Tag Archives: Widgets

Widgets Take Center Stage with One UI 7

Posted by André Labonté – Senior Product Manager, Android Widgets

On April 7th, Samsung will begin rolling out One UI 7 to more devices globally. Included in this bold new design is greater personalization with an optimized widget experience and updated set of One UI 7 widgets. Ushering in a new era where widgets are more prominent to users, and integral to the daily device experience.

This update presents a prime opportunity for Android developers to enhance their app experience with a widget

    • More Visibility: Widgets put your brand and key features front and center on the user's device, so they're more likely to see it.
    • Better User Engagement: By giving users quick access to important features, widgets encourage them to use your app more often.
    • Increased Conversions: You can use widgets to recommend personalized content or promote premium features, which could lead to more conversions.
    • Happier Users Who Stick Around: Easy access to app content and features through widgets can lead to overall better user experience, and contribute to retention.

More discoverable than ever with Google Play’s Widget Discovery features!

    • Dedicated Widgets Search Filter: Users can now directly search for apps with widgets using a dedicated filter on Google Play. This means your apps/games with widgets will be easily identified, helping drive targeted downloads and engagement.
    • New Widget Badges on App Detail Pages: We’ve introduced a visual badge on your app’s detail pages to clearly indicate the presence of widgets. This eliminates guesswork for users and highlights your widget offerings, encouraging them to explore and utilize this capability.
    • Curated Widgets Editorial Page: We're actively educating users on the value of widgets through a new editorial page. This curated space showcases collections of excellent widgets and promotes the apps that leverage them. This provides an additional channel for your widgets to gain visibility and reach a wider audience.

Getting started with Widgets

Whether you are planning a new widget, or investing in an update to an existing widget, we have tools to help!

    • Quality Tiers are a great starting point to understand what makes a great Android widget. Consider making your widget resizable to the recommended sizes, so users can customize the size just right for them.

Leverage widgets for increased app visibility, enhanced user engagement, and ultimately, higher conversions. By embracing widgets, you're not just optimizing for a specific OS update; you're aligning with a broader trend towards user-centric, glanceable experiences.

Widgets on lock screen: FAQ

Posted by Tyler Beneke – Product Manager, and Lucas Silva – Software Engineer

Widgets are now available on your Pixel Tablet lock screens! Lock screen widgets empower users to create a personalized, always-on experience. Whether you want to easily manage smart home devices like lights and thermostats, or build dashboards for quick access and control of vital information, this blog post will answer your key questions about lock screen widgets on Android. Read on to discover when, where, how, and why they'll be on a lock screen near you.

Lock screen widgets
Lock screen widgets in clock-wise order: Clock, Weather, Stocks, Timers, and Google Home App. In the top right is a customization call-to-action.

Q: When will lock screen widgets be available?

A: Lock screen widgets will be available in AOSP for tablets and mobile starting with the release after Android 16 (QPR1). This update is scheduled to be pushed to AOSP in late Summer 2025. Lock screen widgets are already available on Pixel Tablets.

Q: Are there any specific requirements for widgets to be allowed on the lock screen?

A: No, widgets allowed on the lock screen have the same requirements as any other widgets. Widgets on the lock screen should follow the same quality guidelines as home screen widgets including quality, sizing, and configuration. If a widget launches an activity from the lock screen, users must authenticate to launch the activity, or the activity should declare android:showWhenLocked="true" in its manifest entry.

Q: How can I test my widget on the lock screen?

A: Currently, lock screen widgets can be tested on Pixel Tablet devices. You can enable lock screen widgets and add your widget.

Q: Which widgets can be displayed in this experience?

A: All widgets are compatible with the lock screen widget experience. To prioritize user choice and customization, we've made all widgets available. For the best experience, please make sure your widget supports dynamic color and dynamic resizing. Lock screen widgets are sized to approximately 4 cells wide by 3 cells tall on the launcher, but exact dimensions vary by device.

Q: Can my widget opt-out of the experience?

A:Important: Apps can choose to restrict the use of their widgets on the lock screen using an opt-out API. To opt-out, use the widget category "not_keyguard" in your appwidget info xml file. Place this file in an xml-36 resource folder to ensure backwards compatibility.

Q: Are there any CDD requirements specifically for lock screen widgets?

A: No, there are no specific CDD requirements solely for lock screen widgets. However, it's crucial to ensure that any widgets and screensavers that integrate with the framework adhere to the standard CDD requirements for those features.

Q: Will lock screen widgets be enabled on existing devices?

A: Yes, lock screen widgets were launched on the Pixel Tablet in 2024 Other device manufacturers may update their devices as well once the feature is available in AOSP.

Q: Does the device need to be docked to use lock screen widgets?

A: The mechanism that triggers the lock screen widget experience is customizable by the OEM. For example, OEMs can choose to use charging or docking status as triggers. Third-party OEMs will need to implement their own posture detection if desired.

Q: Can OEMs set their own default widgets?

A: Yes! Hardware providers can pre-set and automatically display default widgets.

Q: Can OEMs customize the user interface for lock screen widgets?

A: Customization of the lock screen widget user interface by OEMs is not supported in the initial release. All lock screen widgets will have the same developer experience on all devices.

Lock screen widgets are poised to give your users new ways to interact with your app on their devices. Today you can leverage your existing widget designs and experiences on the lock screen with Pixel Tablets. To learn more about building widgets, please check out our resources on developer.android.com

This blog post is part of our series: Spotlight Week on Widgets, where we provide resources—blog posts, videos, sample code, and more—all designed to help you design and create widgets. You can read more in the overview of Spotlight Week: Widgets, which will be updated throughout the week.

Design with Widget Canonical Layouts

Posted by Summers Pitman – Developer Relations Engineer, and Ivy Knight – Senior Design Advocate

Widgets can bring more productive, delightful and customized experiences to users' home screens, but they can be tricky to design to ensure a high quality focused experience. In this blog post, we’ll cover how easy Widget Canonical Layouts can make this process.

But, what is a Canonical Layout? It is a common layout pattern that works for various screen sizes. You can use them as a starting point, ready-to-use compositions that help layouts adapt for common use cases and screen sizes. Widgets also provide Canonical Layouts to get started crafting higher quality widgets.

Widget Canonical Layouts

The Widget Canonical Layouts Figma makes previewing your widget content in multiple breakpoints and layout types. Join me in our Figma design resource to explore how they can simplify designing a widget for one of our sample apps, JetNews.

Three side-by-side examples of Widget Canonical Layouts in Figma being used to design a widget for JetNews

1. Content to adapt

Jetnews is a sample news reading app, built with Jetpack Compose. With the experience in mind, the primary user journey is reading articles.

    • A widget should be glanceable, so displaying a full article would not be a good use case.
    • Since they are timely news articles, surfacing newer content could be more productive for users.
    • We’ll want to give a condensed version of each article similar to the app home feed.
    • The addition of a bookmark action would allow the user to save and read later in the full app experience.
Examples of using Widget Canonical Layouts in Figma to design a widget for JetNews

2. Choosing a Canonical Layout

With our content and user journey established, we’ll take a glance at which canonical layouts would make sense.

We want to show at least a few new articles with a headline, truncated description, and possible thumbnail. Which brings us to the Image + Text Grid layout and maybe the list layout.

Examples of using Widget Canonical Layouts in Figma to design a widget for JetNews

Within our new Figma Widget Canonical Layout preview, we can add in some mock content to check out how these layouts will look in various sizes.

Examples of using Widget Canonical Layouts in Figma to design a widget for JetNews

Moving example of using Widget Canonical Layouts in Figma to design a widget for JetNews

3. Adapting to breakpoint sizes

Now that we’ve previewed our content in both the grid and list layouts, we don’t have to choose between just one!

The grid layout better displays our content for larger sizes, where we have some more room to take advantage of multiple columns and a larger thumbnail image. While the list is working nicely for smaller sizes, giving a one column layout with a smaller thumbnail.

Examples of using Widget Canonical Layouts in Figma to design a widget for JetNews

But we can adapt even further to allow the user to have more resizing flexibility and anticipate different OEM grid sizing. For JetNews, we decided on an additional extra small layout to accommodate a smaller grid size and vertical height while still using the List layout. For this size I decided to remove the thumbnail all together to give the title and action space.

Consider these in-between design tweaks as needed (between any of the breakpoints), that can be applied as general rules in your widget designs.

Here are a few guidelines to borrow:

    • Establish a content hierarchy on what to hide as the widget shrinks.
    • Use a type scale so the type scales consistently.
    • Create some parameters for image scaling with aspect ratios and cropping techniques.
    • Use component presentation changes. For example, the title bar’s FAB can be reduced to a standard icon.
Examples of using Widget Canonical Layouts in Figma to design a widget for JetNews

Last, I’ll swap the app icon, round up all the breakpoint sizes, and provide an option with brand colors.

Examples of using Widget Canonical Layouts in Figma to design a widget for JetNews

These are ready to send over to dev! Tune in for the code along to check out how to implement the final widget.

Go try it out and explore more widgets

You can find the Widget Canonical Layouts at our new Figma Community Page: figma.com/@androiddesign. Stay tuned for more Android Figma resources.

Check out the official Android documentation for detailed information and best practices Widgets on Android and more on Widget Quality Tiers, and join us for the rest of Widget Spotlight week!

Android Banner

This blog post is part of our series: Spotlight Week on Widgets, where we provide resources—blog posts, videos, sample code, and more—all designed to help you design and create widgets. You can read more in the overview of Spotlight Week: Widgets, which will be updated throughout the week.

Introducing Widget Quality Tiers

Posted by Ivy Knight – Senior Design Advocate

Level up your app Widgets with new quality tiers

Widgets can be a powerful tool for engaging users and increasing the visibility of your app. They can also help you to improve the user experience by providing users with a more convenient way to access your app's content and features.

To build a great Android widget, it should be helpful, adaptive, and visually cohesive with the overall aesthetic of the device home screen.

In order to help you achieve a great widget, we are pleased to introduce Android Widget Quality Tiers!

The new Widget quality tiers are here to help guide you towards a best practice implementation of widgets, that will look great and bring your user’s value across the ecosystem of Android Phone, Tablets and Foldables.

What does this mean for widget makers?

Whether you are planning a new widget, or investing in an update to an existing widget, the Widget Quality Tiers will help you evaluate and plan for a high quality widget.

Just like Large Screen quality tiers help optimize app experiences, these Widget tiers guide you in creating great widgets across all Android devices. Now, similar tiers are being introduced for widgets to ensure they're not just functional, but also visually appealing and user-friendly.

Two screenshots of a phone display different views in the Google Play app. The first shows a list of running apps with the Widget filter applied in a search for 'Running apps'; the second shows the Nike Run Club app page.
Widgets that meet quality tier guidelines will be discoverable under the new Widget filter in Google Play.

Consider using our Canonical Widget layouts, which are based on Jetpack Glance components, to make it easier for you to design and build a Tier 1 widget your users will love.

Let’s take a look at the Widget Quality Tiers

There are three tiers built with required system defaults and suggested guidance to create an enhanced widget experience:

Tier 1: Differentiated

Four mockups show examples of Material Design 3 dynamic color applied to an app called 'Radio Hour'.
Differentiated widgets go further by implementing theming and adapting to resizing.

Tier 1 widgets are exemplary widgets offering hero experiences that are personalized, and create unique and productive homescreens. These widgets meet Tier 2 standards plus enhancements for layout, color, discovery, and system coherence criteria.

A stylized cartoon figure holds their chin thoughtfully while a chat bubble icon is highlighted
For example, use the system provided corner radius, and don’t set a custom corner radius on Widgets.

Add more personalization with dynamic color and generated previews while ensuring your widgets look good across devices by not overriding system defaults.

Four mockups show examples of Material Design 3 components on Android: a contact card, a podcast player, a task list, and a news feed.
Tier 1 widgets that, from the top left, properly crop content, fill the layout bounds, have appropriately sized headers and touch targets, and make good use of colors and contrast.

Tier 2: Quality Standard

These widgets are helpful, usable, and provide a quality experience. They meet all criteria for layout, color, discovery, and content.

A simple to-do list app widget displays two tasks: 'Water plants' and 'Water more plants.' Both tasks have calendar icons next to them. The app is titled 'Plants' and has search and add buttons in the top right corner.
Make sure your widget has appropriate touch targets.

Tier 2 widgets are functional but simple, they meet the basic criteria for a usable app. But if you want to create a truly stellar experience for your users, tier 1 criteria introduce ways to make a more personal, interactive, and coherent widget.

Tier 3: Low Quality

These widgets don't meet the minimum quality bar and don't provide a great user experience, meaning they are not following or missing criteria from Tier 2.

Examples of Material Design 3 widgets are displayed on a light pink background with stylized X shapes. Widgets include a podcast player, a contact card, to-do lists, and a music player.
Clockwise from the top left not filling the bounds, poorly cropped content, low color contrast, mis-sized header, and small touch targets.

A stylized cartoon person with orange hair, a blue shirt, holds a pencil to their cheek. 'Kacie' is written above them, with a cut off chat bubble icon.
For example, ensure content is visible and not cropped

Build and elevate your Android widgets with Widget Quality Tiers

Dive deeper into the widget quality tiers and start building widgets that not only look great but also provide an amazing user experience! Check out the official Android documentation for detailed information and best practices.

This blog post is part of our series: Spotlight Week on Widgets, where we provide resources—blog posts, videos, sample code, and more—all designed to help you design and create widgets. You can read more in the overview of Spotlight Week: Widgets, which will be updated throughout the week.

SoundCloud uses Jetpack Glance to build Liked Tracks widget in just 2 weeks

Posted by Summers Pittman – Developer Relations Engineer

To make it even easier for users to listen on Android, developers at SoundCloud — an artist-first music platform — turned to Jetpack Glance to create a Liked Tracks widget for their highly-rated app, which boasts 4.6 stars and over 100 million downloads. With a catalog of over 400 million tracks from more than 40 million creators, SoundCloud is dedicated to connecting artists and fans through music, and this latest update to its Android app offers listeners an even more convenient way to enjoy their favorite tracks. Propelled by Glance, the team was able to complete the project in just two weeks, saving precious development time and boosting engagement.

Maximize visibility with user-friendly touchpoints

By showcasing the artwork of their recently liked tracks, the new Liked Tracks widget allows users to to jump directly to a specific song or access their full track list right from their home screen. This keeps SoundCloud front and center for listeners, acting as a shortcut to their personal libraries and encouraging them to tune back in.

Liked Tracks isn’t SoundCloud’s first widget. Over a decade ago, SoundCloud developers used RemoteViews to create a Player widget that let users easily control playback and like tracks. After recently updating the Player widget based on design feedback, developers made sure to prioritize a personalized interface for Liked Tracks. The new widget features both light and dark modes, resizes freely to accommodate user preferences, and dynamically adapts its theme to complement the user's wallpaper. Backed by Glance, these design choices ensured the widget isn’t just seamless to use but also serves as an appealing and tailored gateway into the SoundCloud app.

A foldable smartphone is open, displaying various apps and widgets, including music controls and 'Liked tracks'
SoundCloud’s Liked Tracks widget in action.

Accelerate development cycles with Glance

Glance also played a crucial role in streamlining the development of Liked Tracks. For developers already proficient in Compose, Glance’s intuitive design felt familiar, minimizing the learning curve and accelerating the team's onboarding. The platform’s collection of code samples provided a useful starting point, too, helping developers quickly grasp its capabilities and best practices. “Using sample app repositories is a great way to learn. I can check out an entire repository and inspect how the code operates,” said Sigute Kateivaite, lead SoundCloud engineer on the Android team. “It sped up our widget development by a lot.”

Quote card reads: “Using sample app repositories is a great way to learn. It sped up our widget development.” — Sigute Kateivaite, Android Engineer at SoundCloud

The declarative nature of Glance’s UI was especially beneficial to developers. Because they didn’t have to use additional XML files when building, developers could create cleaner, more readable code with less boilerplate. Glance also allowed them to work with modules separately, meaning components could be written and integrated one at a time and reused for later iterations. By isolating components, developers could quickly test modules, identify and resolve issues, and build for different states without duplication, leading to more efficient workflows.

Glance’s design also improved the overall code quality. The ability to make changes using Android Studio’s support for Glance’s real-time preview enabled developers to build components in isolation without needing to integrate the UI component into the widget or deploy the full widget on the phone. They could represent various states, view all relevant cases, and review changes to components without having to compile the full app. Put simply, Glance made developers more productive because it allowed them to iterate faster, refining the widget for a more polished final product.

Elevate app widgets with the power of Glance

With effective new workflows and no major development issues, the SoundCloud team applauds Glance for streamlining a successful production. “With the new Liked Tracks widget, rollout has been really stable,” Sigute said. “Development and the testing process went really smoothly.” Early data also shows promising results — active users now interact with the widget to access the app multiple times a day on average.

Stat card reads:'2X average daily active user interaction with widget feature.'
2X average daily active user interaction with widget feature.

Looking ahead, the SoundCloud team is eager to employ more of Glance to improve existing widgets, like adopting canonical layouts, and even develop new ones. While the current Liked Tracks widget focuses primarily on image display, the team is interested in including other types of content to further enrich user experience. Developers also hope to migrate the Player widget over to Glance to access the framework’s robust theming options, simplify resizing processes, and address some long-standing bugs.

Beyond the Liked Tracks and Player features, the team is excited about the potential of using Glance to build a wider range of widgets. The modular, component-based architecture of the Liked Tracks widget, with reusable elements like UserAvatar and Logo, offers a solid foundation for future development, promising to simplify processes from the start.

Get started building custom app widgets with Jetpack Glance

Rapidly develop and deploy widgets that keep your app visible and engaging with Glance.

This blog post is part of our series: Spotlight Week on Widgets, where we provide resources—blog posts, videos, sample code, and more—all designed to help you design and create widgets. You can read more in the overview of Spotlight Week: Widgets, which will be updated throughout the week.

Spotlight Week: Design and Develop Widgets

Posted by Ash Nohe and Summers Pitman – Developer Relations Engineers

We’re kicking off the next edition in our Spotlight Week series! This week, we'll be diving deep into how to create high-quality widgets that boost user engagement and improve discoverability.

We've heard your feedback: you want your widgets to be easily discoverable. To address this, we’re excited to share that Google Play is introducing a new search filter specifically for apps with high-quality widgets. By equipping you with the knowledge and tools to ensure your widgets shine, we aim to demonstrate how widgets can be a crucial element in building delightful, helpful, and performant widgets that keep your users engaged. Learn more about Google Play’s widget discovery features.



Here’s what we’re covering this week in our Spotlight Week on Widgets:

Why Widgets?

Monday, March 3rd

We’re kicking off the week with an overview of why widgets are essential for today's users. Learn how you can level up your app with Widgets and get inspired by these best-in-class examples. Plus, learn how Google Play is improving widget discovery through a dedicated search filter, new app detail page badges, and other enhancements designed to increase user interaction.

Design great widgets with Figma and Canonical Layouts

Tuesday, March 4th

Learn how to visualize your content in widget layouts and create high quality widgets with a new Figma resource, hands-on lab and blog with the Canonical Layouts. Learn from SoundCloud's experience: a case study showcasing impactful widget implementation.

Develop best practice widgets with Glance

Wednesday, March 5th

Follow our code-along video to learn practical widget update techniques using Canonical Layouts.

#AskAndroid

Thursday, March 6th

Get your widget questions answered in #AskAndroid, and dive into lockscreen widgets in our FAQ.


That's a week packed with widget insights! This blog post serves as your central hub for updates, with links added regularly throughout the week. Get even more widgets content and insights by following Android Developers on X, and Android by Google at Linkedin.


Resources

Level Up Your App: Why Android Widgets are a Game-Changer

Posted by André Labonté – Senior Product Manager, Android Widgets

If you're an Android app developer and you're looking to boost your app's visibility, and engagement, you should definitely consider adding widgets. These small but mighty UI elements can have a significant impact on your app's success.

A widget is basically a UI that lives outside your main app. Widgets act like a window into your app content and a shortcut to your core features, which users can conveniently engage with right from their home screen, lock screen, or even through digital assistants.

Why Widgets are Awesome for Your App:

    • More Visibility: Widgets put your brand and key features front and center on the user's device, so they're more likely to see it.
    • Better User Engagement: By giving users quick access to important features, widgets encourage them to use your app more often.
    • Increased Conversions: You can use widgets to recommend personalized content or promote premium features, which could lead to more conversions.
    • Happier Users Who Stick Around: Easy access to app content and features through widgets can lead to overall better user experience, and contribute to retention.

Understanding What Users Want: Key to Good Widget Design

People use widgets for different reasons. Understanding these motivations is crucial for designing widgets that resonate.

    • Customization: Users like to personalize their home screens. Think about how your app's content can help them do that.
    • Efficiency: Widgets give users quick access to the features they use a lot, which saves them time and effort. If your app has features that users would find handy to access right from their home screen, think about putting them in a widget.
    • Quick Info: Some widgets are great for giving users essential info at a glance. If users often open your app for quick updates, a glanceable widget.

Building Awesome Widgets: Tips for Developers

Here's how to make widgets that users will love:

    • Focus on Value: Make sure your widget does something useful for users without them having to open the app.
    • Keep it Simple: Design widgets that are easy to use and understand.
    • Make it Adaptable: Test your widgets on different Android devices (phones, tablets, foldables) to make sure they work well on all of them.
    • Match the Look: Design widgets that fit in with the system's overall look by using system colors, fonts, and corner shapes.
    • Make it Easy to Find: Use the widget pinning API to encourage users to add your widget from within your app. Give them good previews and descriptions so they know what it's all about.

Get Inspired and Start Building

We encourage you to integrate widgets into your Android app strategy. For inspiration and guidance, explore our new Widget design gallery, featuring Canonical Widget Layouts.

We can't wait to see the awesome widgets you come up with!

This blog post is part of our series: Spotlight Week on Widgets, where we provide resources—blog posts, videos, sample code, and more—all designed to help you design and create widgets. You can read more in the overview of Spotlight Week: Widgets, which will be updated throughout the week.

Google Play enhances widget discovery to drive engagement with your app

Posted by Yinka Taiwo-Peters – Product Manager

Android developers, we've heard you. Historically, one of the challenges with investing in widget development has been discoverability and user understanding. You've asked for better ways for users to find and utilize your widgets, and we're delivering. Google Play now offers significant enhancements to widget discovery, creating a prime opportunity to re-engage with your users on a deeper level.

We understand that the effort required to build and maintain widgets needs to be justified by user adoption, that’s why we’ve designed these key improvements, which are coming soon to Google Play on Android phones, tablets and foldables:

    • Dedicated Widgets Search Filter: Users can now directly search for apps with widgets using a dedicated filter on Google Play. This means your apps/games with widgets will be easily identified, helping drive targeted downloads and engagement.
    • New Widget Badges on App Detail Pages: We’ve introduced a visual badge on your app’s detail pages to clearly indicate the presence of widgets. This eliminates guesswork for users and highlights your widget offerings, encouraging them to explore and utilize this capability.
    • Curated Widgets Editorial Page: We're actively educating users on the value of widgets through a new editorial page. This curated space showcases collections of excellent widgets and promotes the apps that leverage them. This provides an additional channel for your widgets to gain visibility and reach a wider audience.
Three side-by-side displays of using the widget filter in Google Play Store
click to enlarge

What this means for you:

    • Increased User Engagement: Enhanced discoverability may translate to more users finding and using your widgets, leading to increased app engagement and user retention.
    • New Opportunities for User Interaction: Widgets offer a unique way to provide value and interact with users on their home screens, fostering a deeper connection with your app.
    • Renewed Investment Justification: The improved discoverability features make widget development a more viable and rewarding investment.

We encourage you to revisit your app strategy and consider the potential of widgets. With these new discovery tools, Google Play is making it easier than ever for users to find and love your widgets. Now is the time to leverage the power of widgets and enhance your Android app experience.

This blog post is part of our series: Spotlight Week on Widgets, where we provide resources—blog posts, videos, sample code, and more—all designed to help you design and create widgets. You can read more in the overview of Spotlight Week: Widgets, which will be updated throughout the week.

15 Things to know for Android developers at Google I/O

Posted by Matthew McCullough, Vice President, Product Management, Android Developer  

AI is unlocking experiences that were not even possible a few years ago, and we’ve been hard at work reimaging Android with AI at the core, to help enable you to build a whole new class of apps. At this year’s Google I/O, we’re covering how new tools like Gemini can power building the next generations of apps on Android. Plus, we showcased a range of updates to our tools and services grounded in productivity, helping you make it faster and easier to build excellent experiences across form factors. Let’s dive in!

Powering the next generation of Apps with AI

#1: AI in your tools, with Gemini in Android Studio

Gemini in Android Studio (formerly Studio Bot) is your coding companion for Android development, and thanks to your feedback since its preview at last year’s Google I/O, we’ve evolved our models, expanded to over 200 countries and territories, and brought it into the Gemini family of products. Earlier today, we previewed a number of new features coming soon, like Code suggestions, App Quality Insights that leverage Gemini, and a preview of the multi-modal inputs that are coming using Gemini 1.5 Pro. You can read more about the updates here, and make sure to check out What’s new in Android development tools.

#2: Building with Generative AI

Android provides the solution you need to build Generative AI apps. You can use our most capable models over the Cloud with the Gemini API in Google AI or Vertex AI for Firebase directly in your Android apps. For on-device, Gemini Nano is our most efficient model. We’re working closely with a few early adopters such as Patreon, Grammarly, and Adobe to ensure we’re creating the best APIs that unlock the most innovative experiences. For example, Adobe is experimenting with Gemini Nano to enhance the on-device experience of Acrobat AI Assistant, a tool that allows their users to summarize and interact with documents. Be sure to check out the Build your own generative AI powered Android app, Android on-device gen AI under the hood, and the What’s New in Android sessions to learn more!

Moving image of Gemini Nano operating in Adobe

Excellent apps, across devices

#3: Think adaptive: apps on phones, foldables, tablets and more

Build and design apps that adapt beyond the phone, with the new Compose adaptive layout libraries built with Material guidance in beta. Add rich stylus and keyboard support to increase user productivity. Check out three of our key Android adaptive sessions at Google I/O: Designing adaptive apps, Building adaptive Android apps, and Increase user productivity with large screens and accessories.

Moving image of Gemini Nano operating in Adobe

#4: Enhance homescreens with Widgets and Jetpack Glance

Jetpack Glance 1.1 is now available in release candidate and lets you build high quality widgets using your Compose skills. Check out our new canonical layouts, design guidance and figma updates to the Android UI kit. To learn more check out our Improve the user experience of your Android app workshop and Build Android widgets with Jetpack Glance technical session.

#5-9: come back here tomorrow and Thursday!

We’ll continue to share more updates for Android Developers throughout Google I/O, so check back here tomorrow!

Developer Productivity

#10: Use Kotlin Multiplatform for sharing business logic

Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) enables sharing Kotlin code across different platforms and several of our Jetpack libraries, like DataStore and Room, have already been migrated to take advantage of KMP. We use Kotlin Multiplatform within Google and recommend using KMP for sharing business logic between platforms. Learn more about it here.

#11: Compose: Shared Elements, performance improvements and more

The upcoming Compose June ‘24 release is packed with the features you’ve been asking for! Shared element transitions, lazy list item reordering animations, strong skipping mode, performance improvements, a new lazy flow layout and more. Read more about it in our blog.

#12: Android Studio: the latest preview, with Gemini and more

Android Studio Koala 🐨Feature Drop (2024.1.2) available today in the canary channel, builds on top of IntelliJ 2024.1 and adds new innovative features unlocked by Gemini, such as insights for crashes in App Quality Insights, code transformations and a Gemini API starter template to get you quickly started with Gemini. Additionally, new features such as USB speed detection, shortcut UI to control device settings, a new way to sign into Google services, updated and speedier UI for profilers with a new task centric approach and a deep integration with the Google Play SDK index are intended to make the development process extremely productive. Read more here.

And the latest from the world of Mobile

#13: Grow your business with the latest Google Play updates

Discover new ways to attract and engage users with enhanced custom store listings. Optimize revenue with expanded payment options. Reinforce trust through secure, high-quality experiences made easier with our latest SDK Console improvements. Learn about these updates and more, including our new vertical approach, in our blog.

#14: Simplify app compliance with Checks

Streamline your app's privacy compliance with Checks, Google's AI-powered compliance solution! Checks empowers developers to swiftly identify, address, resolve privacy issues, and enables you to launch apps faster and with confidence. Harness the power of automation with Checks' intelligent reports, saving you valuable time and resources. Get started now at checks.google.com.

#15: And of course, Android 15

…but for that, you’ll have to stay tuned tomorrow, when we’ve got a bit more up our sleeve!