Devbytes - Notifications in the android l developer preview

Hi, my name is Lisa Wray, and I want to talk to you about some huge changes we've made in how notifications work in the L developer preview. The changes give developers tons of options to make notifications way better for your users. Now that they appear front and center on the L lock screen, and Android Wear watches, creating great notifications is more important than ever. With the L developer preview, we introduce Google's new material design language. Material design isn't limited to Android apps. It also encompasses the system UI, including notifications. So here's a notification screen in Jelly Bean and another in the L developer preview. Notifications are now on a light background with dark text and there are also some typographic and graphic design changes. If you've been following our guidelines since Jelly Bean, your notifications small icon should already be white with alpha. In L, we expect this, and we draw it on top of a circular background whose color you can customize. When you add a large it will turn your small icon, and it's colored backdrop, into a badge on the large icon, rather than sending it over to the other side of the view, as in previous releases. If you're using Notification.Builder, or notification compat, then these changes are taken care of for you. And your notification should display correctly, on both pre L and L preview builds. However, if you're using custom notifications, you'll need to update your layouts to match the new format. So we encourage you to use builder to make notifications, if at all possible. In addition to visual changes, we've merged the notification shade, something we've in Android since 1.0, with the lock screen. One of the most common reasons people take out and unlock their phones is to respond to notifications. Now content is immediately accessible and interactive. You can double tap to access or swipe to dismiss right there. And as a developer, you get this for free. It's the default behavior in L. Of course, security is something we take very seriously. We don't want to expose anything that should be private. So we've added visibility for notifications. There are three levels. The first, which is the default for all existing notifications, is private, meaning the contents won't be shown on lock screens. You can provide a public version of your content or the system will make a generic one for you. There's also public, meaning the notification is always shown, no matter whether the screen is locked or not, and secret meaning if your screen is locked, then we won't show the notification on the lock screen at all. Users can also enable or disable their lock screen notifications completely, and decide if they want notifications be kept private or not. Also new an L are heads up notifications, a way for the system UI to put important information in front of the user, without disrupting their activity. When the screen is on and unlocked important notifications will be automatically shown as heads up. For example, notifications that currently use a full screen [INAUDIBLE] or high priority with a sound or vibration like phone calls, will become heads up notifications while the phone is in use. After a few seconds, they slide away, so you can continue playing or reading, and will move into the notification bar-- for example, to say call missed, or alarm snoozing. And we've had notification priority since Jelly Bean. But it's especially important now to take a look at your apps notifications and classify them appropriately. Many default priority notifications are probably better expressed as low or minimum priority, or possibly high priority, if the message is truly urgent. We've also added notification categories. It's OK not to specify a category. But some examples of top priority messages that should have one are incoming calls, instant messages, or alarms. And we're fleshing out notification extras, which were added in Kit Kat. In particular, we want to help you see information about the people you care about. So you can add a list of the people associated with a notification, identified by content provider your eyes, so the Android system could surface notifications from your favorite contacts. And it's especially important now that your app use only the notification features to play sounds and vibrate. Please don't work around the notification manager to vibrate or play your own sounds. With all these options, we've given users a convenient way to configure notifications for any app. You can add a flag to your notification settings activity in the manifest to have it listed in the app notification section of the system settings up. Also, lock screens in the L developer preview no longer show controls for your remote control client. Instead, your app can provide media playback control from the lock screen to your notification. And there's a new media style template just for this purpose. Finally, don't forget the notification options already available for Android Wear. Your app's existing notifications automatically transfer to the watch for free. But with just a little bit of extra code, you can get support for pages, stacks, voice replies. Conversely, if you don't want your app's notifications on the watch, you can use set local only true. And this, like the new media style, is available both in the notification class and in the support library. So that's a lot. What should you, as an app developer, go do right now to get your notifications ready for L? Use Notification.Builder or create new layouts for pre and post L. Pick an accent color for your notifications, because that's new. Decide what visibility you want your notifications to be. And if it's not public, then think about what you'd like to show on the lock screen. Add a flag in the manifest to get your notification setting activity listed in the system settings. And if you don't have a notification setting activity, go make one. And finally, if you have notifications, your app is already on Android Wear today. So make sure it's working the way that you want. If you don't have a watch yet, use the emulator. And you can get started today with all of these new features by downloading the Android L developer preview. And check out the docs on notifications on developer.android.com. Thanks for watching.