September 2022 Summaries

Google Play has launched the Indie Games Fund in Latin America, offering $2 million in non-dilutive cash awards to support small game studios in the region. This initiative is part of Google Play's broader effort to help developers grow on its platform, following the announcement of winners from the Indie Games Festival in Europe, Korea, and Japan, as well as the 2022 Indie Games Accelerator class. The fund is open to indie developers who have already released a game on any platform, with each selected studio receiving between $150,000 and $200,000 to enhance their game and business. Applications are prioritized if submitted by October 31, 2022, and developers can follow updates on Google Play's business community on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Discovery Ads, introduced in 2019, offer advertisers a platform to reach up to 3 billion users across YouTube, Google Feed, and Gmail with a single campaign, thus necessitating a data-driven approach to optimize ad performance. The Google Data Science team employs a machine learning-based methodology to analyze Discovery Ad performance, focusing on interaction rate driven by textual and imagery elements. This involves a comprehensive six-step process, including understanding business goals, hypothesis building, data extraction, feature engineering, modeling, and insight generation. Using Google Cloud’s APIs, the team extracts text and image features from ad copies, employing natural language processing (NLP) and image processing techniques to identify impactful elements. The model assesses the impact of individual keywords and image components, using ElasticNet to address multicollinearity and enhance explanatory power, ultimately helping advertisers refine ad design and improve business outcomes. Despite some limitations, such as the model's reliance on historical data and individual keyword analysis, the insights garnered facilitate the identification of high-impact keywords and imagery that can be tested through A/B testing for enhanced ad quality and effectiveness.

At DrupalCon Europe 2022 in Prague, an interactive workshop led by Tag1 and Google, including experts like Michael Meyers and Andrey Lipattsev, will focus on optimizing user experience and performance for Drupal-based websites. Participants are encouraged to submit their website URLs for a chance to receive personalized feedback and solutions during the session. The workshop emphasizes the importance of Core Web Vitals (CWV) as a key metric for user experience, which influences success metrics and search engine rankings. Attendees will engage in hands-on coding to learn improvements and address common pain points, although not all submissions may be analyzed due to time constraints. The event is scheduled for September 21, 2022, from 16:15 to 18:00.

As the smart home industry anticipates the launch of the Matter protocol, Google is enhancing its support for developers through new resources like the Google Home Developer Console and various software development kits (SDKs). The Google Home Developer Console, now in Developer Preview, offers a streamlined process for integrating with Google, allowing developers to focus on innovation rather than basics. Additionally, Google has introduced the Google Home Device SDK, which extends the Matter SDK with development tools, and the Google Home Mobile SDK, which simplifies the creation of Android apps for Matter devices. These tools aim to accelerate development, improve reliability, and ensure interoperability across platforms while also providing unique features through Google Home. Google's commitment to security and user privacy is evident through the implementation of guardrails in its Intelligence Clusters, ensuring data is encrypted and processed locally with user consent. These initiatives reflect Google's dedication to supporting developers in creating innovative smart home solutions.

Google has introduced several new features to its Google Identity Services (GIS) library, aimed at enhancing authentication processes and reducing costs for developers. Key updates include the Android Verified Phone Number feature, allowing developers to request verified phone numbers linked to Google Accounts, and the Phone Number Hint API, which facilitates phone number sharing without requiring additional permissions or a Google account sign-in. GIS has also expanded support to include macOS, enhancing its integration within the Apple ecosystem, and has made its One Tap feature available on Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) browsers like Safari, Firefox, and Chrome on iOS, offering a seamless sign-in experience. Google has announced the deprecation of the Smart Lock for Passwords on Android and Google Sign-In for Websites, urging developers to transition to the GIS library for these functionalities. Despite the temporary disablement of the Verified Phone Number feature as of May 2023, Google remains committed to delivering secure and streamlined authentication solutions.

Android has introduced a range of updates to its emoji offerings, including new characters, animations, and customization features. The Unicode Consortium has released Unicode 15.0, which adds 31 new emoji characters, expanding the total to 3,664, and these will soon be available on Android and Google products. Innovations include the introduction of a new font standard, COLRv1, which enhances the rendering of color fonts, and the availability of animated emotes under the CC BY 4.0 license. Furthermore, the Noto Emoji project has made it easier to customize emoji colors through Emoji Kitchen on Gboard, allowing users to personalize their emotes without waiting for additional Unicode updates. This expansion of emoji capabilities reflects the growing versatility and integration of emoji into digital communication platforms.

Kevin Davin, a Google Cloud and Kotlin GDE, is driven by a passion for learning and teaching, with a strong focus on diversity and inclusion, partly influenced by his own experience navigating life with partial blindness. With 20 years in the field of Computer Science and 10 years as a professional programmer, Kevin emphasizes the importance of learning from diverse sources, including colleagues, and is committed to helping others, especially those from underrepresented groups, overcome challenges like imposter syndrome. His involvement in open-source projects introduced him to the Google Developer Experts (GDE) program, which he joined to share knowledge and advocate for developers. Kevin has notably contributed to his company’s transition to Google Cloud, comparing the platform to a versatile Lego set for developers. Through the GDE program, he continues to engage with the developer community, promote inclusivity, and encourage continuous learning, advising aspiring GDEs to embrace failure as a learning opportunity.

Sam from Chicago, inspired by his family's medical background, created a game to help doctors practice medical procedures, leading to the founding of Level Ex, which develops medical games for doctors worldwide. This success story is part of a series in the #WeArePlay campaign, showcasing diverse game developers globally. Other featured stories include Aldo and Sandro from Peru, who craft thrilling games at Dark Dome; Croatian founders of Pine Studio, who gained recognition with their game Cats In Time; and the Estonian team behind ALPA kids, whose language games impact early education. These stories highlight the creativity and impact of game developers across different cultures and sectors.

The 13th issue of the "Google Dev Library Letters" newsletter presents a curated selection of innovative projects developed with Google technologies, highlighting tools and libraries that facilitate Android, Flutter, and machine learning development. Featured projects include the Android Contact Store API for simplified access to device contacts, the Custom Progress Indicator for enhancing UI experiences, and a Flutter Numbers app showcasing number facts using the numbersapi.com API. Additionally, the issue explores advanced topics such as creating MLOps systems with AutoML in Vertex AI and probing Vision Transformers. The newsletter also emphasizes the collaborative spirit within the Android and machine learning communities, showcasing contributions that push boundaries and encourage learning. Readers are encouraged to explore these projects and subscribe for ongoing updates.