Google’s Cross device SDK Developer Preview for Android now available

Google wants to make it easier for developers to create better multi-device apps. Friday last week, the tech giant announced the arrival of its Cross device SDK Developer Preview for Android. It provides new APIs focusing on Device discovery, Secure connections, and Multi-device Sessions, which can all lead to the creation of promising apps in the future.

“This SDK abstracts away the intricacies involved with working with device discovery, authentication, and connection protocols, allowing you to focus on what matters most—building delightful user experiences and connecting these experiences across a variety of form factors and platforms,” Google said in its blog post.

According to Google, the new SDK will leverage present wireless technologies like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Ultra-wide band. And just by the description of it, the new SDK seems to be pushing developers to follow the same concept introduced in Nearby Share in creating new apps. In a list of use cases shared by Google, the Cross device SDK is said to be capable of aiding developers in creating apps for group food ordering. The company also stated that the APIs could open new possibilities for personal and communal experiences like multiplayer gaming and flawless productivity app switching between devices. Other cases shared by Google where the SDK can be implemented include using a phone for TV content payment, syncing ebook pages across connected devices, sharing map location to a car, polling, and more.

“…Our SDK does all the heavy-lifting under the hood, offering you a modular,connectivity-agnostic API that supports bi-directional communication between devices and is backward compatible to Android 8,” Google added. “In addition, apps will not have to declare or request Runtime Permissions for any of the underlying connectivity protocols used (such as BLUETOOTH_CONNECT, BLUETOOTH_SCAN, ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION, etc.), and the user can allow apps to connect to only the device(s) they selected.”

Currently, the Developer Preview of the new Cross device SDK is available only for Android phones and tablets. Nonetheless, Google also has plans to roll out it “later” to “other Android surfaces and non-Android OSs.”