

Android Developers Backstage
Android Developers
Android Backstage, a podcast by and for Android developers. Hosted by developers from the Android engineering team, this show covers topics of interest to Android programmers, with in-depth discussions and interviews with engineers on the Android team at Google.
Subscribe to Android Developers YouTube → https://goo.gle/AndroidDevs
Subscribe to Android Developers YouTube → https://goo.gle/AndroidDevs
Episodes
Mentioned books

Oct 18, 2021 • 45min
Episode 177: Honor every photon
In this episode, Bart Wronski takes Tor, Romain, and Chet through the camera pipeline that powers the Pixel phones. We talked about how cameras capture images, and how the algorithms responsible for Pixel’s beautiful images work. If you’ve ever wondered how HDR+ or Night Sight works, this episode if for you! Top row: Tor and Bart. Bottom row: Chet and Romain. Links: Bart’s blog on graphics and image processing SIGGRAPH paper and presentation on handheld multi-frame super resolution Night Sight Astrophotography with Night Sight HDR+ with bracketing on Pixel Live HDR+ on Pixel 4 (HDRnet) Bart: @bartwronsk Romain: @romainguy Chet: @chethaase Tor: @tornorbye

Sep 27, 2021 • 43min
Episode 176: Android 12 - S stands for System UI
In this episode, Chet, Romain and Tor have a chat with Selim, Vadim and Lucas from the Android system UI team, discussing many of the new features in Android 12's user interface. Top row: Vadim, Selim and Romain. Bottom row: Lucas, Tor and Chet. Some relevant links for the Splash screen discussion: https://goo.gle/3APByre https://goo.gle/3zGDVeB Selim: @selimcinek Vadim: @vadimcaen Chet: @chethaase Romain: @romainguy Tor: @tornorbye

Sep 14, 2021 • 45min
Episode 175: Lottie
In this episode, Chet, Romain and Tor have a chat with Gabriel Peal from Tonal, well known for his contributions to the Android community on projects such as Mavericks and Lottie. We talked about Lottie and how it helps designers and developers deliver more delightful user experiences by taking complex animations designed in specialized authoring tools such as After Effects, and rendering them efficiently on mobile devices. We also explored the challenges of designing and implementing a rendering engine such as Lottie. Romain, Gabriel, Tor, and Chet Related info: Lottie LottieFiles Mavericks Gabriel: @gpeal8 Chet: @chethaase Romain: @romainguy Tor: @tornorbye

Sep 9, 2021 • 35min
Episode 174: Compose tooling
In this episode, Tor and Nick are joined by Chris Sinco, Diego Perez and Nicolas Roard to discuss the features added to Android Studio for Jetpack Compose. They discuss the Compose preview, interactive preview, animation inspector and additions to the Layout inspector and their approach to create tooling to support the Compose’s code-centric approach. Diego, Tor, Chris, Nicolas and Nick tooling around. Tooling guide

Aug 26, 2021 • 35min
Episode 173: More benchmarking
In this episode, Chet, Romain and Tor talk with Chris Craik and Rahul Ravikumar from the toolkit performance team. We talk about the recently released the macrobenchmark tool+library, in addition to other interesting bits like how the benchmark libraries work, how to use them, how they relate to system tracing, how to do performance debugging in general, and even a teaser of future performance instrumentation functionality that the team is working on. Chet, Chris, Rahul (top), Romain, and Tor (bottom), all looking unusually happy. Related info: The Profile your app performance page for an overview of the performance tools and practices we offer. Performance samples Running benchmarks in continuous integration Chris: @chris_craik Rahul: @tikurahul Chet: @chethaase Romain: @romainguy Tor: @tornorbye

Aug 9, 2021 • 37min
Episode 172: Privacy features in Android 12
In this episode, Chet, Romain and Tor talk with Sara N Marandi, Fred Chung and Erik Wolsheimer about the new privacy features in Android 12, such as the privacy dashboard, and the camera and microphone usage indicators. Guests Eric, Sara and Fred on the top row, and hosts Romain, Tor and Chet on the bottom row. Permission best practices → https://goo.gle/3oVdK02 Android 12 privacy changes → https://goo.gle/2VvmtMl Sara: @snmarandi Fred: @fredchung Eric Chet: @chethaase Romain: @romainguy Tor: @tornorbye

Aug 2, 2021 • 40min
Episode 171: Compose Testing
In this episode, Nick and Romain are joined by Filip Pavlis, Jelle Fresen & Jose Alcérreca to talk about Testing in Compose. They discuss how Compose’s testing APIs were developed hand-in-hand with the UI toolkit, making them more deterministic and opening up new possibilities like manipulating time. They go on to discuss the semantics tree, interop testing, screenshot testing and the possibilities for host-side testing. Big smiles from Filip, Jose, Romain, Jelle and Nick for the year of testing on Android. Compose Testing guide Compose Testing Cheatsheet Compose Testing codelab Sample Tests: Jetnews, Jetchat, Crane, Rally Screenshot Testing Compose Learning Pathway Romain: @romainguy Filip Pavlis Jelle Fresen Jose: @ppvi Nick: @crafty

Jul 20, 2021 • 43min
Episode 170: Jetpack Compose Graphics & Animation
In this episode Nick and Chet are joined by Dois Liu and Nader Jawad to discuss Compose’s Animation and Graphics systems. They cover their goals to make both systems easier to understand, more consistent and simpler to work with. They explain how they adapted traditionally imperative systems to a declarative world and give an overview of both the high level composables the library offers as well as lower level building blocks you can drop down to for more control. Hosts Chet & Nick speak to Doris and Nader. Compose Graphics guide Compose Animation guide Compose Animation codelab AnimatedContent composable AdvanceTimeBy (testing animations) Compose Learning Pathway Chet: @chethaase Doris: @doris4lt Nader: @nadewad Nick: @crafty

6 snips
Jul 5, 2021 • 37min
Episode 169: Testing
Adarsh Fernando, a Product Manager on the Android Studio team, and Arif Sukoco, a specialist in testing features, dive into the exciting advancements in Android testing. They discuss automated test snapshots that allow developers to analyze failures efficiently. The new Test Matrix tool improves testing across multiple devices, while Gradle-managed virtual devices streamline workflows. They also tackle the challenges of UI testing and the importance of robust testing strategies, emphasizing how innovation is revolutionizing the testing landscape for Android developers.

Jun 28, 2021 • 43min
Episode 168: Material Composition
In our ongoing mini-series on Jetpack Compose, Nick and Romain talk to Clara Bayarri and Matvei Malkov about Compose’s support for Material Design. They discuss how Compose supports Material Components and Material Theming out of the box, how you can customize these to your needs or how Compose makes it easier to build your own design system. They also share insights into building reusable components with slot APIs and when to use CompositionLocals and look to the future with Compose’s planned support for Material You. Hosts Romain and Nick with Clara and Matvei. Material components reference docs Compose Theming guide Compose Theming codelab Build beautiful Material Design apps with Jetpack Compose Google I/O talk Compose Learning Pathway Clara: @clarabayarri Matvei: @matvei_jj Romain: @romainguy Nick: @crafty