Delight and Surprise - Making the most of user data on Android

Transcript

1. Making the most of user data on Android Matt Oakes

   @matto1990 [email protected]

2. User data • Loads of data already on the phone

   to use • Its personal to the user • Contacts • Accounts • Relevant to now • Location • Calendar

3. Why bother? • Customise your app to the user from

   first run • Save the user time by predicting actions • Surprise them with what you know • (be careful not to scare them!)

4. Case Studies

5. None
6. None

7. Some Basics

8. Intents

9. Explicit Intents • Every app uses them • Explicitly says

   what activity you want to go to • Should only be used internally in an app • Don’t use between apps
10. None
11. None

12. Generic Intent • Can request other applications open • Opens

    the most relevant application • User can choose which they want to open if they have more than one • App can also get a result back for the opened application • You don’t even need to know what the application you’re opening is
13. None
14. None

15. Web URLs • Can open one of your activities by

    going to a url • Will open if the user clicks a link in their browser (or another app) • Useful if you have a web version of your app that people might link to that you want the native app to take over from
16. None
17. None
18. None
19. None
20. None
21. None

22. OpenIntents.org

23. Magically getting emails

24. Why? • A lot of apps ask for email as

    a login • Email addresses are long and sometimes complicated! • Most users will already have an account signed in on the phone • You can therefore ask for access to their email addresses, and save them the typing

25. Shiny new way to do it • Available from 4.0

    and up (ICS) • Phone profile • Permission required • android.permission.READ_PROFILE • Users will have to have filled out their profile. Which Android tries to get them to do on first startup
26. None
27. None
28. None
29. None
30. None
31. None

32. Pre-ICS Method • Available from 2.0 and up (Eclair) •

    As of 1st May 2012 that’s 99% of users • Account information is stored on the phone • Can read the name of the account, which is the email • Required permission • android.permission.GET_ACCOUNTS
33. None
34. None
35. None

36. Sharing

37. Never roll your own • Android has an amazing sharing

    framework • Apps state that they are able to share data of a certain type • Twitter sharing text and images • Dropbox can handle any file or text • Other apps say they have data to share • The user is presented with a list of all apps that can handle that data • The apps they have installed are likely the only ones they care about
38. None
39. None
40. None
41. None
42. None
43. None
44. None

45. Media • Photos for example • Can call other apps

    when you want users to pick media • Can get other apps to open your app to choose data from your service • Could be used if you have photos/video which isn’t on the device but the user might want
46. None
47. None
48. None
49. None
50. None

51. Content providers

52. What? • They provide access to content (durrr) • They

    can be used across applications • One app can provide data to another • They are used for data that’s built into Android • Messages • Contacts • Calendar • Media (Music, photos etc.)

53. Contacts

54. Contacts • You should use this whenever the user is

    entering the name or email of a friend • Saves them typing • They’re more likely to type people in if it’s easy • Can enhance the view with the friends profile picture
55. None
56. None
57. None

58. What the user sees A contact from an application Each

    piece of data is a row

59. Calendar • You know what the user is up (or

    meant to be) right now • Can use the event location to tailor data • Would be great for weather apps • Can tell users what the weather is at each of their events
60. None
61. None
62. None

63. Location

64. Where art thou? • Can tailor search results based on

    the current location • Great for anything to do with local businesses or events • Really well used • Fairly tricky to do it right

65. Reto Meier - Deep dive into location http://goo.gl/NFDmW

66. Wrap up

67. Do it! • Lots of ways to get data •

    Tailor you app based on the users data • Tailor your app to current condition • Location • Even a barometer (?!?!?)

68. Matt Oakes @matto1990 [email protected] Example code on GitHub http://goo.gl/XfyMJ