Showing posts with label Featured. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Featured. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Android Wear 2.0 for China - Developer Preview

Posted by Hoi Lam, Developer Advocate


Today at Google
Developer Day China
, we are happy to announce a href="https://developer.android.google.cn/wear/preview/?utm_campaign=android wear_launch_chinadeveloperpreview_121316&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">developer preview
of Android Wear 2.0 for developers creating apps for China. Android Wear 2.0 is
the biggest update since our partners launched their first devices in China last
year.



We're making a Developer Preview available today and plan to release additional
updates in the coming months. Please send us your feedback by href="http://g.co/wearpreviewbug">filing bugs or posting in our href="https://plus.google.com/communities/113381227473021565406">Android Wear
Developers community.


Developing for the Chinese Market



With Android Wear 2.0, apps can access the internet directly on Android Wear
devices. As a result, for the majority of apps, having a companion phone
application is no longer necessary. This means that most developers creating
apps for Android Wear 2.0 may no longer need to import the Google Play services
library.



There are two situations where developers will need to import Google Play
services for China:


  • Apps that require direct interaction with the paired mobile
    device
    - some experiences require Android Wear to connect directly to a
    paired phone. In this case, the href="https://developer.android.google.cn/training/wearables/data-layer/?utm_campaign=android wear_launch_chinadeveloperpreview_121316&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">Data
    Layer API introduced in Android Wear 1.0 will continue to function.
  • New href="https://developer.android.google.cn/training/articles/wear-location-detection.html?utm_campaign=building-for-wear-215&utm_source=dac&utm_medium=blog">FusedLocationProvider
    for China
    - we have added location detection to the SDK for Chinese
    developers. With the user's permission, your app can receive location updates
    via the FusedLocationProvider.


You can find more details about how to import the China compatible version of
Google Play services library href="https://developer.android.google.cn/training/wearables/apps/creating-app-china.html?utm_campaign=android wear_launch_chinadeveloperpreview_121316&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">here.


Product testing for Android Wear 2.0 for China



The Android Wear 2.0 Developer Preview includes an updated SDK with tools, and
system images for testing using the Huawei Watch.



To get started, follow these steps:


  • Update to Android Studio v2.1.1 or later
  • Visit the href="https://developer.android.google.cn/wear/preview/?utm_campaign=android wear_launch_chinadeveloperpreview_121316&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">Android Wear 2.0
    Developer Preview site for downloads and documentation
  • href="https://developer.android.google.cn/wear/preview/downloads.html?utm_campaign=android wear_launch_chinadeveloperpreview_121316&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">Download
    the device system images
  • Test your app with your supported device

Give us feedback



We will update this developer preview over the next few months based on your
feedback. The sooner we hear from you, the more we can include in the final
release, so don't be shy!




Android Wear 2.0 中国版 - 开发者预览版



编辑: 林海泉, Android Wear 开发平台负责人



今天在上海举办的Google
开发者大会
上,我们正式宣布了一款专门针对中国市场的Android Wear 2.0 href="https://developer.android.google.cn/wear/preview/">开发者预览版。Android Wear
2.0系统,将是自我们的合作伙伴首次发布手表产品以来最重大的更新。



开发者预览版已于今日正式上线。与此同时,我们也计划在未来的几个月内持续进行更新。请您将您遇到的问题在此href="http://g.co/wearpreviewbug">提交反馈,或者在我们的href="https://plus.google.com/communities/113381227473021565406">Android
Wear开发者论坛发表意见。


为中国市场开发应用



在Android Wear 2.0系统中,应用可以由Android
Wear手表直接连接至互联网。因此,对于大多数应用来说,手机端的伴侣应用也就变得不再必要。这也意味着,多数为Android Wear
2.0开发应用的开发者将不再需要引用Google Play services客户端库。



目前,在两个情况下开发者仍然需要引入Google Play Services客户端库来为中国市场开发应用:


  • 需要与手机直接进行通信的应用 - 有一些用例需要Android
    Wear手表与已配对手机直接连接。在这种情况下,Android Wear 1.0中引入的href="https://developer.android.google.cn/training/wearables/data-layer/">Data
    Layer API仍然可以继续使用。
  • 使用 href="https://developer.android.google.cn/training/articles/wear-location-detection.html?utm_campaign=building-for-wear-215&utm_source=dac&utm_medium=blog">FusedLocationProvider
    - 我们在最新的中国版SDK中加入了定位的支持。在用户的许可下,您的应用可以通过FusedLocationProvider来接收定位更新。


您可以在href="https://developer.android.google.cn/training/wearables/apps/creating-app-china.html">这里找到关于如何引入与中国版兼容的Google
Play service的更多信息。


Android Wear 2.0 中国版产品测试



Android Wear 2.0 开发者预览版包括最新的SDK套件,手表测试系统镜像(基于华为手表)。



情按照以下步骤进行测试:


  • 更新到Android Studio至v2.1.1以上版本
  • 访问 Android Wear
    2.0 开发者预览版
    ,那里的文件下载与文档下载部分
  • href="https://developer.android.google.cn/wear/preview/downloads.html">下载手表系统镜像
  • 在手表上测试您的应用

开发反馈



我们会根据您的反馈在未来的几个月中更新开发者预览版。您给我们的反馈越早,我们将会在最终的发布版本中包含更多针对您的反馈的解决方案。敬请期待!

Android Wear 2.0 Developer Preview 4: Authentication, In-App Billing, and more

Posted by Hoi Lam, Developer
Advocate




A key part of Android Wear 2.0 is letting
watch apps work as standalone apps, so users can respond to messages, track
their fitness, and use their favorite apps, even when their phone isn't around.
Developer Preview 4 includes a number of new APIs that will help you build more
powerful standalone apps.


Seamless authentication



To make authentication a seamless experience for both Android phone and iPhone
users, we have created new APIs for href="https://developer.android.com/wear/preview/features/auth-wear.html?utm_campaign=android wear_launch_developerpreview_121316&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">OAuth
and added support for one-click Google Sign-in. With the OAuth API for
Android Wear, users can tap a button on the watch that opens an authentication
screen on the phone. Your watch app can then authenticate with your server side
APIs directly. With Google Sign-In, it's even easier. All the user needs to do
is select which account they want to authenticate with and they are done.


In-app billing



In addition to paid apps, we have added href="https://developer.android.com/training/in-app-billing/index.html?utm_campaign=android wear_launch_developerpreview_121316&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">in-app
billing support, to give you another way to monetize your Android Wear app
or watch face. Users can authorize purchases quickly and easily on the watch
through a 4-digit Google Account PIN. Whether it's new levels in a game or new
styles on a watch face, if you can build it, users can buy it.


Cross-device promotion



What if your watch app doesn't work standalone? Or what if it offers a better
user experience when both the watch and phone apps are installed? We've been
listening carefully to your feedback, and we've added href="https://developer.android.com/wear/preview/features/standalone-apps.html?utm_campaign=android wear_launch_developerpreview_121316&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#detecting-your-app">two
new APIs (PlayStoreAvailability and RemoteIntent)
to help you navigate users to the Play Store on a paired device so they can
more easily install your app. Developers can also open custom URLs on the phone
from the watch via the new RemoteIntent API; no phone app or data
layer is required.



class="prettyprint">// Check Play Store is available
int playStoreAvailabilityOnPhone =
PlayStoreAvailability.getPlayStoreAvailabilityOnPhone(getApplicationContext());

if (playStoreAvailabilityOnPhone == PlayStoreAvailability.PLAY_STORE_ON_PHONE_AVAILABLE) {
// To launch a web URL, setData to Uri.parse("https://g.co/wearpreview")
Intent intent =
new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW)
.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_BROWSABLE)
.setData(Uri.parse("market://details?id=com.google.android.wearable.app"));
// mResultReceiver is optional; it can be null.
RemoteIntent.startRemoteActivity(this, intent, mResultReceiver);
}

Swipe-to-dismiss is back



Many of you have given us the feedback that the swipe-to-dismiss gesture from
Android Wear 1.0 is an intuitive time-saver. We agree, and have reverted back to
the previous behavior with this developer preview release. To support
swipe-to-dismiss in this release, we've made the following platform and API
changes:


  • Activities now automatically support swipe-to-dismiss.
    Swiping an activity from left to right will result in it being dismissed and the
    app will navigate down the back stack.
  • New Fragment and View support. Developers can wrap the
    containing views of a Fragment or Views in general in the new
    SwipeDismissFrameLayout to implement custom actions such as going
    down the back stack when the user swipes rather than exiting the activity.
  • Hardware button now maps to "power" instead of "back" which
    means it can no longer be intercepted by apps.


Additional details are available under the href="https://developer.android.com/wear/preview/behavior-changes.html?utm_campaign=android wear_launch_developerpreview_121316&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">behavior
changes section of the Android Wear Preview site.


Compatibility with Android Wear 1.0 apps



Android Wear apps packaged using the legacy embedded app mechanism can now be
delivered to Android Wear 2.0 watches. When a user installs a phone app that
also contains an embedded Android Wear app, the user will be prompted to install
the embedded app via a notification. If they choose not to install the embedded
app at that moment, they can find it in the Play Store on Android Wear under a
special section called "Apps you've used".



Despite support for the existing mechanism, there are significant benefits for
apps that transition to the href="https://developer.android.com/wear/preview/features/app-distribution.html?utm_campaign=android_discussion_wearpreview_092916&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#publish">multi-APK
delivery mechanism. Multi-APK allows the app to be searchable in the Play
Store on Android Wear, to be eligible for merchandising on the homepage, and to
be remotely installed from the web to the watch. As a result, we strongly
recommend that developers move to multi-APK.


More additions in Developer Preview 4



  • href="https://developer.android.com/wear/preview/features/ui-nav-actions.html?utm_campaign=android wear_launch_developerpreview_121316&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">Action
    and Navigation Drawers: An enhancement to peeking behavior
    allows the user to take action without scrolling all the way to the top or
    bottom of a list. Developers can further fine-tune drawer peeking behavior
    through new APIs, such as setShouldPeekOnScrollDown for the action
    drawer.
  • href="https://developer.android.com/wear/preview/features/wearable-recycler-view.html?utm_campaign=android wear_launch_developerpreview_121316&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">WearableRecyclerView:
    The curved layout is now opt-in, and with this, the WearableRecyclerView is now
    a drop-in replacement for RecyclerView.
  • href="https://developer.android.com/wear/preview/features/complications.html?utm_campaign=android wear_launch_developerpreview_121316&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#using_fields_for_complication_data">Burn-in
    protection icon for complications: Complication data providers can now
    provide icons for use on screens susceptible to burn-in. These burn-in-safe
    icons are normally the outline of the icon in interactive mode. Previously,
    watch faces may have chosen not to display the icon at all in ambient mode to
    prevent screen burn-in.

Feedback welcome!



Thanks for all your terrific feedback on Android Wear 2.0. Check out href="http://g.co/wearpreview">g.co/wearpreview for the latest builds and
documentation, keep the feedback coming by href="http://g.co/wearpreviewbug">filing bugs or posting in our href="https://plus.google.com/communities/113381227473021565406">Android Wear
Developers community, and stay tuned for Android Wear Developer Preview 5!

Announcing updates to Google’s Internet of Things platform: Android Things and Weave


Posted by Wayne Piekarski,
Developer Advocate for IoT



The Internet of Things (IoT) will bring computing to a whole new range of
devices. Today we're announcing two important updates to our IoT developer
platform to make it faster and easier for you to create these smart, connected
products.



We're releasing a Developer Preview of Android Things, a comprehensive way to
build IoT products with the power of Android, one of the world's most supported
operating systems. Now any Android developer can quickly build a smart device
using Android APIs and Google services, while staying highly secure with updates
direct from Google. We incorporated the feedback from Project Brillo to include
familiar tools such as Android Studio, the Android Software Development Kit
(SDK), Google Play Services, and Google Cloud Platform. And in the coming
months, we will provide Developer Preview updates to bring you the
infrastructure for securely pushing regular OS patches, security fixes, and your
own updates, as well as built-in Weave connectivity and more.



There are several turnkey hardware solutions available for you to get started
building real products with Android Things today, including Intel Edison, NXP
Pico, and Raspberry Pi 3. You can easily scale to large production runs with
custom designs of these solutions, while continuing to use the same Board
Support Package (BSP) from Google.



We are also updating the Weave platform to make it easier for all types of
devices to connect to the cloud and interact with services like the Google
Assistant. Device makers like Philips Hue and Samsung SmartThings already use
Weave, and several others like Belkin WeMo, LiFX, Honeywell, Wink, TP-Link, and
First Alert are implementing it. Weave provides all the cloud infrastructure, so
that developers can focus on building their products without investing in cloud
services. Weave also includes a Device SDK for supported microcontrollers and a
management console. The Weave Device SDK currently supports schemas for light
bulbs, smart plugs and switches, and thermostats. In the coming months we will
be adding support for additional device types, custom schemas/traits, and a
mobile application API for Android and iOS. Finally, we're also working towards
merging Weave and Nest Weave to enable all classes of devices to connect with
each other in a secure and reliable way. So whether you started with Google
Weave or Nest Weave, there is a path forward in the ecosystem.




This is just the
beginning of the IoT ecosystem we want to build with you. To get started, check
out Google's IoT developer site,
or go directly to the Android
Things
, Weave,href="https://developers.google.com/weave"> and href="https://cloud.google.com">Google Cloud Platform sites for
documentation and code samples. You can also join href="http://g.co/iotdev">Google's IoT Developers Community on Google+ to
get the latest updates and share and discuss ideas with other developers.



Monday, December 12, 2016

Five steps to achieve sustainable growth and boost your app's long term success


Maxim Mai, Business Development Manager, Google Play




Maintaining sustainable growth is difficult for even the highest quality apps.
In this video and through the 5 steps below you can find out how some of our
leading Android developers are tackling growth.









1) Understand and define your app's objectives



Depending on your product lifecycle stage you will most likely focus on these 3
growth goals with varying intensity:


  • Acquire new users
  • Increase engagement and retention
  • Grow revenue

2) Track and measure your tactics against each of your
objectives



List out the tactics you're using to achieve each objective and keep track of
their performance. You can visualize it using a scorecard like in the example
below created by Mobile Growth
Stack
.



3) Apply your growth tactics.



Here are a few examples of specific tactics developers have successfully used to
drive sustained growth.



Tactic: href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.clue.android">Clue,
a female health app, invests in the Play store listing to increase
conversions.



Results: 24% aggregate increase in install conversion rate over
a period of 6 months.




How they did it:


  • Built a continuous flow of global and localised href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/topic/7046704?hl=en&ref_topic=6299676">store
    listing experiments.
  • Monitored changes in the href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6263332?hl=en">user
    acquisition performance report for target countries and channels.
  • Gathered insights from what users are saying from the href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/138230">reviews
    analysis.



Which phone screenshot do you think drove increase in install conversion for
Clue?



Tactic: href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.sharethemeal.app">ShareTheMeal,
a non-profit app developed by the World Food Programme, uses public relations as
a free sustainable acquisition channel.




Results: 50% of their
total installs to date were driven by media coverage.




How they did
it
:


  • Developed an excellent messaging.
  • Boosted installs impact by combining PR with celebrity outreach and
    distribution partnership.
  • Learned that TV coverage has the highest impact on installs but print is a
    useful door opener to amplify TV coverage.



Tactic: Viral growth.
Virality is a core
growth tool for apps and games that focus on sharing and usually the mechanic is
built into the core user experience of the product. However, even if sharing
isn't a key component of your app, you can still influence two key variables to
create an appropriate environment to encourage virality.



How to do it:


  • Increase the number of additional users that a single user brings to the
    app, by boosting the number of invitations sent.
  • Decrease your "cycle time", how long it takes between inviting a user and
    that user sending out the next round of invitations to their friends.
  • Offer more incentives for users to share the app or its content while
    they're using it will help shorten the cycle time and kickstart viral growth!



Tactic: href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.freeletics.nutrition">Freeletics
Nutrition, an app to adjust your nutrition to your individual needs and
goals, uses cross-promotion to accelerate the launch of a new product.




Results: 96% of new Nutrition app sales generated by users who
originally registered for the developer's href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.freeletics.lite">Bodyweight
training app.




How they did it:


  • Surface meal advice in the Bodyweight app's activity feed with the goal of
    raising awareness for the approaching launch of their new Freeletics Nutrition
    app.




4) Build a strong growth culture



To make sustainable growth work for your app, it needs to be a part of your
culture. href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=8438666261259599516">Runtastic
is one of the leading health and fitness app developers in Europe and 95% of
their approximately 76M total app installs on Google Play have been generated
organically. Mario Aichlseder, VP of Growth, believes this is the result of a
strong growth culture and the growth principles according to which all teams
operate. For example, product managers, designers and engineers at Runtastic
deliberately chose a mixture of qualitative and quantitative feedback loops
during the app development process to ensure they stay true to their growth
principles.



5) Adjust along the way



It's important to track your tactics against real metrics to measure your
impact. That will help you make decisions about where to increase or decrease
your efforts. Your priorities will also change based on the evolution of your
business and product lifecycle as well as due to external factors such as new
techniques becoming available, so be open to regularly adjusting your tactics.



Get more tips and best practices in the sessions from href="http://android-developers.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/watch-sessions-from-the-playtime-2016-events-to-learn-how-to-succeed-on-android-and-google-play.html">this
year's Playtime events.






How useful did you find this blogpost?

















Thursday, December 8, 2016

How augmented reality helps you buy furniture and capture Pokémon


Posted by Jamil Moledina, Games Strategic Lead, Google Play



Online furniture seller Wayfair and Niantic's href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nianticlabs.pokemongo">Pokémon
GO have more in common than you might think. Both of these companies
use augmented reality to create innovative, immersive experiences for their
users. I sat down with Mike Festa, Director of Wayfair Next, and Tatsuo Nomura,
Product Manager for Pokémon GO, at our recent Playtime event to discuss how
developers can make the most of AR as a platform.



From 3D furniture modelling in href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wayfair.wayfairview">WayfairView
using Tango, to logging
countless miles catching Pokémon, hear how these developers are innovating with
AR, and get their advice for others looking to use AR in their apps and games.




href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWz5rJ2EKKc-XoJTVgYBviYbgxgSJqBws">Check
out more sessions from our global Playtime events to learn best practices
for your app and game businesses. Also, stay up to date with more videos from
events, product news, and tips to help grow your business on Google Play with
the Playbook for Developers app.




How useful did you find this blogpost?