Timeliness note: The mirror URLs in this article were valid for a specific period. Both TUNA (Tsinghua) and USTC (Hefei) AOSP mirror addresses have changed multiple times. Always consult each mirror’s official help page for current URLs. AOSP source is enormous (~70GB), making downloads from Google’s official servers via VPN painfully slow. Chinese mirrors offer much faster speeds. ...
While using Google Messenger, I noticed it has a “set as default SMS app” feature. Here’s how it works. Starting from Android 4.4 KitKat, Google introduced the default SMS app mechanism. The official reasoning: Some of you have built SMS apps using hidden APIs — a practice we discourage because hidden APIs may be changed or removed and new devices are not tested against them for compatibility. So, to provide you with a fully supported set of APIs for building SMS apps. In short, if you build well and have enough users, Google takes notice and provides official support. ...
A collection of subtle but important details I noticed while reading the Android developer documentation. ...
Historical note: This article was written in 2015 based on the old Dart toolchain (Dart Editor + Dartium). Dart has since moved entirely to the Flutter ecosystem and the dart CLI toolchain. Content is kept for reference only. You can launch and debug Android web applications built with Dart without pre-compiling to JavaScript. To do this, you need Dart Editor and Dart Content Shell. Dart Content Shell is automatically installed on the Android device. ...
A collection of obscure Android development issues and their solutions. ...
Android provides several options for persisting data, each suited to different use cases. Choosing the right storage method is critical for your app’s performance, security, and user experience. ...
An App Widget is a miniature application view that can be embedded into other applications (such as the Home screen) and receive periodic updates. Common examples include weather widgets and music player controls. ...
Note: This article was written in 2015. Some toolchain details and version numbers are outdated and provided for historical reference only. For current Android development, please refer to Android Studio and the official Android Developers documentation. ...
Chrome DevTools supports remote debugging of web pages and WebView applications on Android devices. This feature is invaluable for mobile front-end development and hybrid app development, allowing you to use the full suite of desktop Chrome DevTools to debug mobile pages. ...
Bézier curves are widely used in computer graphics to model smooth curves. They were independently developed by French engineers Pierre Bézier (Renault) and Paul de Casteljau (Citroën) in the 1960s. ...