Android – the difference between Google APIs in Android SDK

androidandroid-sdk-managerandroid-sdk-tools

Since android 5.0, Google added Google APIs. what is that exactly?

And what is the difference between Google APIs intel atom_64 x86 system image and Google APIs intel atom x86 system image?

I know that intel atom images is much faster, but there is a lot of them.

and what version should I use as my main emulator?

Best Answer

Since android 5.0, Google added Google APIs. what is that exactly?

A few library jars and corresponding documentation. See the add-ons directory in your Android SDK. From add-ons/addon-google_apis-google-23/manifest.ini:

# details for each library
com.google.android.maps=maps.jar;API for Google Maps
com.android.future.usb.accessory=usb.jar;API for USB Accessories
com.google.android.media.effects=effects.jar;Collection of video effects

Typically, you do not need to install Google APIs.

And what is the difference between Google APIs intel atom_64 x86 system image and Google APIs intel atom x86 system image? ... and what version should I use as my main emulator?

One is 64-bit, the other is 32-bit. 64-bit may be slightly faster depending on your machine's architecture. From https://software.intel.com/en-us/android/articles/how-to-develop-and-evaluate-64-bit-android-apps-on-intel-x86-platforms:

Android L with 64-bit technologies for Intel Atom processor-based platforms can help developers to optimize their applications now. Building Android applications for 64-bit is just as easy as building traditional 32-bit Android applications. You can now use the official Android 64-bit emulator to run and debug 64-bit apps. To test the performance of 64-bit x86 Android platforms, we rebuilt several open source projects to 64-bit and had several top ISVs in PRC build 64-bit versions of their apps. The performance benchmarks show 7-8% (or even 20% on one special case) performance gains using 64-bit compared to 32-bit.

Typically, you only need to install Google APIs Intel x86 Atom_64 System Image in order to create an emulator with Google APIs. As mentioned above, you do not need to install the separate Google APIs package.

If you do not use any Google APIs, you could install Intel x86 Atom_64 System Image instead.

Related Solutions

Android – How to close/hide the Android soft keyboard programmatically

You can force Android to hide the virtual keyboard using the InputMethodManager, calling hideSoftInputFromWindow, passing in the token of the window containing your focused view.

// Check if no view has focus:
View view = this.getCurrentFocus();
if (view != null) {  
    InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager)getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
    imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(view.getWindowToken(), 0);
}

This will force the keyboard to be hidden in all situations. In some cases, you will want to pass in InputMethodManager.HIDE_IMPLICIT_ONLY as the second parameter to ensure you only hide the keyboard when the user didn't explicitly force it to appear (by holding down the menu).

Note: If you want to do this in Kotlin, use: context?.getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE) as InputMethodManager

Kotlin Syntax

// Only runs if there is a view that is currently focused
this.currentFocus?.let { view ->
    val imm = getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE) as? InputMethodManager
    imm?.hideSoftInputFromWindow(view.windowToken, 0)
}

Android – the difference between “px”, “dip”, “dp” and “sp”

From the Android Developer Documentation:

px
> Pixels - corresponds to actual pixels on the screen.
in
> Inches - based on the physical size of the screen.
> 1 Inch = 2.54 centimeters
mm
> Millimeters - based on the physical size of the screen.
pt
> Points - 1/72 of an inch based on the physical size of the screen.
dp or dip
> Density-independent Pixels - an abstract unit that is based on the physical density of the screen. These units are relative to a 160 dpi screen, so one dp is one pixel on a 160 dpi screen. The ratio of dp-to-pixel will change with the screen density, but not necessarily in direct proportion. Note: The compiler accepts both "dip" and "dp", though "dp" is more consistent with "sp".
sp
> Scaleable Pixels OR scale-independent pixels - this is like the dp unit, but it is also scaled by the user's font size preference. It is recommended you use this unit when specifying font sizes, so they will be adjusted for both the screen density and the user's preference. Note, the Android documentation is inconsistent on what sp actually stands for, one doc says "scale-independent pixels", the other says "scaleable pixels".

From Understanding Density Independence In Android:

Density Bucket	Screen Density	Physical Size	Pixel Size
ldpi	120 dpi	0.5 x 0.5 in	0.5 in * 120 dpi = 60x60 px
mdpi	160 dpi	0.5 x 0.5 in	0.5 in * 160 dpi = 80x80 px
hdpi	240 dpi	0.5 x 0.5 in	0.5 in * 240 dpi = 120x120 px
xhdpi	320 dpi	0.5 x 0.5 in	0.5 in * 320 dpi = 160x160 px
xxhdpi	480 dpi	0.5 x 0.5 in	0.5 in * 480 dpi = 240x240 px
xxxhdpi	640 dpi	0.5 x 0.5 in	0.5 in * 640 dpi = 320x320 px

Unit	Description	Units Per Physical Inch	Density Independent?	Same Physical Size On Every Screen?
px	Pixels	Varies	No	No
in	Inches	1	Yes	Yes
mm	Millimeters	25.4	Yes	Yes
pt	Points	72	Yes	Yes
dp	Density Independent Pixels	~160	Yes	No
sp	Scale Independent Pixels	~160	Yes	No

More info can be also be found in the Google Design Documentation.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Android – How to close/hide the Android soft keyboard programmatically

Android – the difference between “px”, “dip”, “dp” and “sp”

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