Google introduces ‘quality tiers’ for Android widgets

Example of a widget as Google unveils Android widget “quality tiers” to help developers fine-tune their widgets into polished, user-friendly experiences.

Google is unveiling Android widget “quality tiers” to help developers fine-tune their widgets into polished, user-friendly experiences.  

“Widgets can be a powerful tool for engaging users and increasing the visibility of your app. They can also help you to improve the user experience by providing users with a more convenient way to access your app's content and features,” said the Android team.  

As Android spans a growing and diverse...

5 March 2025 | Android

General app stability improves as crash-free sessions near 100%

Thumbs up on a smartphone illustrating mobile app stability on Android and iOS platforms reaching almost perfection.

Instabug has released its Mobile App Stability Outlook 2024 report, shedding light on the current state of app performance across various platforms and industries.

The report reveals that mobile apps have maintained the high stability rates observed in the previous year, with only minor fluctuations across all percentiles. The median crash-free session rate stands at an impressive 99.95%, confirming a high level of stability across the board.

Top-performing mobile teams...

19 September 2024 | Android

Portugália Airlines and The Gang launch first immersive e-learning hub on Microsoft Mesh

Portugália Airlines, a wholly owned subsidiary of TAP Air Portugal, has partnered with The Gang, a developer studio specialising in creating bespoke digital experiences, to launch the first immersive e-learning hub on Microsoft Mesh, a cloud-based platform for collaboration in the digital world.

The new education hub is designed to enhance and streamline Portugália Airlines’ existing training programme by providing an immersive learning environment. This will enable pilots and...

22 May 2024 | Developer

Jpegli boosts high-quality image compression by 35%

Google has introduced Jpegli, a JPEG coding library that maintains high backward compatibility while offering enhanced capabilities and a 35 percent compression ratio improvement at high quality compression settings.

According to Google, the new JPEG coding library is designed to be faster, more efficient, and more visually pleasing than traditional JPEG. It employs several new techniques to deliver:

Compatibility: Jpegli provides a fully interoperable encoder and decoder...

5 April 2024 | UX/Design

Backend Software Engineers are Designers Too

In technology, we typically associate 'design' with front-end developers and visual aesthetics - a beautiful website or a visually appealing user interface. But, backend developers are designers too. They are masters of System Design, meticulously crafting the architecture, dependencies, and data structures that influence user experiences. This post will explore the hidden artistry in their work.

The internet is overflowing with memes of “dev vs designer”, and it’s...

26 March 2024 | Developer

New OutSystems data fabric unifies data across the enterprise  

OutSystems, a specialist in high-performance application development, has unveiled what it describes as one of the most significant updates to OutSystems Developer Cloud since its initial release.

With the launch of OutSystems Data Fabric, organisations can lay the groundwork to build dynamic applications, harness data across the enterprise, and increase developer productivity. 

In an era where outdated data can cost businesses more than $15 million annually (per...

25 March 2024 | Analytics

Google: Meta’s approach to Android 14 is a ‘blueprint’ for success 

Google has shed light on how Meta approaches tackling challenges and streamlining processes to enhance Android app development.

Following the rollout of Android 11, Meta embarked on a transformative journey, establishing the "Android OS Readiness Program." This move was prompted by identified hurdles concerning existing features such as Chat Heads and emerging requirements like scoped storage integration.

A major bottleneck in addressing these issues stemmed from...

5 March 2024 | Android

Evinced’s accessibility testing solutions triple in adoption 

Evinced, a provider of web and mobile accessibility solutions, saw its customer base triple in 2023 on the back of new prevention-focused tools like Unit Tester and Design Assistant. These innovations allow developers and designers to automatically catch accessibility issues long before release, marking a shift for the industry toward prevention versus post-hoc fixes.

The company’s impressive expansion has cemented its status as a top accessibility vendor, counting 6 of the 10...

7 February 2024 | Development Tools

Vaadin speeds up prototyping and styling for Java applications

Vaadin, a provider of Java web application platforms, today announced the launch of two new low-code solutions for users of the Vaadin Flow framework: Visual View Builder and Visual Theme Editor. These low-code tools bridge the gap between application design and development by making it easy for developers and non-developers to visually prototype and style their applications while generating well-structured code as a basis for further development using the open-source Vaadin Flow...

20 June 2023 | Development Tools

Apple releases Xcode 14.3 with all the latest SDKs

Apple has released Xcode 14.3 to developers, which includes the latest SDKs for iOS 16.4, iPadOS 16.4, tvOS 16.4, watchOS 9.4, and macOS Ventura 13.3.

Xcode enables developers to create apps for Apple platforms such as iOS, macOS, and watchOS. This update allows developers to create apps that are fully compatible with the latest operating systems from Apple.

Apple recently warned that developers will be required to use Xcode 14.1 or later to build and submit their apps...

31 March 2023 | App Stores