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Android M Developer Preview and Tools

android-developers.blogspot.com

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Re: Android M Developer Preview and Tools

#91

Post by rob_lh »

krschultz wrote: post #87
27182818284 wrote: post #28

Google is showing off Android M dev previews while devices sold new last fall in major US retailers are still running KitKat with no updates from Google or their providers. They continue to actively create the "fractured" world of Android. In other words, that's cool about Android M, but most people aren't even using L. (40% on K, 9% on L whose preview was the 2014 IO) Can Google not poach one or two of Apple's negot…

Damn lies and statistics. The Android dashboard numbers are always super pessimistic on upgrade rate. I am the lead for an app with >250,000 installs. Over 45% of our usage is coming from Lollipop. The rest is JB & KK. We see I know other major apps that have even better numbers. Looking at my data, L usage was basically nil in January 2015. There was slow growth from there until April, when we saw an inflection poin…

That's some awesome data, thanks for sharing! I have to imagine geo matters here too. China, Latin America, and Africa have huge Android growth (though even then a huge chunk must be AOSP) but I would guess it's mostly older OS versions coming from the smaller OEMs that are spawning so much of the growth. Who knows if those would ever be updated, but it's less relevant unless you're a pervasive, global app (like FB or Gmail).

Re: Android M Developer Preview and Tools

#92

Post by vardump »

austenallred wrote: post #88
vardump wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can Google not poach one or two of Apple's negotiators to go to the right meetings at Motorola, Verizon, etc to talk about updates? I don't understand why things like these are necessary in the USA. Why should network operator have control to which version you're running? Most other places you can just get new firmware directly from manufacturer.

The thing that's confusing to me is that the carriers don't automatically default to the newest version of the OS. Even if it weren't a contractual obligation, I can't imagine, say, the AT&T store loading a phone right now with iOS 7

So, you'd be fine with your ISP being the gatekeeper for which operating system(s) and version(s) you can run on your computer?

The U.S. system where operators are such gatekeepers for mobile devices is an anomaly. It doesn't need to be so, and it is not so elsewhere.

I don't understand the overall picture of the U.S. telecom industry in the first place. Slow speeds, data caps, bad coverage, high prices and control freak carriers.

Re: Android M Developer Preview and Tools

#93

Post by kuschku »

krschultz wrote: post #87
27182818284 wrote: post #28

Google is showing off Android M dev previews while devices sold new last fall in major US retailers are still running KitKat with no updates from Google or their providers. They continue to actively create the "fractured" world of Android. In other words, that's cool about Android M, but most people aren't even using L. (40% on K, 9% on L whose preview was the 2014 IO) Can Google not poach one or two of Apple's negot…

Damn lies and statistics. The Android dashboard numbers are always super pessimistic on upgrade rate. I am the lead for an app with >250,000 installs. Over 45% of our usage is coming from Lollipop. The rest is JB & KK. We see I know other major apps that have even better numbers. Looking at my data, L usage was basically nil in January 2015. There was slow growth from there until April, when we saw an inflection poin…

As someone developing another Android app, a FOSS app for an IRC bouncer:

About 25% of our users are below ICS even. Yes, one quarter of our users are on Gingerbread.

And then the rest is shared equally between JB, KK and L.

Re: Android M Developer Preview and Tools

#94

Post by guelo »

krschultz wrote: post #87
27182818284 wrote: post #28

Google is showing off Android M dev previews while devices sold new last fall in major US retailers are still running KitKat with no updates from Google or their providers. They continue to actively create the "fractured" world of Android. In other words, that's cool about Android M, but most people aren't even using L. (40% on K, 9% on L whose preview was the 2014 IO) Can Google not poach one or two of Apple's negot…

Damn lies and statistics. The Android dashboard numbers are always super pessimistic on upgrade rate. I am the lead for an app with >250,000 installs. Over 45% of our usage is coming from Lollipop. The rest is JB & KK. We see I know other major apps that have even better numbers. Looking at my data, L usage was basically nil in January 2015. There was slow growth from there until April, when we saw an inflection poin…

I just checked a >1million install app, it has 36% 4.4, 27% 5.0, 4% 5.1.

Re: Android M Developer Preview and Tools

#95

Post by hrktb »

on_and_off wrote: post #80
wongarsu wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>As for Internet, they leave that out of their "improved" Play store permissions as well (and the M groupings seems like a carbon copy). Why would they do that? On it's own "Internet" may not seem to be an important category, but I am willing to give apps many more permissions if I know that they can't phone home. For tools, the Internet permission is often the deciding factor for me.

Crash reporting and analytics come to mind as reasonable applications of the default internet permission.

Isn't there an entry point on the OS/Google Play side that allows the dev to get crash reports?

Also, I think analytics should be something fundamentaly optionnal, at least from a privacy POV.

Re: Android M Developer Preview and Tools

#96

Post by erispoe »

kuschku wrote: post #93
krschultz wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Damn lies and statistics. The Android dashboard numbers are always super pessimistic on upgrade rate. I am the lead for an app with >250,000 installs. Over 45% of our usage is coming from Lollipop. The rest is JB & KK. We see I know other major apps that have even better numbers. Looking at my data, L usage was basically nil in January 2015. There was slow growth from there until April, when we saw an inflection poin…

As someone developing another Android app, a FOSS app for an IRC bouncer: About 25% of our users are below ICS even. Yes, one quarter of our users are on Gingerbread. And then the rest is shared equally between JB, KK and L.

I'm curious of what kind of app you're developing. You and krschultz seem to work on apps adressing a quite different audience.

Re: Android M Developer Preview and Tools

#97

Post by dharma1 »

krschultz wrote: post #85
hadrien01 wrote: post #53

> Android Design Support Library - Making Material design apps gets even easier with the new Android Design support library. We have packaged a set a key design components (e.g floating action button, snackbar, navigation view, motion enabled Toolbars) [...] Finally! I had to start developing for Android not too long ago, and I couldn't stand seeing "mandatory" material components for certain usages that weren't supp…

Nothing is mandatory. Material guidelines are a suggestion and a set of tools to make the baseline app better by default. In general the UI components are moving out of the SDK into the support libs or the community at large. RecyclerView & Toolbar are examples of Google untangling the foundation from the look & feel, and letting the community come up with the final implementation of things.

Is that a deliberate strategy or a lack of communication between teams at Google to create the SDK level support for components their design team designs?

Re: Android M Developer Preview and Tools

#98

Post by austenallred »

vardump wrote: post #92
austenallred wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing that's confusing to me is that the carriers don't automatically default to the newest version of the OS. Even if it weren't a contractual obligation, I can't imagine, say, the AT&T store loading a phone right now with iOS 7

So, you'd be fine with your ISP being the gatekeeper for which operating system(s) and version(s) you can run on your computer? The U.S. system where operators are such gatekeepers for mobile devices is an anomaly. It doesn't need to be so, and it is not so elsewhere. I don't understand the overall picture of the U.S. telecom industry in the first place. Slow speeds, data caps, bad coverage, high prices and control f…

I didn't say anything about them "controlling" what I can run on my computer/phone.

They load it with a default that you can change. That doesn't inhibit my choice in the slightest.

But a large number of people don't care to change their OS from the default, so the ecosystem gets loaded with a large number of those phones.

I just don't understand why the telecoms wouldn't use the newest OS as the default.

Re: Android M Developer Preview and Tools

#99

Post by wikyd »

Sargos wrote: post #56
Roritharr wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What scared me about that announcement was that "no changes in the app are necessary" which basically means that google from now on will parse the text that is displayed, regardless of the type of app that is open. Without any further clarification i have to expect Google now to send the displayed data of my mobile banking app to its servers everytime i hit that "Now on Tap" button, accidentally or not, while its ope…

This only works if the developer uses app indexing where Google can search through the content and make it searchable to end users and other endpoints. It doesn't come for free so Google has no access to things like your bank app's screen.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/05/android-ms-google-now... makes it seem like they just walk the view hierarchy. They show examples of using this in a chat app, which makes less sense to be found via app indexing.

Re: Android M Developer Preview and Tools

#100

Post by zmmmmm »

on_and_off wrote: post #80
wongarsu wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>As for Internet, they leave that out of their "improved" Play store permissions as well (and the M groupings seems like a carbon copy). Why would they do that? On it's own "Internet" may not seem to be an important category, but I am willing to give apps many more permissions if I know that they can't phone home. For tools, the Internet permission is often the deciding factor for me.

Crash reporting and analytics come to mind as reasonable applications of the default internet permission.

Google should silo those into separate categories to generic "internet access". Same with ad access. Sending data to pre-whitelisted, registered and trusted sites that register with Google in advance should be in a different category to "upload to random server in china".
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