Since the beginning of this year, we’ve simplified our process to let Deezer developers speak or attend to community events. Three developers of our Android team have taken this opportunity to speak at Big Android BBQ Europe in Amsterdam two weeks ago: Syrine, François and Xavier.
An introduction to Awareness API
Syrine and François were impressed when Google announced their Awareness API. After some discussions — and many cups of coffee — they’ve decided to work on a little side project using this API: Lost In Context. This app lets you start a specific action when you meet a “context”. For example, when you arrive at home and plug your headphones in your device, you can automatically launch your Chill at home playlist.
Google Awareness API exposes not only location-related “events” but also activity-related events (like Walking, Running), time or weather info. Within Lost In Context app, you can combine these factors to tailor your action to a very specific context.
But, Syrine and François didn’t stop there! They’ve released their code in a GitHub repository. Bonus point: there is a branch with the app 100% written in Kotlin, including support for databinding.
With all these experimentations, they were ready to share their learning during a talk at BigAndroidBBQ Amsterdam, and they did. If you weren’t there, you will find their slides below, in addition to the GitHub project.
Magic development with Aspects
Even if Aspect Oriented Programming is in the air for decades, a lot of developers didn’t know really where it’s useful and how to start using it. It’s exactly the topic covered by Xavier’s talk.
Again, Xavier didn’t leave us only some slides, but also a GitHub repository containing some aspects he’s using on a daily basis: Retry strategy, Run on Main Thread / Worker Thread, etc…
See you at next Big Android BBQ !
Thanks to a personal story and a memorable performance of A Whole New World from Disney’s Aladdin, Xavier won a ticket for the next editions of Big Android BBQ. Congratulations to Xavier!
By the way
Are you an Android developer? Do you want to work on these topics on a top app? You should have a look at our open positions on Android teams. If you want to apply, you can also read our post about applying Agile methodologies in our HR department. This will help you understand what’s going on behind pushing the “Apply” button.
