Android N Developer Preview 3: beta quality

Google announced Developer Preview 3 at Google I/O on 18 May 2016 as “our first beta-quality candidate, available to test on your primary phone or tablet”. Build NPD35K was CTS approved on the Nexus 5X, 6, 6P and Pixel C, so apps that require it, such as Android Pay, worked. It reached every supported device plus the Sony Xperia Z3 (D6603 and D6653).

What Developer Preview 3 added

• VR Mode: an exclusive CPU core for VR apps, head tracking, stereo notifications and low-latency graphics. Google measured motion-to-photon latency under 20 ms on a Nexus 6P.
• Sustained performance mode: device hints for apps that run for a long time at a steady level. Testable only on the Nexus 6P in this preview.
• FrameMetrics API: a listener that streams frame timing for the app’s window, so UI performance can be measured in production without USB.
• Keyboard Shortcuts helper: Meta+/ lists system and app shortcuts.
• Multiprocess WebView behind a developer option, running web content in a separate sandboxed process from WebView 51.

Behaviour changes in Developer Preview 3

• Launcher shortcuts deferred. Google pulled the feature from N and said ShortcutManager would leave the public API in the next preview.
• WebView, for apps targeting N: the JavaScript context resets on each new page load, and geolocation works only on secure (HTTPS) origins.
• Data Saver: apps can open a system dialog that adds them to the Data Saver exemption list.
• Number blocking by an unauthorized caller now throws SecurityException instead of UnsupportedOperationException.
• Quick Settings tiles take their mode from the TileService.META_DATA_ACTIVE_TILE metadata instead of the return value of onTileAdded().