Android Developers Blog

Posted by Ritesh Nayak M, Product Manager Three years ago, we created Nearby Notifications as a way for Android users to discover apps and content based on what is nearby. Our goal was to bring relevant and engaging content to users - to provide useful information proactively. Developers have leveraged this technology to let users know about free wifi nearby, provide guides while in a museum, and list transit schedules at bus stops. We've learned a lot building and launching Nearby Notifications. However, earlier this year, we noticed a significant increase in locally irrelevant and spammy notifications that were leading to a poor user experience. While filtering and tuning can help, in the end, we have a very high bar for the quality of content that we deliver to users, especially content that is delivered through notifications. Ultimately, we have determined these notifications did not meet that bar. As a result, we have decided to discontinue support for Nearby Notifications. W...

Posted by Benjamin Baxter, Developer Advocate and Bacon Connoisseur All TVs have the same problem with keyboard input: It is very cumbersome to hunt and peck for each letter using a D-pad with a remote. And if you make a mistake, trying to correct it compounds the problem. APIs like Smart Lock and Autofill , can ease user's frustrations, but for certain types of input, like login, you need to collect complex input that is difficult for users using the on-screen keyboard. With the Nearby Connections API , you can use a second screen to gather input from the user with less friction. How Nearby Connections works From the documentation : "Nearby Connections is an offline peer-to-peer socket model for communication based on advertising and discovering devices in proximity. Usage of the API falls into two phases: pre-connection, and post-connection. In the pre-connection phase, Advertisers advertise themselves, while Discoverers discover nearby Advertisers and send connection reque...

Posted by Ritesh Nayak M, Product Manager Imagine walking into a hotel room and having the temperature set just right, your favorite sub-genre of progressive-math-rock playing in the background, and the TV urging you to continue binging on your saved guilty-pleasures watchlist. What if your phone's contact book could expand to merge with your spouse's when you're together, so you're never again put in the excruciatingly compromising position of having to ask for your mother-in-law's phone number (which you ought to have had on speed dial, in your favorites, and listed as an emergency contact)? Now imagine a world where you can drive up to an empty driveway or private parking space in a city like New York or San Francisco, and negotiate with that space to rent it out until its owner returns. The common thread among all these scenarios is being able to detect proximity to -- and being able to communicate with -- people, places, and things "near" you. At I/O...