Android gaming is the future

What would be the future of Android in 2020?

Android has always been on the top of the hustle when you think about mobile application development. Android’s smartphone OS Market Share now hovers around 85%. Furthermore, volumes are expected to grow at a five-year CAGR of 2.4%, with shipments approaching 1.41 billion in 2022.

But before you took the plunge in exploring and riding on the waves of changes or hire an android app developer to develop an app, it is important to understand the trends and its implications on the android application development ecosystem.

Don’t just emulate changes, rather partner with android application development companies to capitalize on its benefits.

Here’s is the quick roundabout on top android application development trends that will dominate in the year 2020:

Top Android Application Development Trends in 2020:

Trend #1: The Rise of Android Instant Apps:

With Google Play Instant, Android users can tap to try out an app or game completely without skipping the installation process. Instant Apps don’t require users to download the apps, they are simple to use as a website and are operated directly from the cloud. As a result, these apps don’t take up extra space on your mobile device.

These apps eliminate the clutter of unnecessary apps on your device. Google has recently launched a number of features for Android app developers to make it easier to build smaller apps that download faster allowing potential users to try out a new app without installing it. Many SEO experts of Bangladesh, India, and the US are now coming up with new strategies to help entrepreneurs for app branding in a totally new way.

The latest addition in Android’s new app publishing format, the Android App Bundle, is a step in the direction to offer a Google Play Instant experience. This year you will witness further advancements to Android Instant Apps.

Trend #2: Android Apps Architecture:

Google’s architecture guideline defines the best practices in building an Android App and recommended architecture to build high-performance and robust applications. Android architectural components serve as a good starting point to build stable apps.

With architecture components, android app developers can develop apps with less boilerplate code and focus more on the code that makes the app unique.

Android app architecture will help the android app developer community to build stable apps and eliminate the confusion about the idle pattern of Android such as MVC, MVP, or MVVM.

Trend #3: Era of Emerging Technologies and Android:

The focus is now towards making Google smarter and harnessing AI in all aspects from self-driving cars to smartphones. Google’s AI-focused strategy is now increasing the reach of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for android application development.

Google has already taken a step in this direction by introducing “Actions” and “Slices” at Google I/O, which allows apps to integrate with Assistant directly on the device.

Android App Development is taking the next leap with the amalgamation of AR/VR with AI by introducing advances in immersive technologies, including its Visual Positioning Services (VPS). This is among the latest AR technology identifying and emulating visual features in the user’s surroundings.

Trend #4: The Rise of Multi-Platform Development:

Made by Google, Flutter allows you to build native apps on iOS and Android from a single codebase. Providing new architectural components such as customizable and extensible widgets, Flutter Framework is a mobile SDK providing reactive views with no need for a Javascript bridge.

Kotlin/Native, immersive technology for compiling Kotlin to native binaries. It allows android developers to develop apps with the help of native libraries and instruments.

The Kotlin compiler produces standalone executables that can function without any virtual machine. Kotlin/Native is destined to become popular in 2020.

Trend #5: Android Enterprise:

Android devices, iOS devices, are the most used and preferred devices in the enterprise for work. A Google-led program, Android Enterprise, establishes the best practices of the Android app in the Enterprise ecosystem as well as provides full control over apps and data owned by a business organization.

The program provides APIs and other tools for android developers which offer integrated support for Android into enterprise mobility management (EMM) solutions.

Trend #6: Android Jetpack:

Jetpack is a suite of libraries, devices, and direction that makes engineers effectively compose excellent applications. These segments enable you to follow best practices, free you from creating standard code, and make complex errands simple with the goal that you can concentrate on the framework you care about.

Android Jetpack puts all current help libraries, designs, and structures to adapt to primary issues like application the board, and in reverse similarity.

Coming up next are the 5 top highlights of Android Jetpack are:

1. Android for Cars
2. Benchmark
3. Biometrics Prompt
4. CameraX
5. ConstraintLayout2
6. Undertaking
7. Lifecycle and LiveData KTX
8. Security
9. ViewModel with SavedState
10. ViewPager2

Trend #7: Rising Trend of Blockchain Technology:

Blockchain technology is creating a buzz across many industries. But this year it is expected to evolve in terms of security, public & private blockchain architecture, and consortium architecture.

The blockchain mobile app development industry is expected to boom at around USD 20 billion marks by the end of 2024.

Blockchain and Blockchain application advancement is developing in ubiquity to impossible statures. It is turning into the popular expression where even an organization changes its name and plan of action as per the Blockchain publicity is prompting higher benefits.

Trend #8: Enhanced Security for Android Apps:

Generally, all Android Apps are very much acknowledged for its alluring UI structure and proficient activities. So the following degree of Android Apps that will be planned will have greater security.

This is on the grounds that Google Play Store began dismissing loads of portable applications that need security. As of now created Android Apps ought to have the API Integration to improve the security level.

This should empower the google play store to dispense with a portion of the pernicious applications.

Источник

Google sees Android apps on Mac, Windows as its ‘Games Future,’ according to internal plan

— Aug. 19th 2021 11:04 am PT

Google is infamously known for starting multiple projects to accomplish what is more or less the same task. That practice extends to gaming, with court documents today revealing an Android and Google Play-focused “Games Future” that’s apparently running parallel to Stadia.

“Games Future” is an internal “Google Confidential” presentation that was made public as a result of the Apple and Epic Games lawsuit. Spotted by The Verge, it’s dated October 2020 and was produced by the “Google Play” division. At a high level, it provides a roadmap of what the company wants to accomplish in gaming by 2025. Besides taking a redacted/unspecified percentage of the lucrative $35-50 billion industry, it wants to “avoid erosion on mobile.”

Knowing the originator of this document serves as important context behind the Android focus, with the vision being to “deliver the best platform to build, discover, and experience games.” Google wants to be the place where developers publish their titles. In turn, it will make those games available across all its platforms and devices.

On the “build” front, the company will offer “full-spectrum developer services for game making.” This includes cloud services that make it easier to host large tournaments, and payments solutions like crowdfunding.

The “Discover” tentpole involves “organiz[ing] the world’s game”:

Aggregate games across providers, including game streaming, so you can always find games through Google and 3rd parties.

This is not too different from Google TV and what the Play Store does by linking to various streaming services where you can find a movie. One mockup shows a hypothetical PUBG Google Play listing having links to the Android app and Stadia.

“Experience” is letting users “play on any screen.” Google specifically has the Android (mobile/emulated), Windows (native), and Mac (“w/ Play services”) platforms in mind, while form factors include “phones, desktops, smart displays, [and] TVs with game controller support.” As of today, Google has yet to detail any official plans to bring Android apps to Windows or Mac.

• 
• 
• 
• 

A lot of this presentation is redacted, including a section on “Current multiplatform efforts.” However, one slide appears to show that the “V1” of this effort includes bringing the “best of Android mobile games on PC.”

Bring our catalog and tech to more screens and platforms, including Google’s Ambient computing vision. Starting with Windows to distribute emulated, native and streamed games, with a low-cost universal portable game controller.

That currently is targeting 100-125 titles, but the “Next” step for Google is to “scale the catalog” to around a thousand titles. It also wants “MacOS expansion” and “Windows Native.” Another step towards this is making a “low-cost” Bluetooth controller for all platforms while adding universal controller support to Smart Displays and televisions.

Google has yet to announce this effort officially, but the document makes reference to the Android 12 Game dashboard and other developer updates that are underway.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Источник

Cloud gaming is the future (whether you like it or not)

To the surprise of no one, Google announced its entry into the cloud gaming market with Google Stadia earlier this week. It promises, like Microsoft’s Project xCloud, to revolutionize the way we game. But will it really?

In short, the answer is yes. Unlike previous attempts at setting up a cloud gaming service, Microsoft and Google have the means and the will to make it happen. If either is able to turn their promises into reality (and that’s a big if), they are set to turn the gaming industry on its head.

To understand why cloud gaming has a much better chance of catching on now, rather than a few years ago, you have to look at the direction the industry is heading and the ways media consumption has changed in the digital era.

The rise of games as a service

Like it or not, most industries are shifting to a service model. For entertainment, the same pattern emerged as advances in bandwidth and technology allowed. First it was music, then it was movies/TV, and now it’s games. The advantages for companies (and users) of services models are just too great to ignore.

For games, service-based models (read: microtransactions) are frequently adopted because they give developers a way to further monetize their work without increasing base prices. With a large install base, there is a much bigger opportunity to make money over the lifetime of a game, rather than just at release. Microtransactions may be controversial for many old guard gamers, but at this point I’m afraid there is no getting rid of them.

Look no further than Fortnite, the most popular game in the world. It manages to maintain its dominance not by lowering the barrier of entry, but instead by virtually removing it. By making the game accessible to more or less anyone with a screen, the game’s potential audience is enormous. This paid off huge for Epic Games in 2018 — to the sum of $3 billion.

There are a number of other advantages for gamers, as well. In addition to not needing to buy any hardware, you don’t need to take it around with you to use it. As long as you have a good internet connection, you can play your AAA games whenever and wherever you want. With 5G’s incredible speeds and low latency just around the corner, this may even apply when not on a Wi-Fi network — assuming you have an incredible data plan.

The other obvious advantage is that you will never need to upgrade your system. New consoles are released every few years, and the high-end PC gaming market changes even more frequently. By spreading the cost of upgrading hardware to thousands of gamers, the cost of gaming will be reduced significantly. Why pay $60 for a new AAA game when you can pay half that for a month of access to tons of games at 4K quality?

Sure, the experience is slightly worse, but if you think people won’t put up with a small amount of input latency in cloud gaming, try playing Fortnite on a phone. No, cloud gaming won’t compete with your $5,000 battle station, but it doesn’t have to. As long as it offers a decent experience for the masses at a good price point, it will succeed.

Plenty of room at the table

Many gamers see cloud gaming as some sort of existential threat to their beloved console and PC titles. It’s as if this new way to consume games will completely erase the last 20 years of gaming history.

You could compare this again to mobile gaming. When big studios announce a new title in a beloved franchise like Diablo or Command & Conquer, then reveal it’s mobile exclusive, fan reaction is overwhelmingly negative. Never mind the fact that mobile titles are often the only things keeping these older franchises alive.

The fact of the matter is that the mobile gaming market is already making more money than all other gaming markets combined. The reason for this? Accessibility. There were 2.1 billion active mobile gamers at the end of 2017, and that number is only going to rise. Cloud gaming gives developers the opportunity to provide a console or PC-level experience to this new and growing audience of gamers.

If a big studio like EA has a chance to get at the mobile gaming market in a big way, they will (in fact, they already have). Even better if they can provide a true AAA experience rather than the watered down mobile versions that flood the Google Play Store.

Looking at digital game sales as a whole, it makes up more than 90 percent of the entire gaming market. This means that the jump from Steam to the cloud could be pretty seamless — if you’re someone who has already given up on physical media.

If you want to buy a game on a disc, you can. I still buy vinyl records even though I usually listen to music on streaming services. One is a collectors item that provides a unique experience, the other is pure convenience. There is a place for both in my life.

The bottom line

If Google Stadia or Project xCloud work as promised, they will absolutely revolutionize gaming. The games industry has already embraced games as a service as a way to boost revenue, and the market is ready to shift even further into digital formats. The only difference is that now the console itself is digital, and gamers need to buy one device fewer to access the latest and greatest.

The real challenge now, and the reason Google was at GDC in the first place, is getting developers on board. Once that happens, you can safely say goodbye to your gaming consoles forever.

Источник