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As Android continues to evolve, new versions bring significant changes that affect how apps function. Android 14 introduces several behavior updates that developers must address to ensure app compatibility and maintain seamless user experiences. From security enhancements to accessibility improvements, these updates refine the platform’s efficiency and privacy while promoting better performance. Let’s explore the most important changes and how they impact app development.
Starting with Android 14, users can dismiss certain foreground notifications that were previously non-dismissible. This affects notifications that use Notification.FLAG_ONGOING_EVENT, except for specific cases like media playback, active calls, or device policy controller notifications. Developers should test their apps to ensure important notifications remain accessible while allowing unnecessary ones to be dismissed. This change grants users more control over their notifications, preventing clutter and improving usability.
Font Scaling Up to 200%
Android 14 aligns with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) by allowing users to scale fonts up to 200%. This is particularly useful for individuals with visual impairments, as it provides greater readability and customization of text size. Developers should verify their app’s UI responsiveness to large text sizes, ensuring that text elements do not overlap or get cut off, and that overall usability is maintained across different screen sizes and orientations.
Minimum Target API Level Requirement
To improve security and reduce vulnerabilities, Android 14 enforces a minimum targetSdkVersion of 23 for all new app installations. This means older, outdated apps that do not meet modern security standards can no longer be installed on new devices. Developers must ensure their apps comply with newer security frameworks and best practices, such as using secure storage, enforcing modern encryption techniques, and handling user data responsibly.
In Android 14, the OWNER_PACKAGE_NAME field in the media store is now redacted unless the querying app has explicit permissions (QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES) or the storing app’s package name is always visible. This update enhances user privacy by limiting access to metadata about media files. Apps that rely on accessing media ownership information will need to request appropriate permissions or adapt their workflows to accommodate this restriction.
Foreground Service Type Requirement
Apps targeting Android 14 must specify at least one foreground service type when starting a foreground service. This prevents apps from misusing foreground services, ensuring they are only used for necessary and well-defined purposes like media playback, location tracking, or health monitoring. Developers should update their app manifest and logic accordingly to comply with this requirement and avoid unexpected app terminations.
Android 14 now strictly enforces the BLUETOOTH_CONNECT permission when calling BluetoothAdapter.getProfileConnectionState(). This change prevents unauthorized access to Bluetooth connection states, enhancing user security and privacy. Developers should ensure that their apps request and handle Bluetooth permissions correctly, prompting users for approval when necessary and explaining why the permission is required.
1. Carrier Privilege Rules Parsing
Android 14 enhances OMAPI’s ability to parse and enforce carrier privileges. This ensures that only authorized apps can access certain network-based services, benefiting apps that deal with mobile payments, SIM-based authentication, and telecom services. Developers working on applications that interact with carrier networks should update their logic to incorporate these privileges seamlessly.
2. Embedded Secure Element (eSE) Access Customization
Developers now have more control over how apps interact with embedded secure elements (eSEs), including system-privileged permissions and configurable Application Identifier (AID) rules. These improvements provide more flexibility for secure transactions, identity verification, and device authentication. By leveraging these changes, app developers can create robust security measures for mobile wallets, enterprise authentication, and other security-sensitive applications.
3. Device Capability Filtering Indicators
Android 14 introduces better filtering mechanisms for detecting device capabilities related to secure elements. This helps apps determine whether a device supports necessary hardware, reducing crashes or compatibility issues. Apps that rely on specific hardware security features can now more accurately tailor their functionality based on device compatibility, offering a more streamlined user experience.
Android 14 brings numerous behavior changes designed to enhance security, accessibility, and app compatibility. Developers should proactively update their apps to align with these modifications, ensuring a seamless experience for users while leveraging the platform’s latest advancements. Staying informed about Android updates and testing apps thoroughly will be key to maintaining high performance and compliance with evolving platform standards. By adapting to these changes early, developers can ensure their apps remain secure, efficient, and user-friendly in the ever-evolving Android ecosystem.
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Since pCloudy is committed to providing to you with the newest, the fastest, here is another one. The newly released devices iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max is now available on pCloudy for you to test your app.
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The fans were waiting for the next iOS release and in the WWDC 2019, iOS 13 beta was launched. With the launch of the new iPhone in September 2019, iOS 13 will deliver a deluge of features to your iPhone to take on the Android Q. At the annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, some new features and some tweaks were announced in the latest version of the iOS to make the user’s life easier.
The latest version of iOS focuses on speed, user-friendliness, and privacy. So let’s go through the iOS 13 features and then we will try to evaluate the impact of the updates on the apps.
Dark mode can be very useful as you can adjust it to light gray, dark gray or black which will be implemented on all the supported apps. This will also save the battery life for OLED display. So this is a reader-friendly update and the dark mode can be set to turn on at night automatically.
This feature is widely used in Android phones and there are some popular apps as well for swipe typing. Now iOS has also come up with the QuickPath keyboard where you can type with a single hand by just swiping through the words. You will also get similar word suggestions while you swipe through the keyboard.
If you have recorded the new feature in wrong orientation then you need not worry, you can change the orientation post-recording and there are more filters and effects to edit the video. There is a new photos tab which will help you so delete duplicate photos and highlight the best snapshots. Portrait lighting, a tool in the camera app helps you to change the focus of light and change the intensity.
Sign in with Apple allows you to log into apps with mentioning your email ID which will restrict the third party apps to track the user activities. There is also an option to hide or share your email ID and Apple will create a random email ID for an app that forwards to your original email account which will mask your real identity.
In the new map, you can explore the city roads, parks, and buildings in a 3D 360° view. Google map does not work smoothly when it comes to saved searches and this is why now you can rely on the improved Apple maps for navigation. There is a probability that the 3D 360-degree experience can also be used as a VR feature in the upcoming iPhones.
The iPhone apps are packaged in a new way which makes them 50% smaller and makes updates up to 60% smaller. It also increases the performance as this helps app load twice as fast. Also, there is a slight upgrade in the privacy as now you can allow the apps to use the location just once. Apple will send you warnings about the apps which continue to track you in the background. This means that the apps which use location more often like delivery, transport, e-commerce, etc will have to make changes in their code algorithms to provide a better user experience.
There are many other tweaks like memoji profiles in Apple’s messaging app, new fonts in the mail, a new gallery view for notes and support for shared folders, and adding details in the reminders. So now the question is, which iPhones will get the iOS 13? So to clear things, iPhone 6s or later can get the new iOS 13 update. There are speculations that more updates will be announced with the upcoming phone launch. But these new updates were necessary as Android is already leading with some of these features in Android Q.
We are glad to announce the release of pCloudy 5.4 with exciting new features to make app testing simpler than ever. There is a possibility that you might be familiar with pCloudy, but for those who are new, pCloudy is a cloud-based mobile app testing platform. We have achieved many milestones in a short period of time because we resolve issues immediately and bring in new features on a regular basis. Case in point: This new version of pCloudy, where we have addressed the concerns of our users and added new features to optimize testing. Let’s have a look at all the features added in pCloudy 5.4.
To test your app on a pCloudy device you need to login to device.pcloudy.com and then book a device by clicking on the devices tab. Just click on the available button next to the chosen device which will take you to the device interaction page. Earlier in the device window, you would have to use the virtual extended keyboard to enter text in the device. Although now you can just copy any text from your system and paste it in the device directly. So now instead of using an extended keyboard just use two buttons to enter the string in the device. This will save time and effort when working with multiple devices where you need to enter long text many times.
To use the FollowMe feature you will have to instrument the app you want to perform the test on. Under devices section, click on the FollowMe tab then in the next screen choose the app, select the duration and devices on which you will perform the test. In the next screen, you will see the devices which you selected and two options (Softkeys and Screenshots) at the top right corner of the window. Now when you perform any action in the master device, that action gets replicated on the secondary device too. If you enter text, tap on a button, swipe, etc. in the master device then that will happen simultaneously in the secondary device. For more information, refer to this link:-
https://www.pcloudy.com/mobile-application-testing-documentation/manual-app-testing/follow-me-app-testing.html
In pCloudy, you can run Appium tests on multiple devices in parallel. To perform a test using Appium, you need to feed in the capabilities. Some users want to test their apps more than once to perform different types of tests on the same app. To do that earlier the users had to install the app again and again. But now we have released an update through which you can perform different types of testing using Appium on the preinstalled apps. This will save you time and make the process easier. So if you have already installed the app in the device and you want to perform a test on the same app then you don’t need to pass the Application Name capability. For more information, refer to this link:-
https://www.pcloudy.com/mobile-application-testing-documentation/automation-testing/inspect-element-using-appium-desktop.html#running-appium-scripts
pCloudy is integrated with the most popular tools and frameworks to make testing convenient. A lot of users also requested to integrate Github repository and so we did it. Now you can directly upload your tasks and raise defects in the GitHub repository from pCloudy. Again this feature is added to make it convenient for our users to test and manage the tasks through pCloudy. To make use of GitHub just login to device.pcloudy.com and click on the user name at the top right corner of the window. In the dropdown list click on settings and in the settings window click on GitHub tab and enter the URL and access key to register. Now in the device session screen, you can click on Collaborate and then select Log a bug in GitHub. A new window will open where you will be able to see the list of repositories, enter the issue type, enter the title, add the description and then click on the click on the Log A Bug In GitHub button. Then you can go to the GitHub to check all the issues raised whenever you want.
We are working on some more new features and very soon we will come up with the new version of pCloudy. This is a constant process and we always try to address the users issues and provide them updates on a regular basis. This is why we are achieving new heights and we will keep on working hard to provide the best service.
Since pCloudy is committed to provide to you with the newest the fastest, here is another one. The newly released device Samsung s10 is now available on pCloudy for you to test your app.
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AndroidX is an improved version of the android support libraries that the android team uses to develop, test, package, version and release libraries within the jetpack. AndroidX fully replaces the support library by providing feature parity and new libraries. In addition, AndroidX includes the following features:
Android Jetpack Android jetpack is a set of components and tools along with architecture guidance designed to help you accelerate your android development. It gives a template to write production ready android code. Jetpack is made up of components in four categories, foundation architecture behaviour and UI. Each component is individually adaptable and build to maintain backwards compatibility. Android architecture components are very modular, so we are allowed to choose what feature sets we want that are compatible to our app. Espresso is now a part of the AndroidX family Espresso is a testing framework designed to provide a fluent API for writing concise and reliable UI test. Writing reliable UI test is difficult as user interfaces are asynchronous driven by events, transitions and data loaded from background threats. Coding around that without any help from UI testing framework would require a lot of boilerplate. Espresso takes care of any UI events, so that in most cases you don’t have to worry about any view state transition and implementation details. The basic UI test flow when using Espresso includes:
Application of Espresso test recorder
Pcloudy supports androidX instrumentation with Espresso Now you can write test cases in espresso and test the APIs in pCloudy using androidX Junit instrumentation. Here are the steps for running your Test scripts on multiple android devices:
Note: pCloudy provides support for Instrumentation Type (InstrumentationTestRunner, AndroidJUnitRunner and AndroidXJUnitRunner) for Android.
To migrate from support libraries to AndroidX the Google has provided a refractor tool in Android Studio. Projects can be migrated to AndroidX by clicking on ‘Refractor’ in the menu bar and then clicking on ‘Refactor to AndroidX’. Then it will search for the usage and show the result. To refactor click ‘Do Refactor’. pCloudy is leading the way in the field of automated mobile testing solutions. Try our device cloud
Single sign on is a process of authentication where user can access multiple applications and portals with one set of credentials. With SSO a user logs in with a single ID and password to gain access to a connected system. Single sign on must internally store the credentials for initial authentication and then translate them to the credential required for the different mechanisms. SAML 2.0 SSO services uses security assertion mark-up language (SAML 2.0) which is an XML standard that facilitates the exchange of user authentication and authorization of data across secure domains. SAML simplifies the authentication and authorization process for the user, an identity provider and a service provider. When the user attempts to access an application, the service provider will send a request to identity provider for authentication. Benefits of single sign on SSO reduces risk for access to third party sites (user passwords not stored externally). It also alleviate password fatigue from different user name and password combinations. Reduces IT cost due to lower number of IT help desk calls about password. Reduces time spent re-entering password for the same identity. pCloudy SSO integration architecture Sequence of events for integration of SAML 2.0 Authentication
Note: pCloudy has included this feature in Enterprise set up Private Cloud and On-Premise Cloud. SAML assertion SAML assertion is the XML document that the identity provider sends to the service provider, that contains user authorization. There are Three types of SAML assertion: Authentication assertion – It proves identification of the user and provide the time the user logged in and what method of authentication they used. Attribute assertion – It passes the SAML attributes to the service provider. SAML attributes are specific pieces of data that provide information about the user. Authorization decision assertion – It says if the user is authorized to use the services or if the identity provider denied the request due to password failure or lack of rights of the service. SSO solves the problem of managing the increasing number of users across an ecosystem of application and services. It is a step forward in the optimization of pCloudy integrated architecture.
The development world bumped into a new surprise by announcement of developer release of latest Android version: Android O. The makers have made everyone curious about its christening, wondering which sweet it has been named after (Oreo, rumour has it). On the developers front however, it seems to be a good time to assess this developer preview and its included features that might have implications on the apps on your phone and their quality, as well the future it holds for us.
So let us lay out the key details and focus on the challenges or opportunities that developers will run into due to the changes in the OS features and application development environment.
Picturecourtesy: Greenbot
With major share of the market with Android M and L, i.e. 60 percent, fragmentation is still in growth within the Android landscape. During most Android OS changes, a few basic fixes make the app compatible with the newer version. However, its API changes and several features make changes to the appearance and functioning of the existing apps. It can result in unstable applications and confusion among the users. This means that there are not only more devices and OS combinations in the market to test against, but also that from both supported test cases and features, there should be different branches that combine the test suites with a device/OS combination and a supported capability.
The first release of Android O is just for devs to get a sneak peek into their bag of tricks behind the show and the help needed for that transition. E.g. adding extra layers of security options to prevent malware entry into your phone. Of course there will be more UX and UI based improvements in the beta releases. Let’s take a brief look at their features and the challenges they present to Testing.
However, this immediately opens a range of visual test automation scenarios that will need insights into different resolutions and themes to assure the new animated look, movement or adaptation as required.
Picture Courtesy: Greenbot
This means, more testing to be added to support the granular notifications, the configuration traits of the device and network environment related testing.
Enhanced Auto-fill: So far, other than Chrome, no other system has made the process so seamless, making jumps between password managers or switching to special keyboards. Android O’s brand new auto-fill API lets you support specific needs like password management, without having to launch the app in parallel, making the process a lot damn faster.
This also means that each app will have external requirements like password management and testers would need to understand which apps can serve as auto-fill for their app under test, and then test against them.
That means, more new tests and branches of these tests need to be added in order to assure correctly that the limitations apply based on the location constraints set by the developers and other limits that are supported.
We just touched on a few immediate implications of the new latest Android version – Android O release for developer and testers, who need to be ready to usher in a not just a new set of challenges and branches of testing, but also prepare themselves for early versions that are to be launched soon. To know more on the specifics of migration to Android O, you can go to the official Android Documentation at their website.
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