Google I/O 2018 is first and foremost a developer conference. It is where the company unveils its latest tools and features for Android developers. This year there is no exception regarding this. At Google I/O 2018 the tech giant announced Jetpack for Android, a set of components to accelerate app development. Android Jetpack is designed using the Kotlin to help users simplify their code. The latest Android Studio 3.2 canary will also features new tools for Jetpack. In developing countries, the number of developers using the Android IDE has almost tripled in just two years. With amazing growth like this, Google has made it a priority to better serve its community. So it is now also doubling down on its effort to serve developers.
What will Android Jetpack do:
Android Jetpack is a set of new Android components, tools, and guidance. It is also inspired by the backward compatibility of the Support Library and the ease of use of the Android Architecture Components. There are basically four categories of Jetpack components: Architecture, UI, Foundation, and Behavior.
The first component Architecture includes activities like lifecycle management, data binding, and more. The next component UI includes animation and transitions, fragments, layouts, among major features. The third component is Foundation which will include AppCompat, Multidex, testing, and more. The last component will be Behavior that will mainly include media and playback, permissions, notifications, sharing and more.
The components in Jetpack are being packed as unbundled libraries. This will mean that these components will not be a part of the Android platform. This will also allow users to add new components at their own pace as they become available. Also, all the components are expected to be platform-independent. This will allow user’s app to run on multiple versions of the Android platform.