Google Android Things OS is a lightweight version of Android, designed to run on the Internet of Things devices. It received its first developer preview update back in 2016 and has been getting the update since then. Android Things will power the upcoming Google Assistant smart displays which were first showcased at the CES 2018.
Today Google has released the Developer Preview 8 of Android Things which happens to be the final version of the API. Google also mentioned that there would no longer be breaking API changes before the stable v1.0 release of the SDK. This means that there won’t be any new API features that will be added to the stable V1.0 release.
New features in the Developers Preview 8 include; Enhanced OTA where you can unpublish the current OTA build when issues are discovered in the field. You can now configure the device storage allocated to apps and data for each build, and get an overview of how much storage your apps require. It also lets you configure the set of supported fonts and locales packaged into each build. It has extended the product sharing and included support for Google Groups.
Other additions include; new app library that enables you to manage APKs more easily, and you no longer need to package them together in a separate zipped bundle. Track individual versions, review permissions and share your apps with other console users. On mobile devices, apps will request permissions at runtime, and the end user has to grants them. Google has tweaked app launch behavior as well; embedded devices will have to launch their primary application automatically after the device boots, and relaunch it if the app terminates unexpectedly.
You can install Developer Preview 8 on the Raspberry Pi 3, NXP i.MX7D, and NXP i.MX6UL development boards.