With Google I/O 2023 now underway, here’s a round-up of the key Android-related announcements so far. As expected, there’s a strong emphasis on AI functionality alongside a strong line-up of privacy and productivity improvements for customers and developers.
Android
- New AI enhancements for messages app
Android Studio
- Studio Bot – Generative AI coding assistant for Android Studio (think GitHub Copilot), available in preview in Android Studio Hedgehog today
- Android Device Streaming from Android Studio – allows you to connect to run your app in Android Studio on remote physical devices (Pixel Fold and Pixel Tablet for now) hosted by Google. Waitlist available, preview release later in 2023
- View Android Vitals crash reports from Android Studio – Android Studio ‘App Quality Insights’ panel now includes Android Vitals, so you no longer need to go to the Play Store Console to view. Available in Android Studio Hedgehog today
- All new Android Studio logo!
Jetpack Compose
- Compose for Android TV – Now write apps for Google’s TV platform, using Compose. Available in alpha today
- Glance library – Use Compose to write Android widgets. Previously available in alpha, now progresses to beta from today
- Horizontal and vertical pager
- Flow layouts
- More Material 3 goodness – new components, and tweaks to existing ones
- Modifier performance enhancements – new architecture, ~22% gain in text performance
- Accessibility Test Framework support for Compose – coming soon, sneak peak shown in the “What’s new in Android Accessibility” video
Kotlin
- Work continuing on new K2 compiler
- Now runs on WebAssembly – write Android features and use WebAssembly (WASM) to deploy to the web
Play Store
- AI-generated Play Store listings – available today in the Play Store Console, creates a description for your app on the Play Store using just a few prompts
- Ability to run pricing experiments for A/B testing Play Store pricing – available “in the coming weeks”