Tuesday, 27 October 2026

Five things that changed in Android on 27 Oct.

2 min read

1. Jetpack XR reaches stable 1.0
Stable APIs mean you can start an Android XR app without expecting breaking changes on every release.
alphabetarelease candidatestable1.0.0
Google released version 1.0.0 of three Jetpack XR libraries for Android XR headsets and glasses: SceneCore, ARCore for Jetpack XR, and XR Runtime. SceneCore lets an app place flat panels and 3D models in a scene, set spatial environments and sound, and anchor content to the real world. XR Compose is at beta two, and work on SceneCore 1.1 has already started.
AndroidX releases · OfficialRead the source
2. Apps lose direct contact writes in the next Android release
If your app saves or syncs contacts, it will break when you target the next release unless you move to the new flow.
The details
The Android Developers Blog says apps that target the upcoming Android release will no longer be able to write to contacts directly with the WRITE_CONTACTS permission. The post, titled a more reliable way to add and edit contacts on Android, describes the new way apps should add and edit contacts. Apps that sync or create contacts should plan the change before raising their target SDK.
Android Developers Blog · OfficialRead the source
3. WebKit 1.18 lets trusted sites use shared memory in WebView
Apps that host web games or WebAssembly in WebView get a supported way to enable shared memory, and should allowlist only origins they trust.
alphabetarelease candidatestable1.18.0
The details
Google released WebKit 1.18.0, the Jetpack library that brings newer WebView features to apps. A new allowlist on the WebView profile lets trusted origins use SharedArrayBuffer without full cross-origin isolation, as long as the page also sends the Document-Isolation-Policy header. Two prefetch methods were renamed: isJavaScriptEnabled becomes includeClientHints, and addQuicHints becomes preferQuicFor.
AndroidX releases · OfficialRead the source
4. Android Bench ranks Gemini 4 Argon behind Claude and GPT-6
A Google benchmark where Google's model trails gives teams a neutral reference when picking a coding assistant for Android.
The details
Google updated Android Bench, its public ranking of how well AI models help with Android coding. According to 9to5Google, Google's own Gemini 4 Argon ranks well behind the latest Claude and GPT-6 models. The list is meant to help developers choose a model for Android work, and it measures help on real Android tasks rather than general coding.
9to5Google · Android · EcosystemRead the source
5. Why coroutine tests flake, and how to stop it
Flaky coroutine tests waste CI time in most Android codebases, and the fixes are small habits you can adopt today.
The details
Kevin Schildhorn at Touchlab explains why tests for Kotlin coroutines fail at random, and which habits stop it. The post covers how test dispatchers and the test scheduler control time inside a test, so a test finishes the same way on every run. Android Weekly also picked it this week, and it applies to Android and Kotlin Multiplatform projects alike.
Touchlab (Kotlin Multiplatform) · ExpertRead the source