Hello Android developers,
Another Google I/O has flown by, and we were excited to see sessions on foldable user experience design as well as developer-focused talks for updating existing apps to be more responsive and using Jetpack Compose. Here are our favorite sessions and announcements from the past few days:
Flutter 3 announced
Flutter 3 was released during Google I/O 2022, and the final piece of foldable support is now added to the framework: dialogs that can avoid the hinge or fold. Flutter now has extensive foldable support, and the TwoPane widget from pub.dev provides a layout option that adapts to dual-screen devices and provides a responsive proportional layout on large and small screens.
Read more about the release (including the foldable capabilities) on the Flutter blog, and also check out this session:
The Surface Duo blog recently covered Flutter’s foldable capabilities, and there’s more content and samples yet to come!
Designing apps for large screens and foldables
This talk focused on the design aspects of building foldable and large screen apps, including how to create layouts that dynamically adapt to various screen sizes.
The design principles in this talk are also embodied by the five user experience patterns in the Surface Duo Design Kit: expand canvas, dual view, two page, list-detail, and companion pane.
Update your app for the larger screen
This session discussed how to enhance existing apps for large screens, using the same principles that can take an app from single screen to dual-screen functionality.
To help developers update their apps the Surface Duo team also has a library of dual-screen controls that can take the work out of manually coding responsive controls and layouts – read about the Snackbar, Navigation Component, and more.
You can also incorporate Jetpack Window Manager directly into your layouts – we recommend using the isSeparating API to create hinge-aware layouts that work across all types of foldable devices.
Implementing Android apps for all screen sizes
This talk covers foldables, Jetpack Compose, and the new WindowSize classes library.
To explore Jetpack Compose for foldable devices you can also review the Surface Duo team’s take on WindowState, UITest, NavigationRail, and TwoPaneLayout. There’s more information in our dual-screen Jetpack Compose documentation.
Resources and feedback
There were many more great sessions at Google I/O 2022 which you can watch online at https://io.google.com.
If you have any questions about foldable app design and development, or would like to tell us about your apps, use the feedback forum or message us on Twitter @surfaceduodev.
Finally, please join us for our dual-screen developer livestream at 11am (Pacific time) each Friday – mark it in your calendar and check out the archives on YouTube.
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