page.title=New in Android
page.tags=KitKat,Android 4.4
@jd:body


<p>A quick look at the new patterns and styles you can use to build beautiful Android apps&hellip; 

<h2 id="kitkat">Android 4.4 KitKat</h2>

<img src="{@docRoot}design/media/branding_googlemusic.png" style="float:right;width:260px;padding-left:3em;margin-left: 28px;margin-right:15%;">

<h3>
  Your branding
</h3>


<p>
  Consistency has its place in Android, but you also have the flexibility to
  customize the look of your app to reinforce your brand.
</p>

<p>
  Use your brand color for accent by overriding the Android framework's default
  blue in UI elements like checkboxes, progress bars, radio buttons, sliders,
  tabs, and scroll indicators.
</p>

<p>
  Show your app's launcher icon and name in the action bar so that users can
  see it in every screen of your app.
</p>
<p>
  <a href="{@docRoot}design/style/branding.html">Your Branding</a> highlights 
  these and other pointers on how to incorporate elements of your brand into your
  app's visual language &mdash; highly encouraged!
</p>

<h3>
  Touch feedback
</h3>

<p>
  Before Android KitKat, Android's default touch feedback color was a vibrant
  blue. Every touch resulted in a jolt of high-contrast color, in a shade that
  might not have mixed well with your brand's color(s).
</p>


<p>
  In Android KitKat and beyond, touch feedback is subtle: when something is
  touched, by default its background color slightly darkens or lightens. This
  provides two benefits: (1) <a href=
  "/design/get-started/principles.html#sprinkle-encouragement">sprinkles
  of encouragement</a> are more pleasant than jolts, and (2) incorporating your
  branding is much easier because the default touch feedback works with
  whatever hue you choose. Check the updated <a href=
  "/design/style/touch-feedback.html">Touch Feedback</a> page for more
  details.
</p>
<img src="{@docRoot}design/media/touch_feedback_reaction_response.png" style="padding-top:1em;">

<h3>
  Full screen 
</h3>

<p>
  Android KitKat has improved support for letting your app use the entire
  screen, with a few different approaches to meet the varying needs of apps and
  content. The new <a href="{@docRoot}design/patterns/fullscreen.html">Full
  Screen</a> page will guide you in setting the stage for deep user engagement.
</p>

<img src="{@docRoot}design/media/fullscreen_landing.png" style="margin:1em auto 2em auto;">

<h3>
  Gestures 
</h3>
<div class="layout-content-row">
  <div class="layout-content-col span-6">
<p>
  The updated <a href="{@docRoot}design/patterns/gestures.html">Gestures</a>
  page covers new and updated gestures introduced in Android KitKat:
  <strong>double touch drag</strong> and <strong>double touch</strong>. These
  gestures are used for changing the viewing size of content.
</p>
  </div>
  <div class="layout-content-col span-7">
    <img src="{@docRoot}design/media/gesture_doubletouch.png">
      <img src="{@docRoot}design/media/gesture_doubletouchdrag.png">
  </div>
</div>


<h2>Android 4.1 Jelly Bean</h2>

<h4>Notifications</h4>
<div class="layout-content-row">
  <div class="layout-content-col span-7">
    <p>Notifications have received some notable enhancements in Android 4.1:</p>
    <ul>
      <li>Users can act on notifications immediately from the drawer</li>
      <li>Notifications are more flexible in size and layout</li>
      <li>A priority flag helps sort notifications by importance</li>
      <li>Notifications can be collapsed and expanded</li>
    </ul>

    <p>The base notification layout has not changed, so app notifications designed for versions
    earlier than Jelly Bean still look and work the same. Check the updated <a
    href="{@docRoot}design/patterns/notifications.html">Notifications</a> page for
    more details.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="layout-content-col span-6">
    <img src="{@docRoot}design/media/new_notifications.png">
  </div>
</div>

<div class="vspace size-2">&nbsp;</div>

<h4>Resizable Application Widgets</h4>
<div class="layout-content-row">
  <div class="layout-content-col span-7">
    <p>Widgets are an essential aspect of home screen customization, allowing
    "at-a-glance" views of an app's most important data and functionality right from
    the user's home screen. Android 4.1 introduces improved App Widgets that can
    <strong>automatically resize and load different content</strong> based upon a
    number of factors including:</p>
    <ul>
      <li>Where the user drops them on the home screen</li>
      <li>The size to which the user expands them</li>
      <li>The amount of room available on the home screen</li>
    </ul>

    <p>You can supply separate landscape and portrait layouts for your widgets, which
    the system inflates as appropriate when the screen orientation changes. The <a
    href="{@docRoot}design/patterns/widgets.html">Application Widgets</a> page has useful
    details about widget types, limitations, and design considerations.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="layout-content-col span-6">
    <img src="{@docRoot}design/media/new_widgets.png">
  </div>
</div>

<div class="vspace size-2">&nbsp;</div>

<h4>Accessibility</h4>
<div class="layout-content-row">
  <div class="layout-content-col span-11">
    <p>One of Android's missions is to organize the world's information and
    make it universally accessible and useful. Our mission applies to all
    users-including people with disabilities such as visual impairment, color
    deficiency, hearing loss, and limited dexterity.</p>
    <p>The new <a href="{@docRoot}design/patterns/accessibility.html">Accessibility</a>
    page provides details on how to design your app to be as accessible as possible by:</p>
    <ul>
      <li>Making navigation intuitive</li>
      <li>Using recommended touch target sizes</li>
      <li>Labeling visual UI elements meaningfully</li>
      <li>Providing alternatives to affordances that time out</li>
      <li>Using standard framework controls or enable TalkBack for custom controls</li>
      <li>Trying it out yourself</li>
    </ul>

    <p>You can supply separate landscape and portrait layouts for your
    widgets, which the system inflates as appropriate when the screen
    orientation changes. The
    <a href="{@docRoot}design/patterns/widgets.html">Widgets</a> page has
    useful details about widget types, limitations, and design considerations.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="layout-content-col span-2">
    <img src="{@docRoot}design/media/new_accessibility.png">
  </div>
</div>

<h2>Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich</h2>

<h4>Navigation bar</h4>
<div class="layout-content-row">
  <div class="layout-content-col span-7">
    <p>Android 4.0 removes the need for traditional hardware keys on
    phones by replacing them with a virtual navigation bar that houses
    the Back, Home and Recents buttons. Read the
    <a href="{@docRoot}design/patterns/compatibility.html">Compatibility</a>
    pattern to learn how the OS adapts to phones with hardware buttons and
    how pre-Android 3.0 apps that rely on menu keys are supported.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="layout-content-col span-6">
    <img src="{@docRoot}design/media/whats_new_nav_bar.png">
  </div>
</div>

<div class="vspace size-2">&nbsp;</div>

<h4>Action bar</h4>
<div class="layout-content-row">
  <div class="layout-content-col span-7">
    <p>The action bar is the most important structural element of an Android
    app. It provides consistent navigation across the platform and allows your
    app to surface actions.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="layout-content-col span-6">
    <img src="{@docRoot}design/media/whats_new_action_bar.png">
  </div>
</div>

<div class="vspace size-2">&nbsp;</div>

<h4>Multi-pane layouts</h4>
<div class="layout-content-row">
  <div class="layout-content-col span-7">
    <p>Creating apps that scale well across different form factors and screen
    sizes is important in the Android world. Multi-pane layouts allow you to
    combine different activities that show separately on smaller devices into
    richer compound views for tablets.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="layout-content-col span-6">
    <img src="{@docRoot}design/media/whats_new_multipanel.png">
  </div>
</div>

<div class="vspace size-2">&nbsp;</div>

<h4>Selection</h4>

<div class="layout-content-row">
  <div class="layout-content-col span-7">
    <p>The long press gesture which was traditionally used to show contextual
    actions for objects is now used for data selection. When selecting data,
    contextual action bars allow you to surface actions.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="layout-content-col span-6">
    <img src="{@docRoot}design/media/whats_new_multiselect.png">
  </div>
</div>