the next generation Android "L"
"Material design builds a physical structure that indicates what can be touched and what can be moved by the surface and shadow," said Google designer Nicholas Jitf."In accordance with the principle of print design, the content is placed in the center of the front. Motion is meaningful, clarifying the relationship between elements and suggesting the details."
Material design has some new features that developers and designers want to know before the official release of Android L.
・ Theme: Expressed by adjusting the graycale, which is based on all colors, and the color tone.
Widget: CardView and RecycleView2 (ListView2) for easy implementation of ListView on Android have been adopted.MediaStyle and MediaSession also have new controllers, and new Android extensions have included playback widgets.
・ Real -time soft shadow: Pale shadows can be projected to express interaction in objects, such as when the image comes to the top hierarchy of the view.
・ Animation: Many material designs are related to animation used for transitions between apps and apps.Animation is incorporated into the platform itself, shared between activities and realizes a more intuitive transition for users.
Furthermore, OpenGL was updated to ES3.1 in a form that maintains backward compatibility with the previous version.
Network function
One of the highlights of this update is the extension of the "Recent Apps" function.From here, you can see the recently opened websites, documents, and apps on the interface like a card.
The status bar in Android 4.4 is also updated.With Android L, the color and transmittance of the status bar are also possible according to the app.
Project Volta is the result of Google's initiatives to improve Android L power consumption.This allows each app to indicate and manage how to consume the battery for each app.Google says this is like "TRACEVIEW for power consumption (a tool that displays logs attached to SDK graphically)."
With the new JobScheduler, apps can change their activities according to more conditions.For example, if the app requires data check or update, simply start a network connection to perform the necessary activities.However, the new version first checks whether it can be connected to a WiFi or mobile network or the battery enough.The background processing of the app has also become smarter.
Android L also has a function that allows you to switch between different networks without interfering with the app.In theory, if the connection is switched from Wi-Fi to mobile network, app processing should be done without any problems.
Bluetooth has also supported more peripherals.This is necessary to support TV and wearable devices.In addition, the development using NFC has become easier, and the use of Android Beam from the shared menu for users has made it easier to understand data exchange using NFC.
Notification function
The biggest change in Android L is the notification function.According to the concept of the material design, the background of the notification is a card type with a shadow, the dark text and action are displayed on the front, and the icon is treated as a silhouette.The design features a new color accent and a small icon badge, and the Android L notification function is an extension from the past version of the operating system.
The "Heads-UP" notification is a function to notify the concentrated user for high priority. Even if the user terminal is in full screen, the alarm sounds and the notification is displayed in a pop-up.This notification is designed to be easy to receive or ignore.
A new screen lock notification that was adopted on a specific device such as Motorola's MotoX is also adopted.Developers and users can set notifications at the level of each public, private, and secrets (see the figure below).
In the notification function, an improved metadata, which indicates what kind of information is collected and presented to the user, is also obtained at the same time.
Others about Android L
As reported about eight months ago, Android L is replaced with a virtual machine Dalvic with another.The new compiler called Android runtime (ART) supports the stop time during the garbage collection, a large object space, and a moving collector that operates the application during the background.ART can also compile the application in advance on just-in-time (jit).
Related article: The application operation is comfortable with the new Android runtime "ART"
Android L has security functions such as policy managers and profiles for users and companies who own devices and companies.
On Android TV, a new Leanback Launcher was supported as Intent Category.
Google has not updated new tools such as Android Studio IDE, but according to the Google Tools team, it will be updated soon.Google Play Services and Developer Console seem to make major announcements on Wear Data API and new analytics.
Developers who are interested in the development of Android L apps should go to Google's preview site and get the latest version of downloading on June 26.
Top image provision: Owen Thomas
Dan Rowinski [Original text]
* This article is reprinted from Readwrite Japan.Click here for the reprinting source
