Posted by Rebecca Franks, Android Developer Communications Engineer
Google I/O 2023 is packed with exciting updates and announcements. Modern Android Development (MAD) makes Android app development fast and easy! Creating libraries, tools, and guidelines to speed up the flow and help you write more secure code so you can focus on building amazing experiences.
Here are the top three announcements from Google I/O 2023:
#1 Get your development questions answered with Studio Bot
One of the announcements we’re most excited about is Studio Bot. Test New AI powered coding assistant, right in your IDE. You can ask questions or use it to fix bugs – all without having to leave Android Studio or upload your source code.
Studio Bot is still in its early days, and is currently available to developers in the US. Download Android Studio Canary to help test and improve it.
#2 Jetpack Compose has improvements for flow layouts, new material elements, and more
Jetpack Compose continues to be a big focus, making it easy to build rich UIs. The May 2023 release includes many new layouts and improvements such as horizontal and vertical pages, flow layouts, and new Material 3 elements such as date and time pickers and footers.
There have also been major performance improvements to the switching system, with more updates still in the works. Just for text, this update has resulted in an average 22% performance improvement over the last alpha release, and these improvements are applied across the board. To get these benefits in your app, all you have to do is update your form version!
You can now use Jetpack Editor to create home screen widgets with the Glance library and TV apps with Text Editor for TV.
For more information on “What’s New in Jetpack Compose,” read the blog post.
#3 Use Kotlin in all your applications
In the year Since the announcement of official Kotlin support for Android in 2017, we’ve continued to make improvements to help you develop with Kotlin. Six years later, we continue to invest in improvements to Kotlin.
First, we are collaborating with JetBrains on the new K2 compiler which is already showing significant improvements in compile speed. We are actively working on integration into our tools such as Android Studio, Android Lint, KSP, Write and more, and we use Google’s large Kotlin code base to ensure the compatibility of the new compiler.
Additionally, we recommend using Kotlin for your build scripts and version catalogs now. With Kotlin in your build and UI with Compose, you can now use Kotlin everywhere in your app.
See the “What’s New in Kotlin” talk for more information.
And that’s our top 3 modern Android development announcements from Google I/O 2023, check out this playlist for more.
