Building App Extensions equivalents on Android (maybe?)

https://mobiledev-japan.connpass.com/event/350200/

missing video at https://imgur.com/MgVBmGz

Transcript

1. Building App Extensions equivalents on Android (maybe?) atsushieno
2. Extensibility App Components that extends existing software, most likely written by others Add(-)ins, Add(-)ons, Plug(-)ins, Extensions
3. Extensibility on mobiles Apps are sandboxed and cannot simply load plugin code (library) You can embed JS runtime etc. to get it around. But it is not easy to get access to full platform features.
4. Plugins on iOS App Extension In macOS SDK / iOS SDK / * https://developer.apple.com/app-extensions/
5. Android? Android has Content Providers and Services since very beginning Android 16 also introduced AppFunctionManager (build your own MCP alike maybe?) https://developer.android.com/guide/components/intents-filters
6. GUI had not been extensible Don't hijack over other app's UI! Allowlisted technology: RemoteViews, widgets... totally inflexible
7. SurfaceControlViewHost kind of New since Android 11! - Render arbitrary android.view.View onto host app's android.view.SurfaceView - Host app indicates target SurfacePackage that performs rendering - Under host's explicit agreement, there is no hijacking concern
8. Example synth "plugin" UI (C++ native) over Jetpack Compose host app
9. Example Jetpack Compose synth plugin UI over C++ native host app
10. Resources - API Reference https://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/SurfaceControlViewHost - TechBooster: INSIDE [技術のヒミツ] (Japanese book, 2023) https://booth.pm/ja/items/5010062 - CommonsWare: A Peek at SurfaceControlViewHost in Android R https://commonsware.com/blog/2020/03/27/peek-surfacecontrolviewhost-android-r.html - my use case https://github.com/atsushieno/aap-core/blob/531e3adf/androidaudioplugin/src/main/java/org/android audioplugin/hosting/AudioPluginSurfaceControlClient.kt