Chet Haase, Android Framework engineer (Graphics & animations) Romain Guy, ex-Android Framework engineer

Chet Haase

Chet Haase, Android Framework engineer (Graphics & animations) Romain Guy, ex-Android Framework engineer

&

Romain Guy

A few weeks ago, Google announced the release of Android 4.4 KitKat.

Whats New
Today were going to talk about whats new in Android. We wont be able to cover everything but wed like to highlight some of the most exciting new features for developers and users alike.

Today were going to talk about whats new in Android. We wont be able to cover everything but wed like to highlight some of the most exciting new features for developers and users alike.

The rst device to run with Android 4.4 KitKat is the newly released Google Nexus 5. Its not the focus of our talk but here is some info about the specs: 1080p display, 2 GB of RAM, 4-core 2.3 Ghz Snapdragon 800, Adreno 330 GPU, optical image stabilization

In September 2013, we announced a total of 1 billion activated Android devices. One year ago, in September 2012, there were 500 million Android devices.

1,000,000,000
devices activated
In September 2013, we announced a total of 1 billion activated Android devices. One year ago, in September 2012, there were 500 million Android devices.

Device activations

Here is a brief recap of the total number of activated Android devices since mid-2011.

Device activations
1,000 750

500 400 190 100 May 11 Oct 11 Jan 12 Feb 12 Jun 12 Sep 12 Mar 13 Sep 13 250 300

Here is a brief recap of the total number of activated Android devices since mid-2011.

JellyBean is now on >50% of Android devices and ICS 20%. Honeycomb barely registers at 0.1%.

JB 52%

Froyo < 2%

GB 26%

HC ICS 20%
JellyBean is now on >50% of Android devices and ICS 20%. Honeycomb barely registers at 0.1%.

API 15-18 72%

API 8-13 28%

This means 72% of devices run API level 15 (ICS) or higher.

Documents

Storage Access Framework

The new storage API makes it easy for users to browse and open local & cloud-based documents. An advanced setting even allows to browse the entire le system.

private static final int READ_REQUEST_CODE = 1; public void performFileSearch() { Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_OPEN_DOCUMENT); intent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_OPENABLE); intent.setType("image/*"); startActivityForResult(intent, READ_REQUEST_CODE); }

You can display the standard UI by using the OPEN_DOCUMENT or CREATE_DOCUMENT intents. The standard UI will show content from all registered document providers.

public class MyDocsProvider extends DocumentsProvider { @Override public Cursor queryRoots(String[] projection); @Override public Cursor queryChildDocuments(String parentDocId, String[] projection, String sortOrder); @Override public Cursor queryDocument(String documentId, String[] projection); @Override public ParcelFileDescriptor openDocument( String documentId, String mode, CancellationSignal signal); }
To implement a new document provider you only need to implement these 4 methods. They let you manage the browsing, reading and writing of any local or remote data that can be represented as les/documents.

<provider android:name="com.example.mycloud.MyCloudProvider" android:authorities="com.example.mycloud.provider" android:grantUriPermissions="true" android:exported="true" android:permission="android.permission.MANAGE_DOCUMENTS"> <intent-filter> <action android:name= "android.content.action.DOCUMENTS_PROVIDER" /> </intent-filter> </provider>

You need to register your document provider by using the DOCUMENTS_PROVIDER intent lter and requesting the MANAGE_DOCUMENTS permission.

Printing

New printing APIs can be used to add printing capabilities to almost any kind of content. In particular, you can print anything you can render to a Canvas.

PdfDocument document = new PdfDocument(); PageInfo pageInfo = new PageInfo.Builder( new Rect(0, 0, 100, 100), 1).create(); Page page = document.startPage(pageInfo); View content = getContentView(); content.draw(page.getCanvas()); document.finishPage(page); document.writeTo(getOutputStream()); document.close();
Android uses PDF as its native printing format, this means you can generate PDF documents from any app that can draw onto a Canvas.

PrintHelper bitmapPrinter = new PrintHelper(getActivity()); bitmapPrinter.setScaleMode(PrintHelper.SCALE_MODE_FIT); Bitmap bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeResource( getResources(), R.drawable.my_bitmap); bitmapPrinter.printBitmap("Untitled Image", bitmap);

The PDF API is powerful but if you want to print properly paginated bitmaps, it is recommended you use helper classes.

User interface

Translucent system UI

Android 4.4 allows applications to draw behind the status bar and the navigation bar.

Theme.Holo.NoActionBar.TranslucentDecor Theme.Holo.Light.NoActionBar.TranslucentDecor

There are two new themes you can use to request the new translucent system UI.

<LinearLayout android:fitsSystemWindows="true" android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="match_parent" </LinearLayout>

If you request translucent sys bars, make sure to use tsSystemWindows for the portion of your layout that should not be covered by the system UI.

Immersive mode

We have a new immersive full-screen mode that hides the system UI even while the user interacts with the application. This was previously only possible for passive content such as videos. This is a great new API for content-rich applications that many of you have been asking for. To bring back the system UI, swipe from the top or bottom edges.

private void hideSystemUI() { mDecorView.setSystemUiVisibility( View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_STABLE | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_HIDE_NAVIGATION | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_FULLSCREEN | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_HIDE_NAVIGATION | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_FULLSCREEN | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_IMMERSIVE); }

Hiding the system UI is easy with the new SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_IMMERSIVE ag.

private void showSystemUI() { mDecorView.setSystemUiVisibility( View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_STABLE | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_HIDE_NAVIGATION | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_FULLSCREEN); }

To show the UI again, no new ag is necessary. These two methods can be used to toggle the system UI dynamically.

@Override public void onWindowFocusChanged(boolean hasFocus) { super.onWindowFocusChanged(hasFocus); if (hasFocus) { mDecorView.setSystemUiVisibility( View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_STABLE | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_HIDE_NAVIGATION | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_FULLSCREEN | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_HIDE_NAVIGATION | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_FULLSCREEN | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_IMMERSIVE_STICKY); } }

Alternatively you can create a persistent immersive experience that will automatically re-hide the system UI after a short delay or if the user interacts with the middle of the screen.

Fullscreen & hide navigation

Here are a few guidelines to help you choose the most appropriate mode. If your app needs a lean back experience !often found in video players use the FULLSCREEN and HIDE_NAVIGATION ags

Immersive, fullscreen & hide navigation

If your app is a content reader (books, magazines, articles, etc) use the IMMERSIVE, FULLSCREEN and HIDE_NAVIGATION ags

Immersive sticky, fullscreen & hide navigation

If your app is a game or a drawing app an app that requires a lot of interaction! use the IMMERSIVE_STICKY, FULLSCREEN and HIDE_NAVIGATION ags

New WebView

Android 4.4 introduces a completely new backend for WebView, based on the Chromium Open Source project that powers Chrome. This new WebView improved HTML 5 support, remote debugging, etc.

Android 4.4 introduces a completely new backend for WebView, based on the Chromium Open Source project that powers Chrome. This new WebView improved HTML 5 support, remote debugging, etc.

WebView webView = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.html_content); // Enable remote debugging webView.setWebContentsDebuggingEnabled(BuildConfig.DEBUG);

Remote debugging is one of the best new features of the new WebView. First, you must enable debugging on the WebView instance you want to inspect.

Connect your device over USB to a computer running Chrome and visit chrome://inspect to start debugging your WebView.

chrome://inspect

Connect your device over USB to a computer running Chrome and visit chrome://inspect to start debugging your WebView.

Connect your device over USB to a computer running Chrome and visit chrome://inspect to start debugging your WebView.

Scenes & transitions

// 1. From scratch Scene(ViewGroup); Scene.setEnterAction(Runnable);

Scenes

// 2. From a layout resource Scene.getSceneForLayout(sceneRoot, R.layout.someId, context);

Scenes

// 3. From existing ViewGroup Scene(ViewGroup, ViewGroup);

Scenes

// 1. Individual transitions new ChangeBounds(); new Fade();

Transitions

// 2. Transition groups TransitionSet set = new TransitionSet(); set.addTransition(new ChangeBounds()) .addTransition(new Fade());

Transitions

// 3. From XML <transitionSet> <changeBounds/> <fade/> </transitionSet>

Transitions

void captureStartValues(TransitionValues); void captureEndValues(TransitionValues); Animator createAnimator(ViewGroup, TransitionValues, TransitionValues);

Custom transitions

// Inflate from XML tm = TransitionInflater.inflateTransitionManager( R.transition.mgr, root); <transitionManager> <transition android:fromScene="@layout/scene1" android:toScene="@layout/scene2" android:transition="@transition/changebounds" /> <transition android:fromScene="@layout/scene1" android:toScene="@layout/scene3" android:transition="@transition/faderesize" /> </transitionManager>

TransitionManager

// Build transition sequences manually TransitionManager tm = TransitionManager(); tm.setTransition(Scene, Transition); tm.setTransition(Scene, Transition, Transition);

TransitionManager

// Different ways to trigger transitions Scene.enter(); TransitionManager.go(Scene); TransitionManager.go(Scene, Transition); tm.transitionTo(Scene, Transition);

TransitionManager

TransitionManager.beginDelayedTransition(ViewGroup);

The easy way

Accessibility & I18N

Closed captioning are now controlled by system-wide settings, found under Accessibility. Apps can access and adjust these settings using the new CaptioningManager.

// Add local source for English subtitles mVideoView.addSubtitleSource( getResources().openRawResource(R.raw.subs_en_vtt), MediaFormat.createSubtitleFormat("text/vtt", Locale.ENGLISH.getLanguage())); // Add local source for French subtitles. mVideoView.addSubtitleSource( getResources().openRawResource(R.raw.subs_fr_vtt), MediaFormat.createSubtitleFormat("text/vtt", Locale.FRENCH.getLanguage()));

When you use a VideoView you can now simply pass the captions in WebVTT format. VideoView will take care of rendering the captions according to the users preferences.

CaptioningManager manager = (CaptioningManager) context.getSystemService(Context.CAPTIONING_SERVICE); manager.addCaptioningChangeListener(this); CaptioningManager.CaptionStyle style = manager.getUserStyle(); Typeface t = style.getTypeface();

The captioning manager lets you listen to preferences changes and access the style chosen by the user, including the typeface, background color, etc.

Drawables auto-mirroring
In RTL mode drawables sometimes have to be mirrored (arrows for instance.) Until now it required the app to embed two versions of each asset, one going in the drawable-rtl/ resource directory. Mirroring is now handled automatically.

<nine-patch xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:src="@drawable/spinner_ab_default_holo_light_am" android:autoMirrored="true"> </nine-patch>

Here is an example of auto-mirroring taken from Androids framework resources.

Drawable d = resources.getDrawable(R.drawable.spinner); d.setAutoMirrored(true);

You can also of course set the auto-mirror property from code.

Supporting RTL locales is important to reach out as many users as possible but it can be di"cult to test your application and use the system in Arabic or Hebrew. A new developer option lets you force RTL mode with your favorite locale to test your apps.

Performance

Re-usable bitmaps

// Create a 1 MB bitmap, 1 px high, 8 bits per pixel Bitmap b = Bitmap.createBitmap(1024 * 1024, 1, Bitmap.Config.ALPHA_8); // Use it as a 256x256 32 bits per pixel bitmap b.reconfigure(256, 256, Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888); // Returns 256x256x4 = ~262 kB int size = b.getByteCount(); // Returns 1024x1024x1 = 1 MB int realSize = b.getAllocatedByteCount();

There is now a distinction between a bitmaps backing store and its conguration. You can for instance allocate a bitmap thats larger than what you need. As long as it can hold enough data, you can recongure it however you please by changing the width, height and conguration.

// Create a 1 MB bitmap, 1 px high, 8 bits per pixel Bitmap b = Bitmap.createBitmap(1024 * 1024, 1, Bitmap.Config.ALPHA_8); // Re-use our scratch bitmap for decoding BitmapFactory.Options opts = new BitmapFactory.Options(); opts.inBitmap = b; // Resizing is now supported when re-using bitmaps opts.inSampleSize = 2; // Decode an input stream into our bitmap BitmapFactory.decodeStream(in, null, opts);

This is of course particularly useful when decoding bitmaps from external resources. You can pre-allocate bitmaps large enough to hold your incoming data and never allocate new bitmaps.

Shared assets texture

Android 4.4 now generates a single texture containing all the framework assets, shared by all processes. This saves a bit of memory in every process but it also helps batching and merging drawing operations to optimize applications automatically.

Re-ordering & merging

This is an example of re-ordering & merging with Android 4.4 on Nexus 7 (2013). Note how checked and unchecked boxes are drawn together.

Software v-sync SurfaceFlinger in OpenGL ES 2.0 Asynchronous texture uploads

Other notable graphics improvements. Software v-sync triggers redraws a little ahead of the hardware v-sync to reduce latency. Async texture uploads improve apps that uses a large number of glyphs (CJK, emojis, etc)

RenderScript
RenderScript is now part of the NDK. There is also a support library.

mRs = new RSC::RS(); mRs->init(RSC::RS_INIT_LOW_LATENCY | RSC::RS_INIT_SYNCHRONOUS); mRsElement = RSC::Element::A_8(mRs); mRsScript = RSC::ScriptIntrinsicBlur::create(mRs, mRsElement); RSC::sp<const RSC::Type> t = RSC::Type::create(mRs, mRsElement, width, height, 0); RSC::sp<RSC::Allocation> ain = RSC::Allocation::createTyped(mRs, t, RS_ALLOCATION_MIPMAP_NONE, RS_ALLOCATION_USAGE_SCRIPT | RS_ALLOCATION_USAGE_SHARED, inImage); RSC::sp<RSC::Allocation> aout = RSC::Allocation::createTyped(mRs, t, RS_ALLOCATION_MIPMAP_NONE, RS_ALLOCATION_USAGE_SCRIPT | RS_ALLOCATION_USAGE_SHARED, outImage); mRsScript->setRadius(radius); mRsScript->setInput(ain); mRsScript->forEach(aout);
This is how Androids hardware renderer uses RenderScript intrinsics. This gives the renderer a 2-3x boost over native code when applying blurs to textures.

performTraversals draw getDL drawDisplayList flush drawing commands

systrace
systrace got even more useful in Android 4.4, with new tags (animations, ination, etc.) and the ability to use it from monitor (DDMS). Lets look at a demo, using Launcher.

Android 4.4 introduces a new overdraw debugging tool that shows you the amount of overdraw per window.

Project Svelte
Project Svelte was an e#ort in Android 4.4 to reduce memory usage across the board (system & apps) to ensure KitKat can run well on devices with 512 MB of physical RAM.

Procstats

$ adb shell dumpsys procstats com.google.android.apps.maps COMMITTED STATS FROM 2013-11-05-18-04-58: * com.google.android.apps.maps / u0a60: TOTAL: 1.1% Service: 1.1% (Cached): 99% (98MB-98MB-99MB/96MB-97MB-97MB over 7) Run time Stats: Screen Off / Norm / +1h19m25s22ms Screen On / Norm / +10m43s963ms TOTAL: +1h30m8s985ms Start time: 2013-11-05 18:04:58 Total elapsed time: +5h9m53s44ms (complete) libdvm.so chromeview

ActivityManager activityManager = (ActivityManager) getSystemService(ACTIVITY_SERVICE); if (activityManager.isLowRamDevice()) { // Modify memory use behavior }

Connectivity & media

Bluetooth HID over GATT (HOGP) IR blasters NFC host card emulation Low-power sensors Step detection and counting sensors

Adaptive playback
Support for adaptive video playback is now available with the MediaCodec APIs, enabling seamless change in resolution during playback onto a Surface. You can feed the decoder input frames of a new resolution and the resolution of the output bu#ers change without a signicant gap.

Loudness enhancer
The LoudnessEnhancer is a new subclass of AudioE#ect that allows you to increase the audible volume of your MediaPlayer or AudioTrack. This can be especially useful in conjunction to increase the volume of spoken audio tracks while other media is currently playing.

private void setupImageReader() { mReader = ImageReader.newInstance(width, height, 2); mReader.setOnImageAvailableListener(this, mHandler); playVideo(mReader.getSurface()); } @Override public void onImageAvailable(ImageReader reader) { Image image = reader.acquireLatestImage(); for (Image.Plane plane : image.getPlanes()) { processImageData(plane.getBuffer(), image.getWidth(), image.getHeight()); } }

The new ImageReader API provides you direct access to image bu#ers as they are rendered into a Surface. The Image object provides direct access to the image's timestamp, format, dimensions, and pixel data.

android:sdk $ adb shell screenrecord /sdcard/my_app.mp4 android:sdk $ adb pull /sdcard/my_app.mp4

Android 4.4 adds a long awaited feature: screen recording. The screenrecord command can record a video of your device for a duration of up to 3 minutes.

You can also invoke the screen recording command from Android Studio. The record button can be found in the Android DDMS panel (Alt-6).

You can also invoke the screen recording command from Android Studio. The record button can be found in the Android DDMS panel (Alt-6).

And more!

SELinux set to enforcing Improved cryptographic algorithms Per-user VPN on multi-user devices

Map<String, List<Drawable>> drawables = new HashMap<>();

Android 4.4 supports new language features such as the diamond operator. The compiler can infer the type of the right-hand side expression for us. This feature is retro-compatible.

String command = getCommand(); switch (command) { case "start": start(); break; case "stop": stop(); break; }

It is not possible to use String types in switch statements. This makes the code a lot more readable than a series of if (mystring.equals(astring)). This feature is retro-compatible.

try (PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter("data.out")) { for (String line : getData()) { out.println(line); } } catch (IOException e) { // Do something smart }

Automatic resource management will take care of calling close() for you. No more try/catch for IOException around close() calls in your nally statement! Auto resource management works on classes that implement AutoCloseable, present in API level 19 only.

try { readFile(); } catch (FileNotFoundException | IOException e) {

// Do something useful

If several exceptions are thrown in a block of code and needs to be handled the same way, you can now catch them all with a single catch without catching a base class. This feature is retro-compatible.

New runtime

Android 4.4 o#ers the option to switch to a new runtime, called ART, for development purposes only. ART is included so you can test your application but Dalvik should remain the default runtime for normal use.

To enable ART, go to Developer options, and click the Select runtime entry. After selecting ART you will need to reboot the device.

Android 4.4 DevBytes goo.gl/2bpmDA

DevBytes is a series of videos that dive deeper in some of the features presented here. They are a great resource and highly recommended if you want to learn more about the new Android 4.4 APIs.

developer.android.com/about/versions/kitkat.html developer.android.com/about/versions/android-4.4.html

More info

Chets Tips & Tricks graphics-geek.blogspot.com Romains Tips & Tricks www.curious-creature.org

More info

Chet Haase google.com/+ChetHaase

Romain Guy google.com/+RomainGuy