All the key highlights from Google I/O 2014 and what they mean for your app

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Google I/O
2014
Highlights
What does it mean for your app?

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Android L Preview
Almost a year after last year’s KitKat, Google presented another
update of their mobile OS. For the first time, the platform preview
was released to developers prior to launch, so that they could start
adjusting their apps to make use of new features.
The platform introduces lots of new APIs, including job scheduling,
reworked camera support and OpenGL ES 3.1.

3. Why is it important?
New edition of the OS, new features, more versions to support.
Before you start redesigning your app to use all the new features,
consider the adoption rate of the new Android. Since not all users
will gain access to the L platform in the near future, it’s important to
find the sweet spot between introducing additional features for early
adopters and maintaining backwards compatibility.

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Material Design
With this new UI concept, Google aims to unify the visual experience
across their mobile apps and responsive web apps. The UI structure
gains some depth again thanks to applying shadows, but this time
they indicate the order of items in 3-dimensional space, just as you’d
expect them in the world of real materials. The revamped engine for
screen transitions will allow orchestrating animations to help users
orient themselves in the flow of the app.

5. We’ve seen a lot of examples where apps don’t match the look
and feel of their web counterpart. Now, by using a coherent set of
design principles, these differences can be minimized. And it looks
awesome, by the way. Great news is also branding support - apps
can finally set an accent color that will make the app shine in your
company’s palette.
Why is it important?

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ART Runtime
Introduced as an experimental feature in KitKat, ART makes its way
to the default runtime environment in Android L, replacing Dalvik. The
main advantages over DVM are ahead-of-time compilation, improved
garbage collection and better debug reporting.

7. Switching to ART will significantly increase the performance of
running apps. However, developers need to make sure their apps
are compatible with this runtime - usually this requires no additional
work, but for some apps (especially those making use of native
C/C++ libraries), some adjustments may be necessary.
Why is it important?

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Battery Performance
Android L addresses one of the most annoying smartphone issues:
battery life. Project Volta tackles this challenge by disabling some of
the most power-consuming features. Battery-saving mode can be
enabled on-demand or automatically, whenever power reaches a
certain level. Some early tests revealed that Android L could achive a
36% battery gain in comparison with KitKat.

9. Nowadays the battery life is one of the most crucial aspects of a
mobile phone. It is common knowledge and experience that it’s
difficult to end a day with a decent battery level, and most days
it can go all the way to 0%. This is why project Volta brings good
news, at least while we wait for the expected battery improvements
that ongoing research should produce.
Why is it important?

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Enhanced Notifications
Notifications will now pop up over the currently displayed app -
without the need to roll down the notification bar. The user can
then swipe to the side to dismiss them, or swipe down to follow the
action (e.g. reply to an email). Content of the notifications will even
appear over the lock screen - unless marked as private by the app.
In the new ‘secret’ mode, the notifications will be visible only after
unlocking the device.

11. Notifications will be the common element uniting several types
of devices, including compatible dashboards and wearables (see
next slides). The system will take care of adjusting the appearance
to match the specific device type - what needs to be done is
providing the right content. For example, you can add a person to a
notification’s metadata: when the system recognizes this is important
to the user, it may give the notification a higher priority.
Why is it important?

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Deep Linking from Web
Some searches in Google let you open the results in corresponding
apps. Now the possibility to deep link is open for all apps, through
the App Indexing API.

13. Opening an app directly from a Google search can boost
user’s engagement with the service and increase the traffic
for the mobile app.
Why is it important?

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Security Enhancements
The Google Android team also targets enterprises. By including
a tailored flavor of Samsung Knox technology into the system
itself, business-critical apps will be able to work in a sandboxed
environment, providing an additional layer of security.

15. Although all attempts at improving Android’s security and robustness
against malware are welcome, we remain a bit skeptical towards
this solution as its hardware compatibility is still unknown. Anyway,
it’s worth keeping in mind that in the age of digital security, it’s the
human factor that often turns out to be the weakest link.
Why is it important?

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Android One
This project is Google’s effort to enable low-cost devices to run
Android. Under the brand of Android One, Google will provide the
hardware reference models that the manufacturers will refer to when
building their phones. Google will also provide a set of software rules
to the manufacturers in order to avoid any possible performance
issue introduced by third party software. All of this will enable the
manufacturers to produce low-cost phones that will perform the
robot OS well.

17. Android is already quite popular in emerging markets, but this
initiative could be a huge step forward in terms of Android adoption
within developing countries.
This is also good news for existing Android users, since it means
that Google is focusing on improving Android to be lighter and faster,
something that any device running Android will benefit from.
Why is it important?

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Android Wear
This year, Google Glass stood in the shadow of another wearable
project: Android Wear. It brings a whole new line of smartwatches by
Samsung and LG to the market along with a new SDK platform for
developers. Having an Android-powered device right on your wrist
creates lots of new possibilities to interact with a service.

19. Laptops, smartphones, tablets. Now another type of device joins
the list of content receivers. Smartwatches have a specific set of
capabilities and limitations that calls for unique design solutions to
accommodate smaller screens; less information at a time requires
displaying content at exactly the right time within the context.
Why is it important?

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Android Auto
The automotive industry is another area of expansion for Google.
Android Auto is a standard aimed at offering mobile experience right
from the dashboard of your car. Navigation, music and web search
are only a couple of services supported by the platform.
As a part of the Open Automobile Alliance, the solution is partnered
with 40+ car brands worldwide.

21. What value can you provide for users during their morning commute
time and weekend trips? Again, the means of interaction are different
from smartphone standards. Think voice actions rather than using
the screen. We may also see another battle of standards - this time
between Android Auto and Apple’s Car Play.
Why is it important?

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Android TV
Android TV is Google’s next attempt at creating home
TV experiences, after Google TV and Chromecast.

23. In a market owned by Netflix and other VOD providers, Google is
trying to win with the help of their advanced search capabilities and
device integration support. Adding Android Wear to that means you
might never have to look for your remote control again.
Why is it important?

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Google Fit
Google Fit is a new fitness and health-tracking platform. It will
aggregate data from health sensors that can measure things like
heart rate, steps, sleep quality etc. An open set of APIs will facilitate
the access to this data for developers. Google wants to ensure
compatibility with existing health devices, which is why they have
been working side by side with the main manufacturers.

25. This new framework is Android’s contribution to the exercise and
health-tracking movement. With a bunch of health devices out there,
it was becoming necessary to unify the way to access the existing
data, and this necessity will be entirely fulfilled with the new Google
Fit framework.
Why is it important?

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Google Play Novelties
Google announced various enhancements to Google Play in different
areas such as analytics, testing, distribution and services. The
most important announcement was the acquisition of Appurify. This
startup provides a cloud-based framework to test apps under real
world conditions. This enables developers to test their apps across
various devices and under bad network conditions before launching
the apps on the Google Play store.

27. All these enhancements will facilitate the development and
distribution of apps. The app developers will have more weapons to
use in the fight against the eternal problem of Android fragmentation,
as well as better ways to distribute and track their apps.
Why is it important?

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New Google Cloud Tools
As a follow-up to the recent Google Cloud Developer Roadshow,
new Google Cloud tools were presented during Google I/O. Changes
allow developers to rapidly create cloud-enabled mobile apps, with
cloud backends tailored to front-end’s needs. A new pricing model
allows startups and indie developers to use the power of Google’s
infrastructure to deliver new services to the masses without any
initial costs.

29. Powerful and well-suited backend is what drives a mobile app.
More capabilities, better coordination between services like Google
Compute Engine and Google App Engine and clearer pricing are
only a few of the elements that allows Google clients to create
valuable services without worrying about technical constraints.
Why is it important?

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