First Developer Preview of Android 16, our Spotlight Week on Passkeys, Stability and Performance Improvements to the Android Emulator and more!
Welcome to the 112th iteration of Now in Android: your ongoing guide to what’s new and notable in the world of Android development.
In this edition, we’ll cover the First Developer Preview of Android 16, our Spotlight Week on Passkeys, Stability and Performance Improvements to the Android Emulator and more!
https://medium.com/media/5c0346bbefed7a72fce8180dafc0d70f/hrefhttps://medium.com/media/12747659c66477e006ae910627a71f1a/href
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 Developer Preview of Android 16 🤖
Android 16 Developer Preview 1 is available now to test with your apps, ahead of the planned release in Q2 of 2025. 16 introduces major and minor API releases to allow us to drive faster innovation with more frequent API releases. We’re planning both a major and minor API release in 2025, and only the Q2 major release will include app-impacting planned behavior changes; the minor release introduces new features without these changes, so you can focus your app testing on major releases.
The First Developer Preview of Android 16
Welcome to Spotlight Week: Passkeys 🔑
The week of November 18th was a Spotlight Week on passkeys. These are a safer and easier alternative to passwords allowing users to sign into apps and websites with a biometric sensor, PIN, or pattern.
Welcome to Spotlight Week: Passkeys
We kicked off Monday with a quick video on the passkey basics and updated UX guidelines for Credential Manager and passkeys including an in-depth server-side implementation guide. Plus an introduction to the Identity hub: a comprehensive resource for passkeys, passwords, Sign in with Google authorization, and more.
https://medium.com/media/40bf158db64be65143ea9525d8f2fc64/hrefUser authentication with passkeys | Mobile | Android DevelopersServer-side passkey registration | Authentication | Google for DevelopersIdentity | Android Developers
Then Tuesday was all about the developers. This included a guide to help you migrate from legacy APIs to Credential Manager, technical details on FIDO2 attestation format changes, and a troubleshooting guide for common Credential Manager errors.
Streamlining Android authentication: Credential Manager replaces legacy APIsAttestation format change for the Android FIDO2 APITroubleshoot common Credential Manager errors | Identity | Android Developers
Wednesday was focused on new capabilities in Credential Manager. This included showing Credential Manager results as autofill suggestions, single-tap sign-in, Signal API for Chrome desktop, and a Restore Credentials feature.
Integrate Credential Manager with autofill | Identity | Android DevelopersIntegrate Credential Manager with autofill | Identity | Android DevelopersIntegrate single tap passkey creation and sign-in with biometric prompts | Identity | Android DevelopersKeep passkeys consistent with credentials on your server with the Signal API | Identity | Chrome for DevelopersRestore app credentials when setting up a new device | Identity | Android Developers
Thursday featured an #AskAndroid session and case studies with Tokyu and X covering their successful passkey deployments.
– YouTubeHow Tokyu achieved 12 times faster sign-in with passkeys | web.devX improved login success rate by 2x after adopting passkeys
Finally, Friday capped the week off with learning pathways on Android and Chrome, and a new Compose sample app for Credential Manager and Android.
Passkeys on Android and other platforms | Android DevelopersPasswordless login on the web with passkeys | Google for Developersidentity-samples/Shrine at credman-compose · android/identity-samples
A Smoother Ride: Android Emulator Stability and Performance Updates 📈
Based on your feedback, the Android Studio team took a step back from large feature work on the Android Emulator for six months to focus on Project Quartz, an initiative aimed at reducing crashes, speeding up startup time, closing out bugs, and setting up better ways to detect and prevent issues in the future. We have seen 30% fewer reported crashes in the latest stable version of Android Studio, and reduced our open issues by 43.5%, with 17% of these actively fixed during Quartz.
A Smoother Ride: Android Emulator Stability and Performance Updates
Playtime in Milan ▶️
A ton of content came out of #GooglePlaytime Milan. David Crary Mandel talks about monetization with insights about how to make the most from users’ time and wallet share trends.
https://medium.com/media/9f9b0f9c4ee8e2a8a43e90eb0e2f0888/href
Mingoo Kim’s covers the myths and fallacies of device optimization to help you make the right investments for your game or app. Hongda Ni shares insights about expanding your apps to new territories in Navigation market expansion: key considerations. Tammy Taw covers Subscription fatigue: from myths to facts to opportunities to help you improve the performance of your subscription app and minimize Churn.
https://medium.com/media/20564dd4035477489cefa1b3aea7eab3/hrefhttps://medium.com/media/716ceca526b7e4504142bbc1127d37bf/hrefhttps://medium.com/media/073a525462010fb53c632ba3e1fb739a/href
Kevin Flynn Deconstructs successful Google Play game launches. Austin Shoemaker covers Optimizing your app’s revenue: flexible monetization tools to improve your user conversion and reduce churn. Finally, Kenny McCubbins shares insight on improving your ads with Measuring the impact of misleading ads.
https://medium.com/media/81c234e9f882c1c28bd0003b718a3509/hrefhttps://medium.com/media/78a1d0beb5b0e1e7b95b36b8e4c1eea2/hrefhttps://medium.com/media/4d5c55c37f9db1736fc052c51b699970/hrefhttps://medium.com/media/b302c34e571b5f92e954a4082b117d44/href
Articles 📝
Gaze Link Wins Best Android App in Gemini API Developer Competition
Thomas Ezan highlights Gaze Link, the winner of the Best Android App for our Gemini API Developer Competition. Gaze Link demonstrates how the Gemini API can be used to provide a communication system for individuals with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) who develop severe motor and verbal disabilities, enabling them to type sentences using only their eyes.
Gaze Link uses Google’s Gemini 1.5 Flash model to predict a user’s intended sentence based on a few key words and the context of the conversation.
Gaze Link Wins Best Android App in Gemini API Developer CompetitionGoogle Gemini Winners | Gemini API Developer Competition | Google AI for Developers
Unlock global growth with Google Play’s tax and compliance initiatives
Aditya Pathak writes about how Google Play can help you navigate the ever-changing landscape of commerce and payments — especially when it comes to global tax and regulatory compliance.
In the past two years, we’ve seen a significant increase in the number of new regulations impacting Google Play developers. Aditya highlights how partnering with Google Play enables you to access a global marketplace serving over 190 countries with a powerful ecosystem built on security and trust.
Unlock global growth with Google Play’s tax and compliance initiatives
Four Tips to Help You Build High-Quality, Engaging, and Age-Appropriate Apps
Mindy Brooks covers a few excellent tips and tricks to help you build high quality, engaging, and age-appropriate apps. App developers play a vital role in shaping how people of all ages interact with technology. This is why Mindy covers how Google can help you determine a user’s age with digital ids, shield young users from inappropriate content, develop teacher approved apps and games, and stay up to date with Google Play’s families policies.
Four Tips to Help You Build High-Quality, Engaging, and Age-Appropriate Apps
Making the Play Integrity API faster, more resilient, and more private
At Google Play, we’re committed to providing a safe and secure environment for your business to thrive. This is why Dom Elliott put together this article on how the Play Integrity API helps protect your business from revenue loss and enhances user safety. You’ll be ready to use this API to detect suspicious activity and decide how to respond to abuse such as fraud, bots, cheating, or data theft.
Making the Play Integrity API faster, more resilient, and more private
User-Agent Reduction on Android WebView
Finally, Mark Taylor and Mihai Cîrlănaru share an update on Chrome’s new reduced user-agent string. Beginning in Android 16, the default user-agent string in Android WebView will match the shortened string now seen in Chrome on the desktop and Android platforms.
User-Agent Reduction on Android WebView
Android Developers Backstage🎙️
In episode 221 of Android Developers Backstage Chet, Romain, and Tor chat with Shai Barack about how the Android platform team studies performance and understands system health. They cover topics such as measuring performance, deciding trade-offs, and some of their favorite tools such as Perfetto, Compiler Explorer, and Android Studio’s Memory Profiler.
Listen to it in podcast or YouTube format.
https://medium.com/media/53ebc02ea5d1702b983cbc200e5a73fd/hrefhttps://medium.com/media/cf7f80cb03a19179e0b3459e1e411dbb/href
Videos 📹
In #AndroidBuildTime, Christopher Cartland, Mayuri Khinvasara Khabya, and Levi Schmidt cover how to include Ultra HDR images in your Android apps.
https://medium.com/media/10b20969a0950fab972c06264d671b7e/href
Rebecca Frank shared a great series of videos on how to unleash your artistic side with code! First she covers clipping and masking in Jetpack Compose. Which naturally leads into a great overview of how to turn your UI into an artistic masterpiece in Graphics layers | Jetpack Compose Tips.
https://medium.com/media/f3f3296440abd55be959785e54e4d332/hrefhttps://medium.com/media/1b53e2b304d605e091ca741ddddd0fee/href
And if you’re looking for a real quick tip, check out Jossi Wolf’s #short on AnchoredDraggable.
https://medium.com/media/ae1fcb50117aca9beccda98759bf9108/href
Are you wondering how tablet and stylus support can improve your Android app? Check out this video of how FlippaClip saw a 54% increase in tablet users and improved their revenue by building large screen and stylus support on Android and check this article for more details.
https://medium.com/media/e7b1f00c853172b85a8b8ba60d90b875/href
FlipaClip optimizes for large screens and sees a 54% increase in tablet users
#WeArePlay celebrates people behind the apps and games you know and love on Google Play. Fujio from Tokyo, Japan created Pirika, an app that helps clean up public spaces by combatting litter. (Associated article here.) Over in Indonesia, the husband-and-wife team of Mesty and Garri created an app that gives parents across Indonesia the tools and knowledge they need to care for their children. (Associated article here.)
https://medium.com/media/17dd63ddfdb32dc3d65370b10ed136ed/hrefhttps://medium.com/media/1c08e5968e53b1ba6a979b05e92a8cab/href
#WeArePlay | Meet more people creating apps and games in Japan
https://medium.com/media/3722dc75045c3a7a306d961f183c3b04/href
#WeArePlay | Tentang Anak connects parents to experts across Indonesia
AndroidX Releases 🚀
The first alpha release of ExifInterface 1.4.0 was released, bringing support for reading XMP data from HEIF images and AVIF images and Exif from XVIF as well.
Media3 1.5.0 reached stable with many improvements including:
Faster image encoding and motion photos in Transformer.
Simplified the setup for DefaultPreloadManager and ExoPlayer.
A new IAMF decoder, a Kotlin listener extension, easier Player customization delegation, and so much more.
Check out Kristina Simakova‘s article to find out more about all new APIs and bug fixes.
Finally WebKit had its first 1.13 alpha release, bringing an experimental async startup API and a mechanism to allow developers to trigger URL prefetching.
Now then… 👋
That’s it for this week, with the first developer preview of Android 16, a spotlight on Passkeys, great improvements to Android emulator stability, and more!
Check back soon for your next update from the Android developer universe! 💫
Now in Android #112 was originally published in Android Developers on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
First Developer Preview of Android 16, our Spotlight Week on Passkeys, Stability and Performance Improvements to the Android Emulator and more!Welcome to the 112th iteration of Now in Android: your ongoing guide to what’s new and notable in the world of Android development.In this edition, we’ll cover the First Developer Preview of Android 16, our Spotlight Week on Passkeys, Stability and Performance Improvements to the Android Emulator and more!https://medium.com/media/5c0346bbefed7a72fce8180dafc0d70f/hrefhttps://medium.com/media/12747659c66477e006ae910627a71f1a/hrefMost 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 Developer Preview of Android 16 🤖Android 16 Developer Preview 1 is available now to test with your apps, ahead of the planned release in Q2 of 2025. 16 introduces major and minor API releases to allow us to drive faster innovation with more frequent API releases. We’re planning both a major and minor API release in 2025, and only the Q2 major release will include app-impacting planned behavior changes; the minor release introduces new features without these changes, so you can focus your app testing on major releases.The First Developer Preview of Android 16Welcome to Spotlight Week: Passkeys 🔑The week of November 18th was a Spotlight Week on passkeys. These are a safer and easier alternative to passwords allowing users to sign into apps and websites with a biometric sensor, PIN, or pattern.Welcome to Spotlight Week: PasskeysWe kicked off Monday with a quick video on the passkey basics and updated UX guidelines for Credential Manager and passkeys including an in-depth server-side implementation guide. Plus an introduction to the Identity hub: a comprehensive resource for passkeys, passwords, Sign in with Google authorization, and more.https://medium.com/media/40bf158db64be65143ea9525d8f2fc64/hrefUser authentication with passkeys | Mobile | Android DevelopersServer-side passkey registration | Authentication | Google for DevelopersIdentity | Android DevelopersThen Tuesday was all about the developers. This included a guide to help you migrate from legacy APIs to Credential Manager, technical details on FIDO2 attestation format changes, and a troubleshooting guide for common Credential Manager errors.Streamlining Android authentication: Credential Manager replaces legacy APIsAttestation format change for the Android FIDO2 APITroubleshoot common Credential Manager errors | Identity | Android DevelopersWednesday was focused on new capabilities in Credential Manager. This included showing Credential Manager results as autofill suggestions, single-tap sign-in, Signal API for Chrome desktop, and a Restore Credentials feature.Integrate Credential Manager with autofill | Identity | Android DevelopersIntegrate Credential Manager with autofill | Identity | Android DevelopersIntegrate single tap passkey creation and sign-in with biometric prompts | Identity | Android DevelopersKeep passkeys consistent with credentials on your server with the Signal API | Identity | Chrome for DevelopersRestore app credentials when setting up a new device | Identity | Android DevelopersThursday featured an #AskAndroid session and case studies with Tokyu and X covering their successful passkey deployments.- YouTubeHow Tokyu achieved 12 times faster sign-in with passkeys | web.devX improved login success rate by 2x after adopting passkeysFinally, Friday capped the week off with learning pathways on Android and Chrome, and a new Compose sample app for Credential Manager and Android.Passkeys on Android and other platforms | Android DevelopersPasswordless login on the web with passkeys | Google for Developersidentity-samples/Shrine at credman-compose · android/identity-samplesA Smoother Ride: Android Emulator Stability and Performance Updates 📈Based on your feedback, the Android Studio team took a step back from large feature work on the Android Emulator for six months to focus on Project Quartz, an initiative aimed at reducing crashes, speeding up startup time, closing out bugs, and setting up better ways to detect and prevent issues in the future. We have seen 30% fewer reported crashes in the latest stable version of Android Studio, and reduced our open issues by 43.5%, with 17% of these actively fixed during Quartz.A Smoother Ride: Android Emulator Stability and Performance UpdatesPlaytime in Milan ▶️A ton of content came out of #GooglePlaytime Milan. David Crary Mandel talks about monetization with insights about how to make the most from users’ time and wallet share trends.https://medium.com/media/9f9b0f9c4ee8e2a8a43e90eb0e2f0888/hrefMingoo Kim’s covers the myths and fallacies of device optimization to help you make the right investments for your game or app. Hongda Ni shares insights about expanding your apps to new territories in Navigation market expansion: key considerations. Tammy Taw covers Subscription fatigue: from myths to facts to opportunities to help you improve the performance of your subscription app and minimize Churn.https://medium.com/media/20564dd4035477489cefa1b3aea7eab3/hrefhttps://medium.com/media/716ceca526b7e4504142bbc1127d37bf/hrefhttps://medium.com/media/073a525462010fb53c632ba3e1fb739a/hrefKevin Flynn Deconstructs successful Google Play game launches. Austin Shoemaker covers Optimizing your app’s revenue: flexible monetization tools to improve your user conversion and reduce churn. Finally, Kenny McCubbins shares insight on improving your ads with Measuring the impact of misleading ads.https://medium.com/media/81c234e9f882c1c28bd0003b718a3509/hrefhttps://medium.com/media/78a1d0beb5b0e1e7b95b36b8e4c1eea2/hrefhttps://medium.com/media/4d5c55c37f9db1736fc052c51b699970/hrefhttps://medium.com/media/b302c34e571b5f92e954a4082b117d44/hrefArticles 📝Gaze Link Wins Best Android App in Gemini API Developer CompetitionThomas Ezan highlights Gaze Link, the winner of the Best Android App for our Gemini API Developer Competition. Gaze Link demonstrates how the Gemini API can be used to provide a communication system for individuals with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) who develop severe motor and verbal disabilities, enabling them to type sentences using only their eyes.Gaze Link uses Google’s Gemini 1.5 Flash model to predict a user’s intended sentence based on a few key words and the context of the conversation.Gaze Link Wins Best Android App in Gemini API Developer CompetitionGoogle Gemini Winners | Gemini API Developer Competition | Google AI for DevelopersUnlock global growth with Google Play’s tax and compliance initiativesAditya Pathak writes about how Google Play can help you navigate the ever-changing landscape of commerce and payments — especially when it comes to global tax and regulatory compliance.In the past two years, we’ve seen a significant increase in the number of new regulations impacting Google Play developers. Aditya highlights how partnering with Google Play enables you to access a global marketplace serving over 190 countries with a powerful ecosystem built on security and trust.Unlock global growth with Google Play’s tax and compliance initiativesFour Tips to Help You Build High-Quality, Engaging, and Age-Appropriate AppsMindy Brooks covers a few excellent tips and tricks to help you build high quality, engaging, and age-appropriate apps. App developers play a vital role in shaping how people of all ages interact with technology. This is why Mindy covers how Google can help you determine a user’s age with digital ids, shield young users from inappropriate content, develop teacher approved apps and games, and stay up to date with Google Play’s families policies.Four Tips to Help You Build High-Quality, Engaging, and Age-Appropriate AppsMaking the Play Integrity API faster, more resilient, and more privateAt Google Play, we’re committed to providing a safe and secure environment for your business to thrive. This is why Dom Elliott put together this article on how the Play Integrity API helps protect your business from revenue loss and enhances user safety. You’ll be ready to use this API to detect suspicious activity and decide how to respond to abuse such as fraud, bots, cheating, or data theft.Making the Play Integrity API faster, more resilient, and more privateUser-Agent Reduction on Android WebViewFinally, Mark Taylor and Mihai Cîrlănaru share an update on Chrome’s new reduced user-agent string. Beginning in Android 16, the default user-agent string in Android WebView will match the shortened string now seen in Chrome on the desktop and Android platforms.User-Agent Reduction on Android WebViewAndroid Developers Backstage🎙️In episode 221 of Android Developers Backstage Chet, Romain, and Tor chat with Shai Barack about how the Android platform team studies performance and understands system health. They cover topics such as measuring performance, deciding trade-offs, and some of their favorite tools such as Perfetto, Compiler Explorer, and Android Studio’s Memory Profiler.Listen to it in podcast or YouTube format.https://medium.com/media/53ebc02ea5d1702b983cbc200e5a73fd/hrefhttps://medium.com/media/cf7f80cb03a19179e0b3459e1e411dbb/hrefVideos 📹In #AndroidBuildTime, Christopher Cartland, Mayuri Khinvasara Khabya, and Levi Schmidt cover how to include Ultra HDR images in your Android apps.https://medium.com/media/10b20969a0950fab972c06264d671b7e/hrefRebecca Frank shared a great series of videos on how to unleash your artistic side with code! First she covers clipping and masking in Jetpack Compose. Which naturally leads into a great overview of how to turn your UI into an artistic masterpiece in Graphics layers | Jetpack Compose Tips.https://medium.com/media/f3f3296440abd55be959785e54e4d332/hrefhttps://medium.com/media/1b53e2b304d605e091ca741ddddd0fee/hrefAnd if you’re looking for a real quick tip, check out Jossi Wolf’s #short on AnchoredDraggable.https://medium.com/media/ae1fcb50117aca9beccda98759bf9108/hrefAre you wondering how tablet and stylus support can improve your Android app? Check out this video of how FlippaClip saw a 54% increase in tablet users and improved their revenue by building large screen and stylus support on Android and check this article for more details.https://medium.com/media/e7b1f00c853172b85a8b8ba60d90b875/hrefFlipaClip optimizes for large screens and sees a 54% increase in tablet users#WeArePlay celebrates people behind the apps and games you know and love on Google Play. Fujio from Tokyo, Japan created Pirika, an app that helps clean up public spaces by combatting litter. (Associated article here.) Over in Indonesia, the husband-and-wife team of Mesty and Garri created an app that gives parents across Indonesia the tools and knowledge they need to care for their children. (Associated article here.)https://medium.com/media/17dd63ddfdb32dc3d65370b10ed136ed/hrefhttps://medium.com/media/1c08e5968e53b1ba6a979b05e92a8cab/href#WeArePlay | Meet more people creating apps and games in Japanhttps://medium.com/media/3722dc75045c3a7a306d961f183c3b04/href#WeArePlay | Tentang Anak connects parents to experts across IndonesiaAndroidX Releases 🚀The first alpha release of ExifInterface 1.4.0 was released, bringing support for reading XMP data from HEIF images and AVIF images and Exif from XVIF as well.Media3 1.5.0 reached stable with many improvements including:Faster image encoding and motion photos in Transformer.Simplified the setup for DefaultPreloadManager and ExoPlayer.A new IAMF decoder, a Kotlin listener extension, easier Player customization delegation, and so much more.Check out Kristina Simakova‘s article to find out more about all new APIs and bug fixes.Finally WebKit had its first 1.13 alpha release, bringing an experimental async startup API and a mechanism to allow developers to trigger URL prefetching.Now then… 👋That’s it for this week, with the first developer preview of Android 16, a spotlight on Passkeys, great improvements to Android emulator stability, and more!Check back soon for your next update from the Android developer universe! 💫Now in Android #112 was originally published in Android Developers on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story. Read More Android Developers – Medium