Internet of Things (IOT) and Android Things
Google today announced the release of Android Things, a slightly modified version of Android to run on IOT devices. It will use the same tools and framework that you use for building android apps.
Let’s take a brief look at this new platform.
As you can see the architecture of Android Things is more or less very similar to Android. If you can build apps for Android then you are all set to build IOT devices.
Currently it supports only three hardware platforms namely Intel’s Edison, NXP Pico, and Raspberry Pi 3.
Key Differences between Android and Android Things
- Android Things doesn’t have system apps like Android and your app will be launched as soon as you boot up the IOT device.
- New APIs to communicate with hardware and sensors.
More details can be found here.
Weave
Google also announced updates to Weave, Google’s cloud platform for IOT devices. Apparently the new update to Weave will make it easier for IOT devices to connect to cloud and consume Google’s services for IOT devices such as Google Assistant and many more.
Download
Android Things can be download from the link below. As previously mentioned it only supports three hardware platforms for now.
https://developer.android.com/things/preview/download.html
AndTuts Coverage
I have ordered Pi 3 to play with and you will soon find articles related to Android Things right here on andtuts.
Useful Links
https://developer.android.com/things/preview/index.html
https://developer.android.com/things/hardware/raspberrypi.html
Credits
Official Announcement from Google: https://android-developers.blogspot.com/2016/12/announcing-googles-new-internet-of-things-platform-with-weave-and-android-things.html
Architecture Image: https://developer.android.com/things/sdk/index.html