Things have been ramping up for the past few months, and August was no different with the release of Android 12 Beta 4. With this update, the Beta has achieved Platform Stability, meaning it’s go-time for devs that want to ensure their software is compatible with the new OS.
Meanwhile, Google has also tweaked its ratings and reviews process to offer a fairer and more useful experience.
News and features from Android Authority
Android 12 is now at the brink of stable release as beta 4 drops today — Our coverage of the launch of Android 12 Beta 4. The latest Beta is mainly focused on stability and optimization.
Google pushes out Android 12 beta 4.1 to fix some bugs — This small 6MB update is focused entirely on squashing a few bugs. Devs should make sure they have the latest version for testing.
News and features from Google
Android 12 Beta 4 and Platform Stability — Android 12 Beta 4 has reached Platform Stability. This means all app-facing surfaces and behaviors are final in Android 12. In other words: there will be no further changes to the official SDK/NDK APIs and it is now safe to start testing your apps for the big release. What are you waiting for?
This post includes a number of tips to help ensure compatibility with the new system, so it’s worth a read for all devs.
Sharing Tiles with your smartwatch users — Tiles allow smartwatch users to quickly view crucial data and interact with their favorite apps on Wear OS. Now Tiles can be shared with smartwatch users via the Jetpack Tiles API.
Making Ratings and Reviews better for users and developers — This will be music to the ears of many a developer: Google is overhauling its ratings and reviews process on Google Play! Among the changes, devs can now filter reviews in order to quickly find complaints pertaining to particular device types. More upcoming features will weight ratings by region, such that poor performance in one area doesn’t bring down the overall score for an app elsewhere.
Working Toward Android App Excellence — Some handy tips on how to ensure users get the very best app experience!