After a quiet January, February really kicked things off for developers with the release of Android 12 Developer Preview. Android 12 DP is a very early version of the new operating system and (presumably) leaves a lot out. That said, there's still plenty to unpack. Most important are a new copy-paste feature, wider media compatibility, and more consistency in the implementation of gestures. February also brought us a host of other new tools, reports, and news. You’ll find everything you need to know right here.
News and Features From Android Authority
Credit: Jimmy Westenberg / Android Authority
- Android 12 developer preview: Everything developers need to know – This is our breakdown of the Android 12 Developer Preview from the developer perspective. Read about all the important changes and how they apply to your apps. This post will be updated as new beta releases emerge, so make sure to bookmark the page.
- Android 12 developer preview hands-on: Lots of little changes – This post explores the user-facing changes in Android 12 and gives some opinions.
- Google hid the big UI changes in Android 12, but here are some – Some speculation/insight regarding the future of the new OS.
- Android 12 features: Everything confirmed and rumored so far – Another useful preview of what to expect.
- Scoped storage tutorial for Android Studio – This is a short introduction to scoped storage on Android. Learn how to save in app-specific locations and shared storage.
- An easy GameMaker Studio tutorial for beginners – GameMaker Studio is a popular game development tool for mobile. Simpler than Unity and more flexible than a “game builder,” this is the perfect entry point for many new devs. This post will teach you the ropes.
- How to enable Developer mode on a Chromebook in just a few minutes – A useful trick for devs.
- An introduction to Kotlin for Android development – This post was recently updated. A great place to start for those looking to learn Kotlin for Android development.
News and Features From Around the Web
- First preview of Android 12 – Hear the news from the horse’s mouth! The full breakdown of Android 12 from the Google Developers Blog.
- Low-Power Sleep Tracking on Android – Google has released a public sleep API built in for measuring sleep stages! This is great news for dev working on health apps.
- Announcing Jetpack Compose Beta – Google has now released the beta version of Jetpack Compose – a powerful UI toolkit that aims to make life easier for devs creating layouts and interfaces. You can find our more in-depth introduction to Compose here.
- Announcing Kotlin Symbol Processing (KSP) Alpha – Google also released KSP last month. This is a tool that should make it faster for devs to build lightweight compiler plugins. It’s reportedly up to 2x faster than KAPT.
- Google Play Console powers better strategic decisions with new engagement metrics and unique benchmarks – Google announces a new suite of metrics and comparative benchmarks that can be used to measure engagement and monetization trends against the competitive.
- Unity Releases 2020 Gaming Benchmark Report, Revealing How the Pandemic Changed Player Behaviors – The pandemic is bad news, but it has actually been a boon in many ways to the gaming industry. This breakdown from Unity is an interesting insight for game devs, showing just how COVID impacted trends and statistics. Plus actionable, data-driven advice to help optimize for 2020’s trends.
- Epic Games’ MetaHuman Creator lets developers create realistic digital humans within minutes – The MetaHuman Creator is a tool from epic games that should make it easier than ever to create realistic-looking humans. And the good news is they have optimized it for mobile! The bad news? The tool is “licensed only for use with Unreal Engine-based products.”