Google I/O 2022 Recap: Top 5 Takeaways for Android Devs

4. Android Studio

Google announced many new improvements to the toolset for developing Android apps. At the core of them were two new Android Studio releases: Android Studio Dolphin, which is in Beta, and Electric Eel, which is a Canary release.

Android Studio Dolphin Beta

Android Studio Dolphin has been on Canary for a some time now, but the announcement that it’s moving to Beta was a breath of fresh air for developers. Getting to stable shouldn’t be a long journey for it anymore. Here are some of the major features in this release:

• New and improved Logcat v2
• SDK index integration
• WearOS launch configurations
• A WearOS pairing assitant and toolbar
• Gradle-managed devices
• Compose recomposition in Layout Inspector
• Compose animation coordination preview

Android Studio Electric Eel Canary

Developers were thrilled with the Live Edit for Compose Demo at Google I/O 2022. With Live Edit, whenever you update your composable, your changes deploy instantly to your device. This lets you preview your changes in real time.

Here’s a list of the features that come with this build:

• Live Edit for Jetpack Compose
• Visual Lint for Compose
• Compose Multi-Preview
• Device mirroring
• Resizable emulator
• App quality insights

You can download both of these new builds from the Android Studio developer site.

5. Google Wallet

Back in 2011, Google announced its first wallet app, which let you store your debit and credit cards and make payments easily. Over the years, it went through different transformations, finally becoming Google Pay in 2018. This year, Google announced a new, revamped Google Wallet. Yes, Google is bringing back Google Wallet… again.

Google’s goal is for this app to replace your trusty physical wallet completely. You’ll be able to store all your debit and credit cards, as well as your IDs, eliminating the need for a real wallet.

They are currently testing this concept in the United States, working with the government to make it possible to store your driver’s license digitally, then share it using NFC or a QR code.

The new Google Wallet app includes preset pass types like loyalty cards, boarding passes, gift cards, vaccine cards and others. It also offers a generic card that you can use for other kinds of passes, like library cards or parking passes.

You can also group multiple passes together. For example, you can group an event ticket with a vaccine card — which is pretty useful. Maybe you really can replace your physical wallet with the Google Wallet app.

For Developers

Here are some key points to note for developers who are using the current Google Pay Passes API:

• Google Pay Passes API is now called Google Wallet API.
• The Pay Passes API integration still works, but it upgrades to the Google Wallet API when you launch it.
• There’s a new Android SDK that allows you to save passes to your app without a backend integration.

Google Wallet will roll out to the world in the coming weeks.

Where to Go From Here?

There were many other important announcements made at this year’s Google I/O event — this article just highlights the five most interesting announcements for developers. To catch up on a more in-depth analysis of Google I/O 2022, watch our Google I/O 2022 Livecast, where our podcast team and members of the raywenderlich.com Android team livestreamed their reactions to the Google I/O keynote event right after it concluded.

If you’re excited about the Jetpack Compose news and want to learn more about it, we have some great resources available:

• You can read our book, Jetpack Compose by Tutorials.
• Or watch our Jetpack Compose video course.
• Or review our library of JetPack Compose tutorials.

We’d love to hear your reaction to Google I/O 2022, too! Which of the announcements excited you? Did Google I/O 2022 meet your expectations? Head to the comment section below and share your thoughts. Feel free to add other announcements that are worthy to be on our top five list as well. :]