Windows 10: Android 11 Beta 2 and Platform Stability now available

Brink · Jul 8, 2020

A few weeks ago we unwrapped the first Beta of Android 11 with a focus on people, controls, and privacy. As we highlighted in the #Android11Beta Launch, weâre making Android more people-centric and expressive, helping users control their smart devices, and giving them even more control over sensitive permissions. Developers can use APIs like Conversations, Bubbles, Device Controls, and Media Controls, to integrate these experiences into their apps.

Today weâre pushing out the second Beta of Android 11 for you to try. This release takes us to the Platform Stability milestone, which means that Android 11âs APIs and behaviors are finalized. For developers, itâs time to get started on your final compatibility updates and publish them in time for the official release later in Q3.

This weekâs theme in #11 Weeks of Android is Android 11 Compatibility and weâll be sharing helpful content and materials all week. You can find them on the #11 Weeks page or follow Android Developers on Twitter and https://www.youtube.com/user/androiddevelopers.

You can get Beta 2 today on your Pixel 2, 3, 3a, and 4 device by enrolling here for over-the-air updates, and downloads are also available. If you previously enrolled for Beta 1, you will automatically get the over-the-air update. Let us know what you think, and thanks for the feedback youâve provided so far!

Platform Stability

Beta 2 brings Android 11 to Platform Stability, a new release milestone that we added this year just for developers, based on your feedback.

Platform Stability means that all app-facing surfaces and behaviors are now final in Android 11. This includes not only final SDK and NDK APIs, but also final system behaviors and restrictions on non-SDK interfaces that may affect apps. So from Beta 2, you can release compatibility updates with confidence that the platform wonât change. More on the timeline is here.

With the platform now stable, weâre encouraging all app and game developers to start your final compatibility testing and publish your updates ahead of the final release.

For all SDK, library, tools, and game engine developers, itâs even more important to start testing now and release your compatible updates as soon as possible -- your downstream app and game developers may be blocked until they receive your updates. When youâve released a compatible update, be vocal and let developers know!

Why app compatibility is important

For Android, the term app compatibility means that your app runs properly on a specific version of the platform, typically the latest version. You can check this right now by installing your production app on a device or emulator running Android 11. Just test all of the user flows and features, and if the app looks and runs properly, then youâre done, itâs compatible!

It sounds simple, but sometimes thereâs more to it. With each release, we make integral changes that improve privacy and security, as well as implement changes that evolve the overall user experience across the OS. Sometimes these can affect your apps, so itâs important to take a look at the behavior changes and test against them, then publish the compatible update to users. Itâs a basic but critical level of quality.

App compatibility comes into play as users update to the latest version of Android, whether theyâve purchased a new device or installed an update on their current device. Theyâre excited to explore the latest version of Android, and they want to experience it with their favorite apps. If the apps donât work properly, itâs a major issue - for users and for all of us.

So while there are a ton of new APIs and capabilities to explore, and more changes to consider when youâre ready to change your appâs targeting, start by testing your current app and releasing a compatible update first.

Updates to Pixel and other devices will get started as soon as Android 11 reaches the final release to Android Open Source Project (AOSP), which we expect later in Q3. Multiple partner devices are also in active public previews now to support your compatibility testing.

Making app compatibility easier in Android 11

With each release, weâre working to reduce the work youâll need to do to get your apps ready. In Android 11, weâve added new processes, developer tools, and release milestones to minimize the impact of platform updates and make it easier for apps to stay compatible.

Minimizing the impact of behavior changes - weâre making a conscious effort to minimize platform changes that could affect apps by making them opt-in, wherever possible, until you set targetSdkVersion to Android 11 in your app. If you are distributing through Google Play, youâll have more than a year to opt-in to these changes.

Easier testing and debugging - To help you test for compatibility, weâve made many of the breaking changes toggleable - meaning that you can force-enable or disable the changes individually from Developer options or adb. With this change, thereâs no longer a need to change targetSdkVersion or recompile your app for basic testing. Check out the details here.

App compatibility toggles in Developer options.

Restrictions on non-SDK interfaces - as part of our ongoing effort to gradually move developers away from non-SDK APIs, weâve updated the lists of restricted non-SDK interfaces, and as always your feedback and requests for public API equivalents are welcome.

Dynamic resource loader - As part of their migration away from non-SDK interfaces, developers asked us for a public API to load resources and assets dynamically at runtime. Weâve now added a Resource Loader framework in Android 11, and thank you to the developers who gave us this input!

Platform stability milestone - As mentioned, this is a new milestone weâve added to our release process to give developers a clear date for final changes. It includes not only final SDK/NDK APIs, but also final internal APIs and system behaviors that may affect apps.

Get your apps ready for Android 11!

Now that Android 11 is stable, make your apps compatible as soon as possible. Hereâs how to do it.

For testing your current app, start with the behavior changes for all apps to see where it could be affected. Here are the top changes (these apply regardless of your appâs targetSdkVersion):

One-time permission - Users can now grant single-use permission to access location, device microphone and camera. Details here.

External storage access - Apps can no longer access other appsâ files in external storage. Details here.

Scudo hardened allocator - Now the heap memory allocator for native code in apps. Details here.

File descriptor sanitizer - Now enabled by default to detect file descriptor handling issues for native code in apps. Details here.

Remember to test the libraries and SDKs in your app for compatibility. If you find an issue, try updating to the latest version of the SDK, or reach out to the developer for help.

Later, after youâve published the compatible version of your current app, you can start the process of updating your app's targetSdkVersion. Review the behavior changes for Android 11 apps and try the compatibility framework to help find impacts. Here are some of the top changes to test for (these apply only to targetSdkVersion 30+):

Scoped storage - New storage restrictions, behaviors, and APIs for apps reading and writing files. Details here.

Background location - Changes to how apps request background location and how users grant it. Details here.

Package visibility - Changes to how apps can query and interact with other installed apps. Details here.

Compressed resource files - Apps canât be installed or updated if they contain a compressed resources.arsc file, or if the file is not aligned on a 4-byte boundary. Details here.

APK Signature Scheme v2 - Apps must now be signed using APK Signature Scheme v2 or higher. Details here.

Heap pointer tagging - For 64-bit processes, native heap allocations have a tag set in the top byte of the pointer that should not be modified by apps. Details here.

During testing, watch for uses of restricted non-SDK interfaces in your app and move those to public SDK equivalents instead. You can read about the restricted APIs here.

Explore the new features and APIs

As soon as youâre ready, dive into Android 11 and learn about the new experiences you can build. Our #Android11 Beta post has a recap of new features for developers, and you can also visit the Beta Launch page to see talks from the Android team on whatâs new in their areas.

Android Studio also has new features for Android 11 also, to improve your productivity and workflow, such as ADB incremental for faster installs of large APKs, and additional nullability annotations on platform APIs. You can give these a try by downloading the latest Android Studio Beta or Canary version. Instructions for configuring Android Studio for Android 11 are here.

For complete details on Android 11 features and APIs, visit the Android 11 developer site.

How do I get Beta 2?

Itâs easy! You can enroll here to get Android 11 Beta updates over-the-air for Pixel 2, 3, 3a, and 4 devices. Alternatively, give Android Flash Tool a try for easy on-demand updates, and downloadable system images are also available. If you don't have a Pixel device, you can use the Android Emulator in Android Studio or try a GSI image to run Android 11 on supported Treble-compliant devices.

As always, your feedback is critical, so please let us know what you think. You can use our hotlists for filing platform issues (including privacy and behavior changes), app compatibility issues, and third-party SDK issues. You've shared great feedback with us so far -- thank you!

Android 11 compatibility week

This week in #11 Weeks of Android, weâre highlighting Android 11 Compatibility, a theme thatâs important for all developers now that the platform has reached stability.

Weâre sharing resources to help you with compatibility testing here, and you can follow Android Developers on Twitter and https://www.youtube.com/user/androiddevelopers to catch helpful content and materials in this area all this week!

Also, the Android engineering team will host a Reddit AMA on r/androiddev tomorrow, July 9 at 12:00PM PST, to answer your technical questions about Android 11. See this post for details and to submit your questions.
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Source: https://android-developers.googleblo...stability.html

:)

Tenforo · Jul 8, 2020

Android 11 Beta is available

As we shared with you last week, we postponed our beta release of Android 11 so that people could focus on important discussions about racial justice. Today's release looks differently than originally planned - instead of a livestream event, we're sharing a few videos and online resources to consume at your own pace when the time is right for you. We humbly thank those who are able to offer feedback on this release at this time. Your feedback is essential in building a helpful mobile platform for billions of people, developers and manufacturers around the world.

Read on to find out what's new in this year's release, Android 11.

Focusing on people to make communication easier

Caption: See and respond to your ongoing conversations across your favorite apps in one place.

Caption: Bubbles help you multitask on your phone without missing important conversations.

Caption: Speed up your replies with automatic emoji and text prediction on Gboard.

Across Google, we've been thinking about how to help people communicate more effectively with each other. Google Meet is now available to everyone and can support larger meetings, and family mode for Duo lets you doodle on calls and add masks and effects, helping you express yourself in new and fun ways.

To make communication easier and simpler on your phone, Android 11 will move all of your conversations across multiple messaging apps to a dedicated space in the notification section. This makes it easy to see, respond to and manage your conversations all in one place. You can mark a conversation as priority to give it preference so you never miss an important message. These key conversations show up on your always-on display and can even "break through" a Do Not Disturb setting.

Android 11 also introduces Bubbles, a new feature to help you respond and engage with important conversations without switching back and forth between your current task and the messaging app. You can open a bubble for your conversation right from the notification and multitask without missing a thing.

In addition, when you type using Gboard in Android 11, you'll get relevant and automatic suggestions for emoji and text. This is possible because of secure on-device intelligence that takes advantage of Federated Learning, and it works without Google ever seeing anything you type.

New ways to control your connected devices and media

Caption: Android 11 makes it faster and easier to access and control your connected devices

As the world around us becomes more connected with ambient computing, Android 11 is helping you better manage all of your connected devices.

You can now quickly access and control your smart devices in one place by long pressing on the power button. Adjusting the temperature, turning on the lights or unlocking the front door can now be done with a tap without opening multiple apps.

Your device controls will show up alongside other things you need at the ready, like your payment methods or your boarding pass (when we're flying again). We like to think of it as a "pocket" for your digital wallet, keys and more.

We're also introducing new media controls in Android 11, making it quick and convenient to switch the device your audio or video content is playing on. It is now easier to bring your music with you from your headphones, to speakers, or even to your TV.

Caption: New media controls in Android 11

More privacy improvements

Every Android release has new privacy and security controls that let you decide how and when data on your device is shared. Android 11 has even more granular controls for the most sensitive permissions. With one-time permissions you can grant apps access to your microphone, camera or location, just that one time. The next time the app needs access to these sensors, it will have to ask you for permission again.

In addition, if you haven't used an app for an extended period of time, we will "auto-reset" all of the permissions associated with that app and notify you of the same. You can always choose to re-grant the app permissions the next time you open the app.

Caption: New privacy controls in Android 11: One-time permissions and auto-reset

Available in Beta today with many more features

Android 11 brings many more features to your smartphone, like screen recorder, updated Voice Access, improved performance, and an improved share menu that makes it easier to share content from your phone. You can find many of these features in Beta, available on Pixel 2+ phones today and other devices in the coming weeks.
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Source: Android 11 Beta is available today

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Brink · Jul 8, 2020

Cortana Now Available on Android in Public Beta

In May, we announced that Cortana, the first personal digital-assistant who works across your PC & your phone, will be coming to Android and iOS devices. Today, we’re pleased to make the beta of the Cortana app available to all Android phone users.

If you are currently a Windows 10 user, you already know the benefits of Cortana. The Cortana app on Android is the companion to your Windows 10 PC, extending Cortana’s functionality across any device you carry, everywhere you go.

The Cortana app can do most of the things Cortana does on your PC or on a Windows phone. With the app, you can manage your hectic lifestyle by setting and getting reminders, searching the web on-the-go, tracking important information such as flight details as well as starting and completing tasks across all of your devices.

Since we launched the closed beta, we’ve also made several improvements to the experience including the ability to set Cortana as the destination for the home button press. Now access to your personal digital assistant is just a button-press away.

You will also see a few differences between what Cortana can do today in her “native” environment (Windows) and in the app on Android. For example toggling settings, opening apps or invoking Cortana hands-free by saying “Hey Cortana” are only available on Windows for now. As with all betas, we are continually improving the experience and will incorporate feedback along the way.

Users can access the Cortana app for Android via this link. Cortana on Android is currently available in the U.S. only, but we are planning to roll it out to other markets. Stay tuned for more details.
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Source: Cortana Now Available on Android in Public Beta | Blogging Windows

Mick_H1 · Jul 8, 2020

Firefox 1.1 beta now available.

As the title suggests, Firefox 1.1beta is now available for download. There's a few new features, like zooming with the volume/zoom rocker switch. Screenshots and feature list here:

Firefox 1.1 Shots & FL. Download link here: FF Download link.

Might give it another try sometime.

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