Google has debuted Android Q beta 4, bringing with it what's promised to be the finalised APIs of the upcoming release.

The official designation of 'API 29' has been assigned for this release, for developers wanting to target Android's latest flavour.

Developers can now take advantage of Android Q features such as the system-wide dark mode, smart replies/actions for notifications, and foldable smartphone layouts. These features can be used without concern of broken functionality in the final...

Google has updated its Pay API to support new features which improve the online checkout and pass usage experiences.

Some of the features were debuted at this year’s I/O developer conference, but Google has now provided further detail of how they can be used in practice.

Going forward, the Google Pay payment sheet will display all information about the purchase – item cost, shipping options.etc will be displayed to prevent the customer from having to return to the merchant site.

The new...

Apple has completed its annual WWDC keynote for another year, so let's dive into the announcements to see if we should be getting excited.

Let’s start with how our  ‘what to expect’ predictions fared last month:

✔ iOS dark mode

✔ iPad home screen update (widget support added)

✔ Updated first-party apps (Messages, Reminders, Mail, Notes, Music, and...

A group of iOS developers who had their parental control apps pulled from the App Store are demanding a screen time API.

The apps were pulled from the App Store over concerns they violate user privacy. Protecting users is fair, but the developers want a way to provide their apps safely.

Seventeen developers have banded together with a technical proposal for implementing such an API.

The developers believe Apple is preventing competition by only allowing its built-in parental...

Twitter has opened the doors to its Developer Labs where developers can test new API products from the social network before release.

Initially, Twitter is planning to focus on conversational data. This will be for academics and researchers who study interactions on the social network, as well as social listening and analytics providers that build products for other businesses.

Twitter says developers can provide feedback on what they like and dislike to help build ‘the next generation of the Twitter...

Google has announced the addition of ‘Smart Reply’ and ‘Language Identification’ APIs to its ML (Machine Learning) Kit.

Until now, the APIs in ML Kit have focused predominantly on camera-based machine learning processing. The latest additions begin to unlock the many other possibilities for machine learning.

Smart Reply provides the same features that you may be familiar with in some of Google's products like Gmail and Android Messages. As the name...

A German security researcher printed the word “PWNED!” on hundreds of GPS watches to prove a point about a broken API.

Christopher Bleckmann-Dreher discovered a vulnerability in an API used by Austrian GPS watch manufacturer Vidimensio.

The firm’s watches are used by a wide range of the population from the elderly down to children, and it affected over 20 models.

Dreher alerted Vidimensio to the problem but it was ignored for over a year. Given the potential for much greater risk in the...

Android Q is approaching which means developers are getting treated with a few shiny new APIs while others are getting blocked to boost platform security.

The first preview of Android Q has been released for developers and early-adopters to start tinkering with. In this article we'll provide a rundown of what's changed so far.

API Additions

What's being added or changed is always more exciting than what's being taken away, so it's where we'll start.

Neural Networks API 1.2

We know...

Google has decided to revise its proposed Chromium update that would have killed ad blockers and some other extensions.

The proposal, to restrict Chromium's script blocking capabilities to the new DeclarativeNetRequest API instead of the old webRequest API, caused a backlash from extension developers and users.

Chromium engineer Devlin Cronin provided an update on Google Groups following the outcry:

“I’d like to reiterate that all of these changes are still in the draft and...

Following increasing pressure, Facebook will be opening up its Ad API to increase transparency around how it serves political adverts.

A letter penned by Mozilla and its partners – which includes “technologists, human rights defenders, academics, journalists, and Facebook users” – demanded this very change. By opening the API, the coalition hopes tools can be made to analyse and counter ads used to influence politics.

Rob Leathern, Product Director at Facebook, responded to the letter...