kitkat.jd revision 790f9183aef321e3b0dc5396e71abf495c72b551
1page.title=KitKat 2 3@jd:body 4 5 6<style> 7</style> 8 9<script> 10function revealSection(hashy) { 11 if (hashy != "" && !$(hashy).is(":visible")) { 12 sectionId = $(hashy).closest(".version-section").attr("id"); 13 link = $("#title-tabs a[href$="+sectionId+"]"); 14 link.parent().addClass("selected"); 15 link.parent().siblings().removeClass("selected"); 16 17 sectionDiv = $(".version-section"+link.attr("href")); 18 if (sectionDiv.length) { 19 $(".version-section").hide(); 20 sectionDiv.show(); 21 } 22 23 $('html, body').animate({ 24 scrollTop: $(hashy).offset().top 25 }, 100); 26 } 27} 28 29$(document).ready(function() { 30 $("#title-tabs li a").each(function() { 31 $(this).click(function(){ 32 $(this).parent().addClass("selected"); 33 $(this).parent().siblings().removeClass("selected"); 34 $(".version-section").hide(); 35 $($(this).attr("href")).show(); 36 return false; 37 }); 38 }); 39 40 hashy = escapeHTML(location.hash); 41 revealSection(hashy); 42}); 43 44window.onhashchange = function () { 45 revealSection(escapeHTML(location.hash)); 46} 47 48</script> 49 50<style> 51 52</style> 53 54<!-- BEGIN ANDROID 4.4 --> 55<div id="44-android-44" class="version-section"> 56 57 <div style="padding:0px 0px 0px 60px;margin-top:-3px;float:right;"> 58 <img src="{@docRoot}images/kk-android-44.png" alt="Android 4.3 on phone and tablet" width="380"> 59 </div> 60 61 <div class="landing-docs" style="float:right;clear:both;margin:22px 0 2em 3em;"> 62 <div class="col-4 normal-links highlights" style="font-size:12px;"> 63 <h3 id="thisd" >Key Developer Features</h3> 64 <ul style="list-style-type:none;"> 65 <!--<li><a href="#44-ui">UI refresh</a></li>--> 66 <li><a href="#44-hce">Host Card Emulation</a></li> 67 <li><a href="#44-printing">Printing framework</a></li> 68 <li><a href="#44-storage-access">Storage access framework</a></li> 69 <li><a href="#44-sensors">Low-power sensors</a></li> 70 <li><a href="#44-sms-provider">SMS provider</a></li> 71 <li><a href="#44-immersive">Full-screen Immersive mode</a></li> 72 <li><a href="#44-transitions">Transitions framework</a></li> 73 <li><a href="#44-webview">Chromium WebView</a></li> 74 <li><a href="#44-screen-recording">Screen recording</a></li> 75 <li><a href="#44-renderscript-ndk">RenderScript NDK</a></li> 76 <li><a href="#44-bluetooth">Bluetooth HOGP and MAP</a></li> 77 <li><a href="#44-ir-blasters">IR Blasters</a></li> 78 <li><a href="#44-closed-captioning">Closed captioning settings</a></li> 79 <li><a href="#44-international-users">RTL features</a></li> 80 <li><a href="#44-security">Security enhancements</a></li> 81 <li><a href="#44-tools">Tools for analyzing memory use</a></li> 82 </ul> 83 </div> 84</div> 85 86 87<p>Welcome to Android 4.4 KitKat!</p> 88 89<p>Android KitKat brings all of Android's 90most innovative, most beautiful, and most useful features to more devices everywhere. </p> 91<p>This document provides a glimpse of what's new for 92developers. </p> 93<p>Find out more about KitKat for consumers at <a 94href="http://www.android.com/whatsnew">www.android.com</a>.</p> 95 96 97<h2 id="svelte" style="line-height:1.25em;">Making Android for everyone</h2> 98 99<p><span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> is designed to run fast, smooth, 100 and responsively on a much broader range of devices than ever before — including 101 on millions of entry-level devices around the world that have as little as <strong>512MB 102 RAM</strong>. </p> 103 104<!--<p>Now in KitKat, Android brings all of 105its most innovative, most beautiful, and most useful features and APIs to devices everywhere. </p>--> 106<p>KitKat streamlines every major component to reduce memory use and introduces new APIs 107 and tools to help you create innovative, responsive, memory-efficient applications. 108 109<p>OEMs building the next generation of Android devices can take advantage of <strong>targeted recommendations 110 and options</strong> to run <span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> efficiently, even on low-memory devices. Dalvik JIT code cache tuning, 111 kernel samepage merging (KSM), swap to zRAM, and other optimizations help manage 112 memory. New configuration options let OEMs tune out-of-memory levels for processes, set graphics cache sizes, 113 control memory reclaim, and more. </p> 114 115<p>In Android itself, changes across the system improve memory management and reduce 116 memory footprint. Core system processes are trimmed to <strong>use less heap</strong>, and they now 117 more <strong>aggressively protect system memory</strong> by killing long-running cached and idle 118 processes that consume large memory. When multiple services start at once — such 119 as when network connectivity changes — Android now <strong>launches the services serially</strong>, 120 in small groups, to avoid peak memory demands.</p> 121 122<p>For developers, <span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> helps you deliver <strong>apps that are efficient and responsive</strong> on all devices. A new API, 123 <span style="font-size:11.5px;font-family:monospace;">ActivityManager.isLowRamDevice()</span>, 124 lets you tune your app's 125 behavior to match the device's memory configuration. You can modify or disable large-memory features 126 as needed, depending on the use-cases you want to support on entry-level devices. Learn more about optimizing your apps for low-memory devices <a href="">here</a>.</p> 127 128<p>New tools give also give you powerful insight into your app's memory use. The <strong>procstats tool</strong> details memory use over time, 129 with run times and memory footprint for foreground 130 apps and background services. An on-device view is also available as a new developer option. The <strong>meminfo tool</strong> is also enhanced to 131 make it easier to spot memory trends and issues, and it reveals additional memory 132 overhead that hasn't previously been visible. </p> 133 134<!-- 135 <p>With memory effieciency and , along with the new advantage of memory-saving <span style="font-size:11px;font-family:monospace;">ArrayMap/ArraySet</span> 136 APIs, along many other high-performance, low-power APIs and capabilities in <span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span>. --> 137 138<h2 id="44-hce">New NFC capabilities through Host Card Emulation</h2> 139 140<p><span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> introduces new platform support for secure NFC-based transactions 141through <strong>Host Card Emulation</strong> (HCE), for payments, loyalty programs, 142card access, transit passes, and other custom services. With HCE, any app on an 143Android device can emulate an NFC smart card, letting users tap to initiate 144transactions with an app of their choice — no provisioned secure element (SE) 145in the device is needed. Apps can also use a new Reader Mode to act as readers 146for HCE cards and other NFC-based transactions.</p> 147 148<div style="float:right;margin:32px;width:200px;"> 149 <img src="{@docRoot}images/kk-contactless-card.png" alt="" width="200" style="margin-bottom:0;"> 150<!--<p class="img-caption" style="padding-top:1.5em;margin-left:6px;line-height:1.25em;width:480px;">You can add printing support to your apps or develop print services to support specific types of printers.</p>--> 151</div> 152 153<p>Android HCE emulates ISO/IEC 7816 based smart cards that use the contactless 154ISO/IEC 14443-4 (ISO-DEP) protocol for transmission. These cards are used by 155many systems today, including the existing EMVCO NFC payment infrastructure. 156Android uses Application Identifiers (AIDs) as defined in ISO/IEC 7816-4 as the 157basis for routing transactions to the correct Android applications.</p> 158 159<p>Apps declare the AIDs they support in their manifest files, along with a 160category identifier that indicates the type of support available (for example, 161"payments"). In cases where multiple apps support the same AID in the same 162category, Android displays a dialog that lets the user choose which app to use. </p> 163 164<p>When the user taps to pay at a point-of-sale terminal, the system extracts the 165preferred AID and routes the transaction to the correct application. The app 166reads the transaction data and can use any local or network-based services to 167verify and then complete the transaction. </p> 168 169<p>Android HCE requires an NFC controller to be present in the device. Support for 170HCE is already widely available on most NFC controllers, which offer dynamic 171support for both HCE and SE transactions. <span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> devices that support NFC 172will include Tap & Pay for easy payments using HCE.</p> 173 174<h2 id="44-printing">Printing framework</h2> 175 176<p>Android apps can now <strong>print any type of content</strong> over Wi-Fi or 177cloud-hosted services such as Google Cloud Print. In print-enabled apps, users 178can discover available printers, change paper sizes, choose specific pages to 179print, and print almost any kind of document, image, or file. </p> 180 181<p><span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> introduces native platform support for printing, along with APIs for 182managing printing and adding new types of printer support. The platform provides 183a print manager that mediates between apps requesting printing and installed 184print services that handle print requests. The print manager provides shared 185services and a system UI for printing, giving users consistent control over 186printing from any app. The print manager also ensures the security of content as 187it's passed across processes, from an app to a print service.</p> 188 189<div style="float:right;margin:22px 0px 0px 24px;width:490px;"> 190 <img src="{@docRoot}images/kk-print-land-n5.png" alt="" width="471" style="margin-bottom:0;"> 191<p class="img-caption" style="padding-top:1.5em;margin-left:6px;line-height:1.25em;width:480px;">You can add printing support to your apps or develop print services to support specific types of printers.</p> 192</div> 193 194 195 196<p>Printer manufacturers can use new APIs to develop their own <strong>print services</strong> — 197pluggable components that add vendor-specific logic and services for 198communicating with specific types of printers. They can build print services and 199distribute them through Google Play, making it easy for users to find and 200install them on their devices. Just as with other apps, you can update print 201services over-the-air at any time.</p> 202 203<p>App developers can use new APIs to <strong>add printing capabilities</strong> to their apps with 204minimal code changes. In most cases, you would add a print action to your Action 205Bar and a UI for choosing items to print. You would also implement APIs to 206create print jobs, query the print manager for status, and cancel jobs. This 207lets you print nearly any type of content, from local images and documents to 208network data or a view rendered to a canvas. </p> 209 210<p>For broadest compatibility, Android uses PDF as its primary file format for 211printing. Before printing, your app needs to generate a properly paginated PDF 212version of your content. For convenience, the printing API provides native and 213WebView helper classes to let you create PDFs using standard Android drawing 214APIs. If your app knows how to draw the content, it can quickly create a PDF for 215printing.</p> 216 217<p>Most devices running <span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> will include Google Cloud Print pre-installed 218as a print service, as well as several Google apps that support printing, 219including Chrome, Drive, Gallery, and QuickOffice.</p> 220 221<h2 id="44-storage-access">Storage access framework</h2> 222 223 224<p>A new storage access framework makes it 225simple for users to browse and open documents, images, and other files across 226all of their their preferred document storage providers. A 227standard, easy-to-use UI lets users browse files and access recents in a consistent way across apps and providers.</p> 228 229<div style="float:right;margin:22px 0px 0px 24px;width:490px;"> 230 <img src="{@docRoot}images/kk-saf2-n5.png" alt="" width="240" style="margin-bottom:0;"> 231<img src="{@docRoot}images/kk-saf1-n5.png" alt="" width="240" style="margin-bottom:0;padding-left:6px;"> 232 233<p class="img-caption" style="padding-top:1.5em;margin-left:6px;line-height:1.25em;width:480px;">The storage access framework brings users, apps, and storage services together in a single convenient ecosystem.</p> 234</div> 235 236 237 238<p>Storage services can participate in this ecosystem by implementing a new 239document provider class that encapsulates their services. The provider class 240includes all of the APIs needed to register the provider with the system and 241manage browsing, reading, and writing documents in the provider. The document 242provider can give users access to any local or remote data that can be 243represented as files — from text, photos, and wallpapers to video, audio, and 244more. </p> 245 246<p>If you build a document provider for a local or cloud-based service, you can 247deliver it to users as part of your existing Android app. After downloading and 248installing the app, users will have instant access your service from any app 249that participates in the framework. This can help you gain exposure and user 250engagement, since users will find your services more easily.</p> 251 252<p>If you develop an app that manages files or documents, you can integrate with 253the storage access framework just by using new <span style ="font-size:11.5px;">CREATE_DOCUMENT</span> 254or <span style ="font-size:11.5px;">OPEN_DOCUMENT</span> 255intents to open or create files — the system automatically displays the 256standard UI for browsing documents, including all available document providers. 257 258<p>You can integrate your app one time, for all providers, without any 259 vendor-specific code. As users add or remove providers, they’ll continue to 260 have access to their preferred services from your app, without changes or 261 updates needed in your code.</p> 262 263<p> 264 The storage access framework is integrated with the existing <span style= 265 "font-size:11.5px;">GET_CONTENT</span> intent, so users also have access to 266 all of their previous content and data sources from the new system UI for 267 browsing. Apps can continue using <span style= 268 "font-size:11.5px;">GET_CONTENT</span> as a way to let users import data. The 269 storage access framework and system UI for browsing make it easier for users 270 to find and import their data from a wider range of sources. 271</p> 272 273<p>Most devices running <span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> will include Google Drive and local 274 storage pre-integrated as document providers, and Google apps that work 275 with files also use the new framework. </p> 276 277 278<h2 id="44-sensors">Low-power sensors</h2> 279 280 281 282<!--<div style="float:right;padding-top:0em;width:372px;margin-left:2em;"> 283 284<img src="{@docRoot}images/kk-rs-chart-versions.png" alt="Renderscipt optimizations chart" width="360" height="252" style="border:1px solid #ddd;border-radius: 6px;" /> 285<p class="img-caption" style="margin-left:6px;line-height:1.25em;">Performance benchmarks for Android 4.4 relative to Android 4.3, run on the same devices (Nexus 7, Nexus 10).</p> 286</div> --> 287 288<h4 id="44-sensor-batching">Sensor batching</h4> 289 290<p><span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> introduces platform support for hardware sensor batching, a new 291optimization that can dramatically reduce power consumed by ongoing sensor 292activities. </p> 293 294<p>With sensor batching, Android works with the device hardware to 295collect and deliver sensor events efficiently in batches, rather than 296individually as they are detected. This lets the device's application processor 297remain in a low-power idle state until batches are delivered.</p> 298 299<p>You can request batched events from any sensor using a standard event listener, 300and you can control the interval at which you receive batches. You can also 301request immediate delivery of events between batch cycles. </p> 302 303<!-- <div style="margin:0 0;width:770px;height"> 304 <div style="float:right;width:380px;"> 305<img src="{@docRoot}images/kk-memdinfo.png" alt="" width="360" height="200" style="margin-bottom:0;box-shadow: 3px 10px 12px 1px #eee;border:1px solid #ddd;border-radius: 6px;"> 306<p class="img-caption" style="padding-top:1.5em;line-height:1.25em;">Real-world power reductions for apps.</p> 307</div> 308 309 <div style="width:380px;"> 310<img src="{@docRoot}images/kk-procstdats.png" alt="" width="360" height="200" style="margin-bottom:0;box-shadow: 3px 10px 18px 1px #eee;border:1px solid #ddd;border-radius: 6px;"> 311<p class="img-caption" style="padding-top:1.5em;line-height:1.25em;">Step detector power use over time.</p> 312</div> 313 314</div>--> 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325<div style="float:right;margin:1em 2em 0em 5em;width:200px;clear:both"> 326 <img src="{@docRoot}images/kk-moves-n5.png" alt="" width="240" style="margin-bottom:0;"> 327 328<p class="img-caption" style="padding-top:1.5em;margin-left:6px;line-height:1.25em;"><a class="external-link" href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.protogeo.moves">Moves</a> <!-- and <a class="external-link" href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.runtastic.android.pedometer.lite">Runtastic Pedometer</a> are using --> is using the hardware step-detector to for reduced power comsumption.</p> 329</div> 330 331<p>Sensor batching is 332ideal for low-power, long-running use-cases such as fitness, location tracking, 333monitoring, and more. It can makes your app more efficient and it lets you track 334sensor events continuously — even while the screen is off and the system is 335asleep. </p> 336 337<p>Sensor batching is currently available on Nexus 5, and we're working with our 338chipset partners to bring it to more devices as soon as possible. </p> 339 340<h4 id="44-step-detector">Step Detector and Step Counter</h4> 341 342<p><span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> also adds platform support for two new composite sensors — step 343detection and step counter — that let your app track steps when the user is 344walking, running, or climbing stairs. These new sensors are implemented in 345hardware for low power consumption.</p> 346 347<p>The step detector analyzes accelerometer input to recognize when the user has 348taken a step, then triggers an event with each step. The step counter tracks the 349total number of steps since the last device reboot and triggers an event with 350each change in the step count. Because the logic and sensor management is built 351into the platform and underlying hardware, you don't need to maintain your own 352detection algorithms in your app. </p> 353 354<p>Step detector and counter sensors are available on Nexus 5, and we're working 355with our chipset partners to bring them to new devices as soon as possible. </p> 356 357 358<h2 id="44-sms-provider">SMS provider</h2> 359 360<p>If you develop a messaging app that uses SMS or MMS, you can now use a shared 361SMS provider and new APIs to manage your app's message storage and retrieval. 362The new SMS provider and APIs define a standardized interaction model for all 363apps that handle SMS or MMS messages. </p> 364 365<p>Along with the new provider and APIs, <span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> introduces new semantics for 366receiving messages and writing to the provider. When a message is received, the 367system routes it directly to the user's default messaging app using the new 368<span style ="font-size:11.5px;">SMS_DELIVER</span> intent. Other apps can still listen for incoming messages using the 369<span style ="font-size:11.5px;">SMS_RECEIVED</span> intent. Also, the system now allows only the default app to write 370message data to the provider, although other apps can read at any time. Apps 371that are not the user's default can still send messages — the system handles 372writing those messages to the provider on behalf of the app, so that users can 373see them in the default app. </p> 374 375<p>The new provider and semantics help to improve the user's experience when 376multiple messaging apps are installed, and they help you to build new messaging 377features with fully-supported, forward-compatible APIs.</p> 378 379<h2 id="44-beautiful-apps">New ways to build beautiful apps</h2> 380 381 382 383 384<!-- 385 <div class="framed-nexus5-port-span-5" style="margin-left:0;padding:auto 1em 1em 0;"> 386 <video class="play-on-hover" autoplay=""> 387 <source src="{@docRoot}images/home.mp4" type="video/mp4"> 388 <source src="{@docRoot}images/immdersive.webm" type="video/webm"> 389 <source src="{@docRoot}images/immerdsive.ogv" type="video/ogg"> 390 </video> 391 </div> 392 <div class="figure-caption"> 393 Home screen... 394 <div class="video-instructions"> </div> 395 </div> 396 397 </div>--> 398 399 400 401<div style="float:right;margin:0px 0px 0px 24px;widdth:246px;"> 402<img src="{@docRoot}images/kk/kk-immersive-pacras-ljpm.jpg" alt="" width="240" style="margin-bottom:0;"> 403 <img src="{@docRoot}images/kk/kk-immersive-pacras-lgc.png" alt="" width="240" style="margin-bottom:0;"> 404 <img src="{@docRoot}images/kk/kk-immersive-pacras.png" alt="" width="240" style="margin-bottom:0;"> 405<p class="img-caption" style="padding-top:1.5em;margin-left:6px;line-height:1.25em;">A new immersive mode lets apps use every pixel on the screen to show content 406and capture touch events.</p> 407</div> 408 409<h4 id="44-immersive">Full-screen Immersive mode</h4> 410 411<p>Now your apps can use every pixel on the device screen to showcase your content 412and capture touch events. <span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> addsa new full-screen immersive mode that 413lets you create full-bleed UIs reaching from edge to edge on phones and tablets, 414hiding all system UI such as the status bar and navigation bar. It's ideal for 415rich visual content such as photos, videos, maps, books, and games.</p> 416 417<p>In the new mode, the system UI stays hidden, even while users are interacting 418with your app or game — you can capture touch events from anywhere across the 419screen, even areas that would otherwise be occupied by the system bars. This 420gives you a great way to create a larger, richer, more immersive UI in your app 421or game and also reduce visual distraction.</p> 422 423<p>To make sure that users always have easy, consistent access to system UI from 424full-screen immersive mode, <span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> supports a new gesture — in immersive 425mode, an edge swipe from the top or bottom of the screen now reveals the system 426UI. </p> 427 428<p>To return to immersive mode, users can touch the screen outside of the bar 429bounds or wait for a short period for the bars to auto-hide. For a consistent 430user experience, the new gesture also works with previous methods of hiding the 431status bar.</p> 432 433<h4 id="44-transitions">Transitions framework for animating scenes</h4> 434 435<p>Most apps structure their flows around several key UI states that expose 436different actions. Many apps also use animation to help users understand their 437progress through those states and the actions available in each. To make it 438easier to create high-quality animations in your app, <span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> introduces a 439new transitions framework. </p> 440 441<p>The transitions framework lets you define scenes, typically view hierarchies, 442and transitions, which define how to animate or transform the scenes when the 443user enters or exits them. You can use several predefined transition types to 444animate your scenes based on specific properties, such as layout bounds, or 445visibility. There's also an auto-transition type that automatically fades, 446moves, and resizes views during a scene change. In addition, you can define 447custom transitions that animate the properties that matter most to your app, and 448you can plug in your own animation styles if needed. </p> 449 450<p>With the transitions framework you can also animate changes to your UI on the 451fly, without needing to define scenes. For example, you can make a series of 452changes to a view hierarchy and then have the TransitionManager automatically 453run a delayed transition on those changes. </p> 454 455 456<p>Once you've set up transitions, it's straightforward to invoke them from your 457app. For example, you can call a single method to begin a transition, make 458various changes in your view hierarchy, and on the next frame animations will 459automatically begin that animate the changes you specified. </p> 460 461<div style="float:right;margin:0px 0px 22px 32px;width:340px;"> 462<img src="{@docRoot}images/kk-home-crop.png" alt="translucent system UI" widtdh="240" style="margin-bottom:0"> 463<p class="img-caption" style="padding-top:1.5em;line-height:1.25em;margin-bottom:0;">Apps 464can use new window styles to request translucent system bars.</p> 465</div> 466 467<p>For custom control over the transitions that run between specific scenes in your 468application flow, you can use the TransitionManager. The TransitionManager lets 469you define the relationship between scenes and the transitions that run for 470specific scene changes.</p> 471<h4 id="44-translucent-system-ui">Translucent system UI styling</h4> 472 473<p>To help get more impact out of your content, you can now use new window styles and 474themes to request translucent system UI, including both the status bar and 475navigation bar. To ensure the legibility of navigation bar buttons or status bar 476information, subtle gradients is shown behind the system bars. A typical use-case 477would be an app that needs to show through to a wallpaper.</p> 478 479 480 481<h4 id="44-notification-access">Enhanced notification access</h4> 482 483<p>Notification listener services can now see more information about incoming 484notifications that were constructed using the notification builder APIs. 485Listener services can access a notification's actions as well as new extras 486fields — text, icon, picture, progress, chronometer, and many others — to 487extract cleaner information about the notification and present the information 488in a different way.</p> 489 490 491 492 493<div style="float:left;margin:1em 2em 1em 2em;"> 494<a href=""><img src="{@docRoot}images/kk-chromium-icon.png" alt="" height="160" style="margin-bottom:0em;"></a> 495</div> 496 497<h4 id="44-webview">Chromium WebView</h4> 498<p><span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> includes a completely new implementation of WebView that's based on 499<a href="http://www.chromium.org/Home">Chromium</a>. The new Chromium WebView gives 500you the latest in standards support, performance, and compatibility to build and 501display your web-based content.</p> 502 503<p>Chromium WebView provides broad support for HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. It 504supports most of the HTML5 features available in Chrome for Android 30. It also 505brings an updated version of the JavaScript Engine (V8) that delivers dramatically 506improved JavaScript performance.</p> 507 508<p stydle="clear:both;">In addition, the new Chromium WebView supports remote debugging using Chrome 509DevTools. For example, you can use Chrome DevTools on your development machine 510to inspect, debug, and analyze your WebView content live on a mobile device. </p> 511 512<p>The new Chromium WebView is included on all compatible devices running 513<span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> and higher. You can take advantage of the new WebView right away, 514and with minimum modifications to existing apps and content. In most cases, your 515content will migrate to the new implementation seamlessly in most cases. </p> 516 517 518 519<h2 id="44-media">New media capabilities</h2> 520 521<h4 id="44-screen-recording">Screen recording</h4> 522 523<p>Now it's easy to create high-quality video of your app, directly from your 524Android device. <span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> adds support for screen recording and provides a 525<strong>screen recording utility</strong> that lets you capture video as you use the device 526and store it as an MP4 file. It's a great new way to create walkthroughs and 527tutorials for your app, testing materials, marketing videos, and much more. </p> 528 529<p>You can record at any device-supported resolution and bitrate you want, and the 530output retains the aspect ratio of the display. By default, the utility selects 531a resolution equal or close to the device's display resolution in the current 532orientation. When you are done recording, you can share the video directly from 533your device or pull the MP4 file to your host computer for post-production.</p> 534 535<p>If your app plays video or other protected content that you don’t want to 536 be captured by the screen recorder, you can use 537 <span style="font-size:11.5px;font-family:monospace;white-space:nowrap;">SurfaceView.setSecure()</span> 538 to mark the content as secure. 539 540<p>You can access screen recording through the adb tool included in the Android 541SDK, using the command <span style="font-size:11.5px;font-family:monospace;white-space:nowrap;">adb 542shell screenrecord</span>. You can also launch it through the DDMS panel in 543Android Studio.</p> 544 545<h4 id="44-adaptive-playback">Resolution switching through adaptive playback</h4> 546 547<p><span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> brings formal support for adaptive playback into the Android media 548framework. Adaptive playback is an optional feature of video decoders for 549MPEG-DASH and other formats that enables seamless change in resolution during 550playback. The client can start to feed the decoder input video frames of a new 551resolution and the resolution of the output buffers change automatically, and 552without a significant gap.</p> 553 554<p>Resolution switching in <span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> lets media apps offer a significantly better 555streaming video experience. Apps can check for adaptive playback support at 556runtime using existing APIs and implement resolution-switching using new APIs 557introduced in <span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span>.</p> 558 559<h4 id="44-cenc">Common Encryption for DASH</h4> 560 561<p>Android now supports the Common Encryption (CENC) for MPEG-DASH, providing a 562standard, multiplatform DRM scheme for managing protecting content. Apps can 563take advantage of CENC through Android's modular DRM framework and platform APIs 564for supporting DASH.</p> 565 566<h4 id="44-hls">HTTP Live Streaming</h4> 567 568<p><span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> updates the platform's HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) support to a 569superset of version 7 of the HLS specification (version 4 of the protocol). See 570the 571<a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-pantos-http-live-streaming-07" class="external-link">IETF draft</a> for details.</p> 572 573<h4 id="44-audio-tunneling">Audio Tunneling to DSP</h4> 574 575<p>For high-performance, lower-power audio playback, <span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> adds platform 576support for audio tunneling to a digital signal processor (DSP) in the device 577chipset. With tunneling, audio decoding and output effects are off-loaded to the 578DSP, waking the application processor less often and using less battery. </p> 579 580<p>Audio tunneling can dramatically improve battery life for use-cases such as 581listening to music over a headset with screen off. For example, with audio 582tunneling, Nexus 5 offers a total off-network audio playback time of up to 60 583hours, an increase of over 50% over non-tunneled audio. </p> 584 585<p>Media applications can take advantage of audio tunneling on supported devices 586without needing to modify code. The system applies tunneling to optimize audio 587playback whenever it's available on the device.</p> 588 589 590 591<div style="float:right;padding-top:1em;width:372px;margin-left:2em;"> 592 593<img src="{@docRoot}images/kk-loudnessEnhancerAnnotated.png" alt="Visualizer showing loudness enhancer audio effect" width="360" height="252" style="border:1px solid #ddd;border-radius: 6px;" /> 594<p class="img-caption" style="margin-left:6px;line-height:1.25em;">Visualization of how the LoudnessEnhancer effect can make speech content more audible.</p> 595</div> 596 597<p>Audio tunneling requires support in the device hardware. Currently audio 598tunneling is available on Nexus 5 and we're working with our chipset partners to 599make it available on more devices as soon as possible.</p> 600 601<h4 id="44-audio-monitoring">Audio monitoring</h4> 602 603<p>Apps can use new monitoring tools in the Visualizer effect to get updates on the 604peak and RMS levels of any currently playing audio on the device. For example, 605you could use this creatively in music visualizers or to implement playback 606metering in a media player. </p> 607 608 609 610<h4 id="44-loudness">Loudness enhancer</h4> 611 612<p>Media playback applications can increase the loudness of spoken content by using 613the new LoudnessEnhancer effect, which acts as compressor with time constants 614that are specifically tuned for speech.</p> 615 616<h4 id="44-audio-timestamps">Audio timestamps for improved AV sync</h4> 617 618<p>The audio framework can now report presentation timestamps from the audio output 619HAL to applications, for better audio-video synchronization. Audio timestamps 620let your app determine when a specific audio frame will be (or was) presented 621off-device to the user; you can use the timestamp information to more accurately 622synchronize audio with video frames.</p> 623 624<h4 id="44-miracast">Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Miracast™</h4> 625 626<p><span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> devices can now be certified to the Wi-Fi Alliance Wi-Fi Display 627Specification as Miracast compatible. To help with testing, a new Wireless 628Display developer option exposes advanced configuration controls and settings 629for Wireless Display certification. You can access the option at <strong>Settings > 630Developer options > Wireless display certification</strong></p>. Nexus 5 is a Miracast certified wireless 631display device. </p> 632 633<h2 id="44-renderscript">RenderScript Compute</h2> 634 635<div style="float:right;padding-top:1em;width:372px;margin-left:2em;"> 636 637<img src="{@docRoot}images/kk-rs-chart-versions.png" alt="Renderscipt optimizations chart" width="360" height="252" style="border:1px solid #ddd;border-radius: 6px;" /> 638<p class="img-caption" style="margin-left:6px;line-height:1.25em;">Performance benchmarks for Android 4.4 relative to Android 4.3, run on the same devices (Nexus 7, Nexus 10).</p> 639</div> 640 641<h4>Ongoing performance improvements</strong></h4> 642 643<p>When your apps use RenderScript, they'll benefit from ongoing performance 644tuning in the RenderScript runtime itself, without the need for recompilation. The 645chart at right shows performance gains in Android 4.4 on two popular chipsets.</p> 646 647<h4>GPU acceleration</h4> 648 649<p>Any app using RenderScript on a supported device benefits from 650GPU acceleration, without code changes or recompiling. Since the Nexus 10 651first debuted RenderScript GPU acceleration, various other hardware partners 652have added support. </p> 653 654<p>Now with <span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span>, GPU acceleration is available on the Nexus 5, as well as 655the Nexus 4, Nexus 7 (2013), and Nexus 10, and we're working with our partners 656to bring it to more devices as soon as possible.</p> 657 658<h4 id="44-renderscript-ndk">RenderScript in the Android NDK</h4> 659 660<p>Now you can take advantage of RenderScript directly from your native code. A 661new C++ API in the Android Native Development Kit (NDK) lets you access the same 662RenderScript functionality available through the framework APIs, including 663script intrinsics, custom kernels, and more. </p> 664 665<p>If you have large, performance-intensive tasks to handle in native code, you can 666perform those tasks using RenderScript and integrate them with your native code. 667RenderScript offers great performance across a wide range of devices, with 668automatic support for multi-core CPUs, GPUs, and other processors. </p> 669 670<p>When you build an app that uses the RenderScript through the NDK, you can 671distribute it to any device running Android 2.2 or or higher, just like with the 672RenderScript support library available for framework APIs.</p> 673 674<h2 id="44-graphics">Graphics</h2> 675 676<h4 id="44-surfaceflinger">GLES2.0 SurfaceFlinger</h4> 677 678<p><span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> upgrades its SurfaceFlinger from OpenGL ES 1.0 to OpenGL ES 2.0. 679This boosts performance by using multi-texturing, and it improves color 680calibration and supports more advanced special effects.</p> 681 682<h4 id="44-composer">New Hardware Composer support for virtual displays</h4> 683 684<p>The latest version of Android Hardware Composer, HWComposer 1.3, supports 685hardware composition of one virtual display in addition to the primary, external 686(e.g. HDMI) display, and has improved OpenGL ES interoperability. </p> 687 688<h2 id="44-connectivity">New Types of Connectivity</h2> 689 690<h4 id="44-bluetooth">New Bluetooth profiles</h4> 691 692<p><span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> support for two new Bluetooth profiles to let apps support a broader 693range of low-power and media interactions. <strong>Bluetooth HID over GATT</strong> (HOGP) 694gives apps a low-latency link with low-power peripheral devices such as mice, 695joysticks, and keyboards. <strong>Bluetooth MAP</strong> lets your apps exchange messages 696with a nearby device, for example an automotive terminal for handsfree use or 697another mobile device. As an <strong>extension to Bluetooth AVRCP 1.3</strong>, users can now set 698absolute volume on the system from their Bluetooth devices.</p> 699 700<p>Platform support for HOGP, MAP, and AVRCP is built on the Bluedroid Bluetooth 701stack introduced by Google and Broadcom in Android 4.2. Support is available 702right away on Nexus devices and other Android-compatible devices that offer 703compatible Bluetooth capabilities.</p> 704 705<h4 id="44-ir-blasters">IR Blasters</h4> 706 707<p><span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> introduces platform support for built-in IR blasters, along with a 708new API and system service that let you create apps to take advantage them. </p> 709 710<p>Using the new API, you can build apps that let users remotely control nearby 711TVs, tuners, switches, and other electronic devices. The API lets your app check 712whether the phone or tablet has an infrared emitter, query it's carrier 713frequencies, and then send infrared signals.</p> 714 715<p>Because the API is standard across Android devices running <span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> or 716higher, your app can support the broadest possible range of vendors without 717writing custom integration code.</p> 718 719<h4 id="44-wifi-tdls">Wi-Fi TDLS support</h4> 720 721<p><span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> introduces a seamless way to stream media and other data faster 722between devices already on the same Wi-Fi network by supporting Wi-Fi Tunneled 723Direct Link Setup (TDLS).</p> 724 725<h2 id="44-accessibility">Accessibility</h2> 726 727<h4 id="44-closed-captioning">System-wide settings for closed captioning</h4> 728 729<p><span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> now supports a better accessibility experience across apps by adding 730system-wide preferences for Closed Captioning. Users can go to <strong>Settings</strong> > 731<strong>Accessibility</strong> > <strong>Captions</strong> to set global captioning preferences, such as 732whether to show captions and what language, text size, and text style to use. </p> 733 734<p>Apps that use video can now access the user's captioning settings and adjust 735their presentation to meet the user's preferences. A new captioning manager API 736lets you check and monitor the user's captioning preferences. The captioning 737manager provides you with the user's preferred captioning state as well as 738preferred locale, scaling factor, and text style. The text style includes 739foreground and background colors, edge properties, and typeface.</p> 740 741 742<div style="float:right;margin:22px 0px 0px 24px;width:490px;"> 743 <img src="{@docRoot}images/kk-captions-n5.png" alt="" width="471" style="margin-bottom:0;"> 744<p class="img-caption" style="padding-top:1.5em;margin-left:6px;line-height:1.25em;width:480px;">Apps can now refer to the user's system-wide captions preferences. An example of the expected display style is shown right in the settings.</p> 745</div> 746 747<p>In addition, apps that use VideoView can use a new API to pass a captioning 748stream along with a video stream for rendering. The system automatically handles 749the display of the captions on video frames according to the user's systemwide 750settings. Currently, VideoView supports auto-display of captions in WebVTT 751format only. </p> 752 753<p>All apps that show captions should make sure to check the user's systemwide 754captioning preferences and render captions as closely as possible to those 755preferences. For more insight into how specific combinations of settings should 756look, you can look at a preview of captions in different languages, sizes, and 757styles right in the Settings app. </p> 758 759<h4 id="44-enhanced-apis">Enhanced Accessibility APIs</h4> 760 761<p><span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> extends the accessibility APIs to support more precise structural 762and semantic description and observation of onscreen elements. With the new 763APIs, developers can improve the quality of accessible feedback by providing 764accessibility services with more information about on-screen elements.</p> 765 766<p>In accessibility nodes, developers can now determine whether a node is a popup, 767get it’s input type, and more. You can also use new APIs to work with nodes that 768contain grid-like information, such as lists and tables. For example, you can now 769specify new supported actions, collection information, live region modes, and 770more.</p> 771 772<p>New accessibility events let developers more closely follow the changes that are 773taking place in window content, and they can now listen for changes in the touch 774exploration mode on the device. </p> 775 776<h2 id="44-international-users">Support for international Users</h2> 777 778<h4 id="44-drawable-mirroring">Drawable mirroring for RTL locales</h4> 779 780<p>If your app is targeting users who use RTL scripts, you can use a new API to 781declare that a Drawable should be auto-mirrored when the user's locale setting 782includes an RTL language. </p> 783 784<p>Declaring a Drawable as auto-mirrored helps you prevent duplication of assets in 785your app and reduces the the size of your APK. When you have drawables that are 786the reusable for both LTR and RTL presentations, you can declare the default 787versions as auto-mirrored and then omit those Drawables from your RTL resources. </p> 788 789 790 791<div style="float:right;margin:16px 12px 0px 32px;width:260px;clear:both;"> 792<img src="{@docRoot}images/kk-pseudolocale-rtl.png" alt="" width="260" style="margin-bottom:0;"> 793<p class="img-caption" style="padding-top:1.5em;line-height:1.25em;">Pseudo-locales make it easier to test your app's localization.</p> 794</div> 795 796<p>You can declare various types of Drawables as auto-mirrored in your application 797code, such as bitmap, nine-patch, layer, state list, and other Drawables. You 798can also declare a Drawable as auto-mirrored in your resource files by using a 799new attribute. </p> 800 801<h4 id="44-pseudolocale-rtl">RTL pseudo-locale</h4> 802 803 804 805<p>To make it easier to test and debug your layouts, Android includes an RTL 806pseudo-locale as a new developer option. </p> 807 808<p>The RTL pseudo-locale switches the device to RTL layout for all locales and 809displays text in your current language. This can help you find layout issues 810across your app, without having to display the app in an RTL language. You can 811access the RTL pseudo-localed as in <strong>Settings > 812Developer options > Force RTL layout direction</strong>.</p> 813 814<h2 id="44-security">Security enhancements</h2> 815 816<h4 id="44-selinux">SELinux (enforcing mode)</h4> 817 818<p><span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> updates its SELinux configuration from "permissive" to "enforcing." 819This means potential policy violations within a SELinux domain that has an 820enforcing policy will be blocked. </p> 821 822<h4 id="44-crytpo">Improved cryptographic algorithms</h4> 823 824<p>Android has improved its security further by adding support for two more 825cryptographic algorithms. Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) 826support has been added to the keystore provider improving security of digital 827signing, applicable to scenarios such as signing of an application or a data 828connection. The Scrypt key derivation function is implemented to protect the 829cryptographic keys used for full-disk encryption.</p> 830 831<h4 id="44-other">Other enhancements</h4> 832 833<p>On multiuser devices, VPNs are now applied per user. This can 834allow a user to route all network traffic through a VPN without affecting 835other users on the device. Also, Android now supports FORTIFY_SOURCE level 2, 836and all code is compiled with those protections. FORTIFY_SOURCE has been 837enhanced to work with clang.</p> 838</ul> 839 840<h2 id="44-tools">Tools for analyzing memory use</h2> 841 842<h4 id="44-procstats">Procstats</h4> 843 844<p>A new tool called <strong>procstats</strong> helps you analyze the memory resources your app 845uses, as well as the resources used by other apps and services running on the 846system. </p> 847 848<p>Procstats keeps track of how apps are running over time, providing data about 849their execution durations and memory use to help determine how efficiently they 850are performing. This is most important for apps that start services that run in 851the background, since it lets you monitor how long they are running and how much 852RAM they are using while doing so. Procstats will also collect data for 853foreground applications about memory use over time to determine the overall 854memory profile of the app.</p> 855 856<p>Procstats can help you identify background services started by your app. You can 857keep track of how long those services continue running and how much RAM they use 858while doing so. Procstats also lets you profile your app while it's in the 859foreground, using its memory use over time to determine its overall memory 860profile.</p> 861 862 863 864 865<div style="margin:2em 0em;width:780px;"> 866 867 <div style="float:left;width:390px;"> 868<img src="{@docRoot}images/kk-procstats.png" alt="" width="360" style="margin-bottom:0;box-shadow: 3px 10px 18px 1px #eee;border:1px solid #ddd;border-radius: 6px;"> 869<p class="img-caption" style="padding-top:1.5em;line-height:1.25em;width:360px;">The new <strong>procstats</strong> tool lets you check the memory use of apps and services over time.</p> 870</div> 871 872 <div style="float:right;width:390px;"> 873<img src="{@docRoot}images/kk-meminfo.png" alt="" width="360" style="margin-bottom:0;box-shadow: 3px 10px 12px 1px #eee;border:1px solid #ddd;border-radius: 6px;"> 874<p class="img-caption" style="padding-top:1.5em;line-height:1.25em;width:360px;">The enhanced <strong>meminfo</strong> tool lets you see details of memory use for an app.</p> 875</div> 876 877</div> 878 879 880<p style="clear:both;">You can access procstats from the adb tool included in the Android SDK, 881 <span style="font-size:11.5px;font-family:monospace;white-space:nowrap;">adb shell dumpsys 882 procstats</span>. Also, for on-device profiling, see the Process Stats developer option, below. </p> 883 884 885<h4 id="44-procstats-ondevice" style="clear:both">On-device memory status and profiling</h4> 886 887 888 889 890 891<p><span style="white-space:nowrap;">Android 4.4</span> includes a new developer option to make it easier to analyze your 892app's memory profile while it's running on any device or emulator. It's 893especially useful to get a view of how your app uses memory and performs on 894devices with low RAM. You can access the option at <strong>Settings > 895Developer options > Process stats</strong></p> 896 897<div style="float:right;margin:22px 0px 0px 24px;width:490px;"> 898 <img src="{@docRoot}images/kk-proc-device-overview-tri.png" alt="" width="240" style="margin-bottom:0;"> 899<img src="{@docRoot}images/kk-proc-device-detail.png" alt="" width="240" style="margin-bottom:0;padding-left:6px;"> 900 901<p class="img-caption" style="padding-top:1.5em;margin-left:6px;line-height:1.25em;width:480px;"><strong>Process stats</strong> is a convenient way to check your app's memory use. You can see how your app compares to other apps and zoom in on specific data about your app or it's background services.</p> 902</div> 903 904 905<p>The <strong>Process Stats</strong> option shows you a variety of high-level metrics on your 906app's memory use, based on data collected using the new procstats service. On 907the main screen you can see a summary of system memory status. Green indicates 908relative amount of time spent with low RAM usage, yellow indicates moderate RAM 909usage, and red indicates high (critical) RAM usage</p> 910 911<p>Below the summary is a list summarizing each app's memory load on the system. 912For each app, a blue bar indicates the relative computed memory load (runtime x 913avg_pss) of its process, and a percentage number indicates the relative amount 914of time spent in the background. You can filter the list to show only 915foreground, background, or cached processes, and you can include or exclude 916system processes. You can also change the duration of the data collected to 3, 9176, 12, or 24 hours, and you can include or exclude uss memory. </p> 918 919<p>To take a closer look at a specific app's memory usage in isolation, tap the 920app. For each app, you can now see a summary of the memory consumed and the 921percentage of the collection interval that the app has been running. You can 922also see the average and maximum usage over the collection period, and below the 923app's services and the percentage of time they've been running. </p> 924 925<p>Analyzing your app using the data in Process Stats can reveal issues and suggest 926possible optimizations for your app. For example, if your app is running longer 927than it should or using too much memory over a period of time, there could be 928bugs in your code that you can resolve to improve your app's performance, 929especially when running on a device with low RAM. </p> 930 931</div><!-- END ANDROID 4.4 -->