Google I/O 2015: Part III – Developer Tools
Previously, in Google I/O 2015 Part-I- it was discuss about Android M with its upcoming Features while in Part-II briefs about enhancements in its existing products. Google also declare some special tools for Developers are detailed below.
Cloud Test Lab
It is one of the most interesting announcements. It facilitates developers to upload their app and run it on top 20 android devices. It’s automated mobile app testing. Cloud Test Lab will then send a report back to the developer with crash reports and other information. This will be available soon.
iOS & CocoaPods
Help to access user favorite libraries through CocoaPods, an official distribution channel for Google SDKs on iOS.
Android Studio
Preview Android Studio v1.3, now 1.3 was announced at this year’s I/O with improved Gradle build speed, a new memory profiler and debugging support for C and C++. Addition to this, an Android Studio NDK plugin provides features such as refactoring and code completion for C/C++ code along with Java code. Java and C/C++ code support is integrated in one development experience is chargeless for Android app developers. Through the Canary channel update to Android Studio v1.3.
Android Design Support Library
The new Android Design support library will make Material Design apps even easier. They have packaged a set of key design components (e.g floating action button, snackbar, navigation view, motion enabled Toolbars) which are backward compatible to API 7 and can be added to user app to create a modern, great looking Android app without building from scratch.
Firebase
Makes it easy to create apps quickly, without spinning up servers or writing server-side code.
Google Play Store
Developers will now have a homepage on the Google Play Store that will allow companies with more than one app for all their products, driving loyalty between developers and users. Gives new and powerful tools which will help to grow user’s business, improve decision making based on smarter insights and engage and retain a valuable user base.
Google Play Services
Google released v7.5 of Google Play services that include new features ranging from Smart Lock for Passwords, new APIs for Google Cast, Google Cloud Messaging and also Google Maps API on Android Wear device.
Universal App Campaigns
This is a system that allows Google to control the ads on user app after user have set a cost limit, leaving user to concentrate on further development. It will be automated in a few months.
App Indexing
This will Index user app’s content into Google Search with a website. Available for Android, and now for iOS also.
AdMob
Monetize user apps intelligently on a single platform, so they can gain insights about their users, drive more in-app purchases and maximize ad revenue. There is also a new feature to support mobile app sales teams called AdMob Reservations. They have also integrated Google Analytics into AdMob.
Polymer 1.0
Google launched Polymer 1.0. The Web application toolkit is designed to help developers give high-quality app-like experiences to the browser, over both desktop and mobile. These allow developers to deliver common features like toolbars and menus, add services like maps and charts, or develop a complete mobile-first checkout flow in their Web apps.
The new and updated version includes brand-new, fast, and easy-to-use data binding system, element theming and styling by utilising custom CSS properties, fast and lightweight Shadow DOM shim for non- browsers and “Behaviors” mechanism for sharing behavior between elements. Google has re-written library from ground up for its developer to preview with a focus on cross-browser performance. The new library is about three times faster on Chrome and four times faster on Safari. Launch of 1.0 means Polymer is ready for developers to use the toolkit in production apps. It’s another way Google is trying to pull apps and Web closer together.
Android Nanodegree
Enroll in the industry’s first Android Nanodegree, developed in collaboration with Udacity. The syllabus is built from the ground to meet the high standard for Android development. Nanodegree covers everything from fundamentals to advanced development skills, as well as Google Play services and Material Design.
Udacity is launching 6-month course for $200 a month for an Android Nanodegree.
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