Newsletter - May 2021

Android / Google Play

• Read  about what’s new for Android developers with the first Beta of Android 12.
• Download  Android Studio Arctic Fox (2020.3.1) Beta, the latest release from Android IDE focused on design, devices, and developer productivity.
• Get the latest Google Play announcements from Google I/O and learn how the platform can help grow your business.
• Improve  your app quality and discovery on Google Play with the newest updates.
• See  how Google Duo optimized their app for tablets and foldable devices.

Firebase / Google Cloud

• Explore  updates on the Firebase platform to accelerate app development, run more effective apps, and optimize the user experience.
• Support  for Android App Bundles is now available with Firebase App Distribution.
• Catch  up on Google Cloud product launches from Google I/O.
• Join  Virtual API Jam on API Security, a hands-on workshop for developers and architects to learn how to secure APIs successfully using the Apigee API Management Platform.
• Announcing  three categories of BigQuery user-friendly SQL launches: Powerful Analytics Features, Flexible Schema Handling, and New Geospatial Tools.

ML / AI

• Explore  end-to-end solutions for deploying mobile and web ML on the new On-Device Machine Learning website.
• Make  your app a product with TFX 1.0. The new release provides stable public APIs and artifacts for TFX OSS users, as well as strong support for running on Google Cloud.
• Unify  your mobile and web ML strategy by reusing optimized TF Lite models and running in the browser via WebAssembly, no JS rewrite required.
• Join  the TensorFlow Forum to find answers to technical questions, share ideas, and connect with the machine learning community.
• Build  a project that shows off the helpfulness of TensorFlow Lite for Microcontrollers and submit it to the TF Micro Challenge.

Web

• Identify  how to improve your site's Web Vitals with new tooling features in Lighthouse, PageSpeed, and DevTools.
• Learn  how Orange launched a new PWA, converting 52% better on mobile.
• Find  hidden performance wins in our latest post in the The Fast and the Curious series.
• Learn  how to build a responsive horizontal scrollview for TVs, phones, desktops, and more.
• Announcing  Angular v12 is here, read about all of the enhancements included directly in ‘ng update.’
• Take  this competency survey to help entry-level web developers find jobs in the industry.

Google Maps Platform

• Watch  a quick summary of the key announcements from Google Maps Platform at Google I/O.
• Render  3D objects on the map with the new WebGL Overlay View in Maps JavaScript API.
• Set  tilt and rotation programmatically (in Beta) to control the camera angle with more degrees of freedom in the Maps JavaScript API.
• Customize  maps fully with cloud-based map styling, now generally available.
• Learn  how to visualize large amounts of data on Maps JavaScript API with deck.gl in this 2-part video series.

Developer Community / BIPOC Partner Highlights

• Get  to know Hebe He, an organizer from Google Developer Groups Guangzhou in China, and see how she is building a developer community in China.
• Discover  the stories of women Google Developers Experts and their community's latest work, projects, and journey through the Experts Program. #WomenAreExperts
• Watch  on demand #ICYM the Google for Startups Accelerator: Voice AI Demo Day.
• Tune  into the recap from Google Developer Groups Turkey, hosting 13 different groups at the inaugural Android Bootcamp event.
• Choose  from more than 1,000 groups on the Google Developer Groups virtual event platform for Meetups, learning, networking, and more.

Open Source and Misc

• Visit  Developer Library, a new curated list of developer projects by experts and influencers showcasing their latest technical content from Google technologies. Browse and learn, or submit your own.
• Check  out the latest ARCore use cases and increases in developer velocity with ARCore 1.24, introducing Raw Depth API and the Recording and Playback.
• See  ways to bring Google Assistant to your Android apps and create more engaging content on smart displays.
• Improved  Google Pay button increases click-through rate and the checkout experience. 
• Get  the open source Flutter plugin for Google Pay to simplify payments to apps on iOS and Android.
• New  personalization features are now available in the Google Developer Profiles dashboard.