turning off the Wi-Fi when you’re driving. Applications can no longer turn the Wi-Fi on or off, which prevents automation apps from e.g. Currently, all apps can access the clipboard without special permissions, but the correct way to solve this is to add a permission prompt, not to get rid of the API entirely. They are removing the ability for apps to access the clipboard, killing an entire category of clipboard management apps (so that you can have a history of what you copied, so that you can sync the clipboard with your other phones and computers, etc.). In the upcoming Android version 10/Q, Google intends to restrict even more what apps can do. One of my own apps also needs to have a similar notification in Android 8/Oreo and newer, in order to reliably perform Wi-Fi scans to locate the user in specific locations. For example, I have two in my phone: one for the call recorder, and another for the equalizer system. For example, applications wishing to stay active in the background now have to display a permanent notification, an idea which sounds good in theory, but the end result is having a handful of permanent notifications in your drawer, one for each application that may need to stay active. In the past two to three years, new Android versions have also began removing APIs and changing how the existing ones work. This meant that applications designed with an older version in mind would still work fine, and developers did not need to immediately redesign their apps with new versions in mind. New Android versions include new APIs and, in the past, barely any changes were made to APIs introduced in previous versions. This is the case for the APIs that access your contact list or your location. On top of this, some APIs require permissions, which you agree to when you install apps that use them, and some of these permissions can be allowed or denied by the user as he runs the app (of course, the app can refuse to run if the permissions are denied, but the idea is that it will degrade gracefully and provide at least some functionality without them). These APIs are how apps interact with the operating system, and simplifying things a bit, they pretty much define what apps can and can’t do. With every Android version, Google makes changes to the Android APIs. API deprecation and loss of backwards compatibility I am fully aware of how bad Android was for both users and developers in the 4.x and earlier eras, in part because I still had the opportunity to use these versions, and in part because my apps had to support some of them. Still, I feel like I have witnessed a decade of changes – in big part, because even during my “Windows Mobile experiments” era, I was paying attention to what was happening on the Android side, with phones I couldn’t yet afford to buy (my Windows Mobile “Pocket PCs” were hand-me-downs). I started messing with Android app development shortly before 6.0 Marshmallow was released, so I am definitely not an old timer who can say he has seen Android evolve from the beginning, and certainly not from the perspective of a developer. Android was the first, and so far only, mobile operating system for which I got seriously invested in app development. I started using Android at a time when 4.2 was the latest version, I remember 4.4 being announced shortly after, and that was the version my first Android phone ran until the end of its useful life. And new Android versions are not the only things that make my heart beat faster for the wrong reasons: changes to Google Play Store policies are always a fun moment, too.īefore we dive in any further, a bit of context: Android was not the first mobile OS I used references to my experiences and experiments with Windows Mobile 6.x are probably scattered around this blog. While major new Android versions used to bring features that got both users and developers excited, since a few versions ago, I dread the moment a new Android version is announced and I find myself looking for courage (heh) to look at the changelogs and developer guidelines for it. This is changing at an increasingly faster pace. It was the platform of choice in research and education, because not only are the development tools free and cross-platform, Android was also a very flexible operating system that did not get in the way of experimenting with innovative concepts or messing with the hardware we own. But are you aware that Android app developers go through similar struggles with Google Play? Let me try and explain everything that’s wrong with Android in a single 20 minutes read.Īndroid was once considered the better choice of mobile platform for those looking for customizability, powerful features such as true multitasking, support for less common use cases, and higher developer freedom. Many are aware that some YouTubers are unhappy with how YouTube operates. Developing for Android is like being a (demonetized) YouTuber
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