Watch Android @ Google I/O 2013

Posted by Reto Meier, Android Developer Relations Tech Lead



We had a lot to talk about this year at I/O. We launched Google Play services 3.1 with Google Play games services, improved Location APIs, and Google Cloud Messaging enhancements; Android Studio: A new IDE for Android development based on IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition; and Google Play Developer Console improvements such as app translation service, revenue graphs, beta testing & staged rollouts, and optimization tips.



With the excitement of these announcements behind us, it's time to sit back, relax, and watch all the sessions we missed during the event. To make that easier, we've collected all the Android sessions together in the Android @ Google I/O 13 page on the developer site.



We've also created the Google I/O 13 - The Android Sessions playlist (embedded below), as well as playlists for each developer category: design, develop, and distribute.

For those of you who prefer listening to your I/O talks without the distraction of watching speakers and slides, we're also making the sessions available as part of the Android Developers Live Podcast.



Google I/O is always a highlight on the Android Developer Relations team's calendar, so we'll be keeping the magic alive with our Android Developers Live broadcasts.



This week we resumed our regular broadcasts with Android Design in Action offering a review of Android Design sessions at I/O. Next week will see the return of This Week in Android Development and The App Clinic, and stay tuned for more episodes of Table Flip, GDG App Clinics, and more!



We'll also continue to add new DevBytes and BizDevBytes to offer tips and tricks for improving your apps and making them more successful.



As always you can talk to us and keep track of our upcoming broadcasts, Android Studio news, and other Android developer news on the +Android Developers Google+ page.

Join the discussion on



+Android Developers

Handling Phone Call Requests the Right Way for Users

Posted by Dirk Dougherty, Android Developer Relations

One of the things users like most about Android is the flexibility to choose which apps should handle common tasks on their devices — from opening a web page or sending an SMS to playing a music file, taking a picture, or making phone calls. This flexibility is provided by Intents.

Intents give you a powerful way to integrate your apps deeply into the system — users can even choose to let your apps replace functionality provided by system apps. In those cases, it’s essential to make sure that anything your app can’t or doesn’t handle can still be handled properly by the default system app.

Proper implementation and testing are especially important for apps that provide telephony services. Make sure that your app doesn't interfere with emergency calling by listening for the wrong intent — CALL_PRIVILEGED. Follow the best practices below to handle outgoing calls the right way, using the NEW_OUTGOING_CALL intent.

Listening for outgoing call requests

Apps that provide phone calling services (such as VOIP or number management) can set up Intent filters to handle outgoing call requests, such as those made from the Dialer or other installed apps. This provides a seamless integration for the user, who can transition directly to the calling service without having to redial or launch another app.

When the user initiates a call, the system notifies interested apps by sending an ordered broadcast of the NEW_OUTGOING_CALL Intent, attaching the original phone number, URI, and other information as extras. This gives apps such as Google Voice and others a chance to modify, reroute, or cancel the call before it’s passed to the system’s default phone app.

If you want your phone calling app to be able to handle outgoing call requests, implement a broadcast receiver that receives the NEW_OUTGOING_CALL Intent, processes the number, and initiates a call as needed. Make sure to declare an intent filter for NEW_OUTGOING_CALL in the receiver, to let the system know that your app is interested in the broadcast. You’ll also need to request the PROCESS_OUTGOING_CALLS permission in order to receive the Intent.

Note that the system broadcasts NEW_OUTGOING_CALL only for numbers that are not associated with core dialing capabilities such as emergency numbers. This means that NEW_OUTGOING_CALL can not interfere with access to emergency services the way your use of CALL_PRIVILEGED might.

Here’s an example broadcast receiver declared in an app’s manifest file:

<manifest>
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.PROCESS_OUTGOING_CALLS" />  
    <application>
        ...
        <receiver android:name=MyOutgoingCallHandler">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.NEW_OUTGOING_CALL" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
            </intent-filter>
        </receiver>
        ...
    </application>
</manifest>

The implementation of the corresponding broadcast receiver would look something like this:

public class MyOutgoingCallHandler extends BroadcastReceiver {
  @Override
  public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
    // Extract phone number reformatted by previous receivers
    String phoneNumber = getResultData();
    if (phoneNumber == null) {
      // No reformatted number, use the original
      phoneNumber = intent.getStringExtra(Intent.EXTRA_PHONE_NUMBER);
    }
    // My app will bring up the call, so cancel the broadcast
    setResultData(null);
    // Start my app to bring up the call
    ...
  }
}

Because the NEW_OUTGOING_CALL broadcast is ordered, your app can choose whether to consume the call request itself or simply process the number and pass the result data on to other apps that may be interested. In this example, the broadcast receiver brings up a phone call on it’s own service and sets the result data to null. This prevents the call request from reaching the default phone app.

An anti-pattern

Rather than listening for NEW_OUTGOING_CALL Intents, some apps have mistakenly set up intent filters for CALL_PRIVILEGED Intents as a way to handle outgoing calls. This is not a recommended approach, because the system may send a CALL_PRIVILEGED Intent for any number, including emergency numbers. Since non-system apps can’t reformat emergency numbers or place emergency calls, attempting to handle CALL_PRIVILEGED could inadvertently interfere with access to emergency numbers.

CALL_PRIVILEGED should only be used by apps that have the necessary signatureOrSystem-level permission — it is not designed for use by any third-party apps.

Check your apps for proper use of NEW_OUTGOING_CALL

If your app provides phone calling services and already uses intent filters to handle outgoing call requests, take a few minutes to make sure it is listening for the proper Intent: NEW_OUTGOING_CALL.

If your app includes intent filters that listen for CALL_PRIVILEGED Intents, make sure to remove those filters and related code from the app (in favor of NEW_OUTGOING_CALL) and publish the updated app as soon as possible.

Transitioning to Google Wallet Merchant Center

Posted by Mark Thomas, Product Manager, Google Wallet

A key focus of Google Wallet is to simplify commerce for merchants and shoppers; for over a year now, consumers on Google Play have been using Wallet to make their purchases, to the benefit of the entire ecosystem. Helping merchants benefit from the growing consumer adoption of mobile commerce is where we believe we can make the most impact. And that’s why today we're focusing our efforts on the new Google Wallet Merchant Center and retiring Google Checkout over the next six months.

Most Google Play apps developers will seamlessly transition to the Wallet Merchant Center, which provides new reporting and analytics features and much more. A small number of Google Play developers, however, will see some changes:

• Developers using Google Checkout on their website to sell physical goods or services will no longer be able to use Checkout after November 20, 2013. We have provided some discounted migration options to help with this change. If you are a U.S. merchant selling physical goods and services who does have payment processing, you can apply for Google Wallet Instant Buy, which offers a fast buying experience to Google Wallet shoppers.


• Developers who use the Google Checkout for the Notifications and/or Order Reports API(s) will need to migrate to replacement APIs, made available through Google Play, before November 20, 2013. Watch for announcements on the new APIs soon.

If you sell apps or in-app products in Google Play, you’ll soon have access to the new Wallet Merchant Center. Watch for an email notifying you that that it’s now available to you. We expect to transition all merchants to the Wallet Merchant Center over the next several weeks.

We invite you to join us for our live merchant webinar on May 23, 2013 at 10AM PDT to learn more and ask any outstanding questions. As always, feel free to contact us at any time during this transition. Finally, be sure to check out the exciting updates launched last week at Google I/O (including Instant Buy and Wallet Objects) and stay tuned for more great developer features coming soon!

New Ways to Optimize Your Business in Google Play

Posted by Ellie Powers, Google Play team

This week at I/O, we were excited to announce some updates to Google Play to help you optimize your business on Google Play: to help you take control of your app publishing, gain insight into your users, and expand your app’s success globally.

Play Store’s new view: apps designed for tablets

Many of you have invested in making great tablet experiences for your users, and we want to ensure that that work pays off and that users are able to discover great apps for their tablets. This week, the Google Play store began providing a view of our top charts highlighting apps which have been designed for tablets according to our tablet app quality checklist.

Be sure you don’t miss out! Check that your app’s optimization tips say that your app is designed for tablets, and upload tablet screenshots for 7” and 10” tablets.

Beta testing and staged rollouts

We have introduced support for beta testing and staged rollouts so that you can get feedback on your new app or app update early in its development and make sure your users are happy with the results. You can test two different versions on two different groups at the same time, such as testing a newer version with your employees first, and a more mature version with a group of external testers.

The beta testing is private on Google Play, and you can specify who gets these versions by adding Google Groups and Google+ Communities. Users give you feedback privately rather than through public reviews. When you’re satisfied that your new version is ready, you can now do a staged rollout to a percentage of your userbase. To give you more flexibility in light of beta testing and help get your whole team involved in the Developer Console, we will soon launch additional access controls.

Localization improvements

We’re collaborating with Google's internationalization team to make translating your app into new languages easier than ever. You can purchase professional translations of your apps from independent providers through the Google Play Developer Console. You can upload the strings you want translated, select the languages you want to translate into, and select your translation vendor based on time and price. If you’re interested in translating your apps with this feature, sign up to be a part of the preview in the Developer Console today on the APK page.

The new optimization tips for localization will help you identify new potential opportunities for global expansion based on popular languages for your app’s users and category. To fully localize your app into a language, you need to translate the strings in an APK, translate your Google Play store listing, and upload localized graphics. The optimization tips will also let you know if you’re missing any of these pieces.

New Analytics and monetization features

Getting better revenue and engagement data has been another key developer request, as developers told us that they check their revenue and stats constantly. New revenue charts in the Developer Console allow you to see your app’s daily revenue and summary figures, and you can filter the data by country. Coming soon, Google Play and Google Analytics are teaming up to bring you better insight into your users. Google Analytics will start showing Google Play views and installs for each campaign, while Google Play will show Google Analytics engagement metrics.

For those of you using in-app billing, we’ve heard your feedback and made some improvements to reduce your development time and costs. Your test accounts will now able to make in-app test purchases without those transactions actually being charged, but everything else works the same as it would for a real user.

In a few weeks, we will launch a new Order Status API, which allows you to verify the status of an in-app order from your servers. We will also be launching a tool for automating downloads of financial reports. Finally, the new Google Wallet Merchant Center is continuing to roll out with enhanced reporting, additional analytics and many other enhancements.

Google Play for Education coming soon

You'll soon be able to offer apps to schools through Google Play for Education, which launches later this year to K-12 schools in the United States. This online destination will allow schools to discover, purchase, and distribute apps to their students. Visit developer.android.com/edu to get started creating or optimizing your apps for schools today.

Join the discussion on



+Android Developers