Quick Settings & Split Screen In Android N By: Dhrumil Shah

Dhrumil Shah Lead Android App Developer, @Bugle Technologies Pvt. Ltd Co-organizer, Google Developers Group Ahmedabad

Quick Settings

Quick Settings - Use Cases ● Shortcuts ● Activity Shortcuts ● Actions ● Tile Abuse

Caution ! ! ! Quick Settings tiles are reserved for controls or actions that are either urgently required or frequently used, and should not be used as shortcuts to launching an app. From: Google Official Documentation

Limitations ! ! ! ● Tile only can have icons of a single color. White/Grey ● No RemoteView. ○ I.e. No expandable state for tile

What exactly in this API?

What exactly in this API? package android.service.quicksettings Classes Tile TileService

Tile Class ● A Tile holds the state of a tile that will be displayed in Quick Settings. ● A tile in Quick Settings exists as an icon with an accompanied label. ● It also may have content description for accessibility usability. ● The style and layout of the tile may change to match a given device.

TileService Class ● TileService is a subclass of Service ● A TileService provides the user a tile that can be added to Quick Settings. ● Quick Settings is a space provided that allows the user to change settings and take quick actions without leaving the context of their current app.

Life Cycle of TileService Class ● The life cycle of the TileService is different from the other services. ● It may be unbound during parts of its lifecycle. ❏ When a tile is added by the user its TileService will be bound to and onTileAdded() will be called. ❏ When a tile should be up to date and listing will be indicated by onStartListening() and onStopListening(). ❏ When the user removes a tile from Quick Settings onTileRemoved() will be called.

Let’s Start Reference URL to clone: http://tinyurl.com/QSTdemo

Split Screen

Why Split Screen? ● Average Mobile Screen size 5 inches. ● Require actual multitasking environment ● Utilize the full screen in actual manner

How to add support of Split Screen? ● AndroidManifest.xml ○ android:resizeableActivity=["true" | "false"] ○ Layout attributes ■ Source: https://developer.android.com/preview/features/multi-window.html

Activity Life Cycle in Split Screen ● In multi-window mode, an app can be in the paused state and still be visible to the user. ● An app might need to continue its activities even while paused. For example, a video-playing app that is in paused mode but is visible should continue showing its video. ● For this reason, Google recommend that activities that play video not pause the video in their onPause() handlers. Instead, they should pause video in onStop(), and resume playback in onStart(). Source: https://developer.android.com/preview/features/multi-window.html#running

Check the Display mode ● Android N has introduced an Activity method to check whether you are in Multiwindow mode or not. Activity.isInMultiWindowMode()

Tips from Expert 1. User the right Context 2. Handle configuration changes correctly 3. Handle all orientations 4. Build a responsive UI for all screen sizes 5. Activities started by other apps must always support multi-window By: Ian Lake (Android Developer Advocate at Google)

Let’s Explore Reference URL to clone: http://tinyurl.com/SplitScreenDemo

Thanks :)