Developing for Android TV

Mihai Risca, Application Engineer,

Software & Services Group

Developer Relations Division

2

Agenda

• What are Android TV and the Nexus Player

• How to create/adapt an Android application for Android TV

• How to publish an Android TV application

• Optimizing applications for the Nexus Player

• Q&A

Android TV and the Nexus Player

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Android TV

• It’s Android

• it’s also Chromecast

• Apps (streaming and others)

• Games (casual and more)

• AOSP compliant

• Leanback Launcher, Google Apps and Play Store

5

Nexus Player

• First Android TV device / The only Nexus

• Quad-Core Intel Silvermont CPU @1.83Ghz

• PowerVR™ Series 6 G6430 GPU

• 64bit, OpenGL ES 3.1

• WiFi 802.11ac*

• 1GB ram, 8GB flash, USB-OTG

• 99$

• Gamepad sold separately**

* Ethernet can be added using standard USB adapters

** Android TV supports almost any USB/Bluetooth HID Gamepads

Developing for Android TV and the Nexus Player

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Developing for Android TV

Create a new Android application or add support to an existing one by:

1. Adding/reusing a TV-compatible activity that will receive the leanback intent

2. Integrating TV-specific assets

3. Supporting non-touchscreen input

4. Adapting the UX of your app to Android TV

All this should be done to an existing Android app, so you can support phones,

tablets, and TVs from your same source code and APK.

You can still choose to create a TV-specific APK and upload it as a new

application or as an alternative APK using Play Store “multiple APKs” feature.

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1. The Leanback Intent

<activity android:name=".TvMainActivity“ >

<intent-filter>

<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

<category

android:name="android.intent.category.LEANBACK_LAUNCHER"

/>

</intent-filter>

</activity>

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2. The Banner

<activity or <application

…

android:banner="@drawable/ic_banner"

…

>

• Name of your application

• No transparency

• Size:160x90dp -> 320x180px image to put inside drawable-xhdpi folder.

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3. Supporting non-touchscreen input

<uses-feature

android:name="android.hardware.touchscreen"

android:required="false" />

Adjust D-PAD navigation:

android:focusable="true", <requestFocus /> / .requestFocus()

android:nextFocusDown="@+id/whatever1"

android:nextFocusUp="@id/whatever2"

For custom Views: KeyEvent.KEYCODE_DPAD_(UP|DOWN|LEFT|RIGHT)

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4. Adapting the UX

Start from android:Theme.NoTitleBar

Or Theme.Leanback from the Leanback support library:compile "com.android.support:leanback-v17:21.0.+“

Add overscan margins to your views: (Leanback Views and Fragments already have these)

android:layout_marginTop="27dp"

android:layout_marginLeft="48dp"

android:layout_marginRight="48dp"

android:layout_marginBottom="27dp"

Note: Leanback support library requires API 17 but you can still support lower API levels from your app:• Use Theme.Leanback from –v21 resource folders, use Leanback classes only from your

TV-part. • Set <uses-sdk tools:overrideLibrary="android.support.v17.leanback" />

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Going further

Using ready-to-use elements from the Leanback Support Library

Supporting multiple controllers

Integrating the recommendation system

Integrating the search system

Publishing apps to the Android TV Play Store

14

Play Store additional requirements

Is your app a Game ?

<android:isGame="true">

Supporting Gamepads ?

<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.gamepad“ android:required="false" />

Supporting only Android TV ?

<uses-feature android:name="android.software.leanback" android:required="true" />

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A classic trap: implicitly required featuresHaving portrait activities declared inside your app ? Need to specify that your app can be used on

hardware that doesn’t support “portrait” mode:

<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.screen.portrait“ android:required="false" />

Use of certain permissions also implicitly requires hardware features that aren’t available:

• android.hardware.location implied by android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION

• android.hardware.camera.autofocus and android.hardware.camera implied

by android.permission.CAMERA

• android.hardware.microphone implied by android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO

• android.hardware.telephony implied by many telephony-specific permissions

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Submitting your application

1. Check you’re compliant with all the guidelines

2. Upload your APK

3. Upload your banner and a screenshot

4. Opt-in for distribution to the Play Store on Android TV

Optimizing apps for the Nexus Player

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Android* Devices with Intel Inside(Some of them – there are more than hundred, not all could be listed here)

Motorola*

RAZR iZTE* Grand

X IN

Lava* Xolo

X900

Megafon*

MintLenovo*

K800

Orange*

San Diego

2012, 2013…

Lenovo* K900 ASUS

Fonepad™ Note

FHD - 6”

ZTE* Geek Samsung* Galaxy™ Tab 3 10.1”

2014… Asus* Zenfones 4/5/6 ASUS* Transformer Pad

TF103CG/TF303CL

Dell* Venue 8 7000

Intel® Yolo Acer* Liquid C1Etisalat E-20*

ASUS* MeMO Pad

FHD 10

ASUS* Fonepad™ 7” Dell* Venue 7/8

KD Interactive

Kurio Tablet Toshiba

Excite GoAcer* Iconia Tab 8

/ One 8

Nexus PlayerLenovo* S8Asus* MemoPad 7/8

Asus* FonePad 7/8Lenovo Yoga Tab 2

8/10/13

Tesco Hudl 2

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These devices are all fully compatible with Android*

ARM* ecosystem

Android* SDK apps− These will directly work. We’re optimizing the

Runtimes for Intel® platforms.

Android* NDK apps− Most will run without any recompilation on consumer platforms.

− Android NDK provides an x86 toolchain since 2011

− A simple recompile using the Android NDK yields the best performance

− If there is specific processor dependent code, porting may be necessary

Android Runtime

Core Libraries

DVM / ART

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3rd party libraries/engines x86 support• Game engines/libraries with x86 support:

• Havok Anarchy SDK: android x86 target available

• Unreal Engine 3: android x86 target available

• Marmalade: android x86 target available

• NexPlayer SDK: x86 supported by default in latest releases

• Cocos2Dx: set APP_ABI in Application.mk

• FMOD: x86 lib already included, set ABIs in Application.mk

• AppGameKit: x86 lib included, set ABIs in Application.mk

• libgdx: x86 supported by default in latest releases

• AppPortable: x86 support now available

• Adobe Air: x86 support now available

• Unity: x86 support available in 5.0 beta, soon-to-be released for earlier versions

• …

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Include all ABIs by setting APP_ABI to all in jni/Application.mk:

APP_ABI=all

The NDK will generate optimized code for all target ABIs

You can also pass APP_ABI variable to ndk-build, and specify each ABI:

ndk-build APP_ABI=x86 #all32 and all64 are also possible values.

Configuring NDK Target ABIs

Build ARM64 libs

Build x86_64 libs

Build mips64 libs

Build ARMv7a libs

Build ARMv5 libs

Build x86 libs

Build mips libs

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“Fat” APKs

By default, an APK contains libraries for every supported ABIs.

Install lib/armeabi-v7a libs

Install lib/x86 libs

Install lib/x86_64 libraries

libs/x86

libs/x86_64

APK file

…

Libs for the selected ABI are installed, the others remain inside the downloaded APK

… … …

libs/armeabi-v7a

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Multiple APKs

Google Play* supports multiple APKs for the same application.

What compatible APK will be chosen for a device entirely depends on the

android:versionCode

If you have multiple APKs for multiple ABIs, best is to simply prefix your current

version code with a digit representing the ABI:

2310 3310 6310 7310

You can have more options for multiple APKs, here is a convention that will

work if you’re using all of these:

x86ARMv7 ARM64 X86_64

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Multiple APKs – clean solution with gradlesplits {

abi {

enable true

reset()

include 'x86', 'x86_64', 'armeabi-v7a', 'arm64-v8a'

universalApk true

}

}

// map for the version code

project.ext.versionCodes = ['armeabi': 1, 'armeabi-v7a': 2, 'arm64-v8a': 3, 'mips': 5,

'mips64': 6, 'x86': 8, 'x86_64': 9]

android.applicationVariants.all { variant ->

// assign different version code for each output

variant.outputs.each { output ->

output.versionCodeOverride =

project.ext.versionCodes.get(output.abiFilter, 0) * 1000000 +

android.defaultConfig.versionCode

}

}

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Uploading Multiple APKs to the store

Switch to Advanced mode before

uploading the second APK.

Intel® Tools for Android* apps developersHAXM, INDE, System Studio, XDK…

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Intel x86

Emulator

Accelerator

Intel x86 Atom

System Image

Faster Android* Emulation on Intel® Architecture

Based Host PC

• Pre-built Intel® Atom™ Processor Images available through the Android* SDK manager

• Intel® Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager (Intel® HAXM) for Mac and Windows uses Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) to accelerate Android emulator

• Intel® VT is already supported in Linux* by kvmkernel driver

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Intel INDE

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Increasing productivity at every step along the development chain

A productivity tool built with today’s developer in mind.

IDE support: Eclipse*, Microsoft Visual Studio*

Host support: Microsoft Windows* 7-8.1

Target support: Android 4.3 & up devices on ARM* and Intel®

Architecture, Microsoft Windows* 7-8.1 devices on Intel®

Architecture

Environment set-up & maintenance

Analyze & Debug ShipCompileCreate

Frame Debugger

System Analyzer

Platform Analyzer

Frame Analyzer

Compute Code

Builder

Android Versions 4.3

& up, Intel®

Architecture & ARM*

devices.

Microsoft Windows*

7-8.1 Intel®

Architecture devices

GNU C++

Compiler

Intel® C++

Compiler

Compute Code

Builder

Media

Threading

Compute Code

Builder

Download: intel.com/software/inde

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For on-device app testing: Intel® GPA System AnalyzerReal-time Remote Performance and Power Profiling

Intel® GPA

System Analyzer

running on a PCAndroid

Device

USB adb Connection

Wi-Fi adb Connection

Data

Real-time charts:• CPU metrics

• Graphics API level metrics

• Processor graphics hardware metrics

• Power metrics

Download Intel® GPA for FREE at intel.com/software/GPA

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Debugging OpenGL ES code with Frame Debugger

Download Intel® GPA for FREE at intel.com/software/GPA

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Summary

• Apps submission started only on November 3rd

(good opportunity to bring more visibility to your apps and games)

• Adding Android TV support isn’t necessarily much work

• No need for maintaining a separate APK

• Better x86 apps compatibility is nice to have for your apps/libs/engines

• Intel provides powerful tool suites for Android development

Q&A