samsung galaxy watches run on wear os powered by samsung and have many features, including custom watch faces that you can create with watch face studio (wfs). wfs provides a "theme" feature that allows you to implement multi-color theme palettes to watch face components. theme colors enhance your watch faces by making them more expressive and attractive, and give users customization options. this article introduces the basic concepts of creating color themes for watch faces: defining theme color palettes applying theme colors to components using theme colors on different backgrounds to follow along with the demonstrations in this article, install watch face studio and download the sample project. defining theme color palettes to apply theme colors to watch face components, you must define a theme color palette. wfs enables you to add up to 30 theme colors to a project. to create a theme color palette: in your wfs project, select the “style” tab. click the “+” (plus sign) button next to “theme color palette.” use the color picker to define the color you want. click "ok" to set the chosen color. figure 1: adding theme colors each row in the “theme color palette” section represents a separate theme color palette. a theme color palette is initially created with a single color, but a palette supports up to three colors. the additional colors can be different shades of the main color or contrasting colors. to implement additional colors for a palette: in the “theme color palette” section, select the theme color you want to change. use the color picker to define the color you want. you can also check how the selected color compares to the original color. click "ok" to set the chosen color. figure 2: adding theme colors to a palette the following figure shows several multi-color theme palettes defined for the project. figure 3: multi-color theme palettes applying theme colors to components when you have defined one or more theme color palettes, you can apply the colors to the watch face components. to apply a theme color to a watch face component: select the component and go to the “properties” tab. unfold the “color” section. fill the “apply theme color” checkbox. from the dropdown menu, select whether to apply the first,second, or third theme color from the palette. figure 4: applying theme color to a component to quickly apply the theme color to components: select the components you want to apply the theme color to. in the “layer” tab, click the “apply theme color” icon to cycle through the first, second, and third theme color. the following figure shows the theme colors applied to the components in the sample project. the theme color is not applied to the step icon, battery icon, and progress bars. figure 5: theme colors applied to multiple components now that you have applied theme colors to the watch face components, you can preview the result on the "run" tab or the run window. you can use the selected theme color from the "run" tab of wfs and see the output in the preview window. figure 6: theme color preview note : note: icons and images on complications are converted to grayscale after theme colors are applied. consequently, theme colors can appear differently on them. for information about applying theme colors to complications, see design complications using watch face studio. using theme colors on different backgrounds to expand the customization options of your watch face, you can implement multiple backgrounds to complement the theme color palettes. users can combine their choice of theme color palette and background to suit their preference. to add a background to the watch face: add an image component and define the image as the background. if you want to add more background images, select the background component. in the “style” tab, click the “+” (plus sign) button and select the images to be implemented as backgrounds. you can use the customization editor to preview any combination of theme color palette and background: to open the customization editor, in the “style” tab, click the “customization editor” button. use the side menu to switch between the colors and backgrounds you want to preview. figure 7: customization editor you can also preview the theme colors from the “run” tab. the following examples demonstrate how the same theme colors can provide a different look and feel depending on the background. figure 8: theme colors against varying backgrounds finally, test your watch face on an actual watch or emulator. with up to 10 backgrounds and 30 theme colors, up to 300 background and color combinations are possible. figure 9: examples of sample project output additional resources for more information on designing watch faces with watch face studio, see create a watch face with watch face studio on the android developers site. discuss ideas with other expert developers at samsung developers forum and get tips, help, and answers to your development questions. learn more about watch face studio and other samsung sdks and tools from the samsung developers blog.

watch face studio (wfs) is a powerful tool for creating custom watch faces for galaxy watches running on wear os powered by samsung. wfs has many features that enable you to create attractive watch faces, such as masking. masking is used to selectively hide or reveal specific parts of a specific layer. you can use it to enhance visual impact, create special effects, or draw focus to specific areas of an image. in wfs, a mask is defined by the bottommost layer of the layers to be masked. in other words, the lowest layer is a mask container that partially hides the layers above it. this article describes how you can use masks in wfs to create a simple watch face with a color-changing effect on the watch index and date. at the end of this blog, you will find a sample project which i am going to demonstrate here. color-changing watch index to create a watch index that appears to change color, define a watch index that selectively shows a rotating image. step 1: create a rotating image first, create an image for the colors of the watch index. to set the image to rotate each second, in the image properties, enter the following tag expression as the rotation angle: [sec]*60 figure 1: define the rotating image step 2: add the watch index next, add a suitable watch index, such as one consisting of digits. since we want the color image to show through the digits on the watch index, move the watch index layer below the image layer. the watch index layer will become the mask container. figure 2: watch index layer below image layer step 3: create the mask select both the image and watch index layers and click “mask.” figure 3: create the mask the image layer is now masked by the watch index. as the image layer rotates, the portion visible through the watch index changes, creating the appearance of a changing color background. figure 4: watch index with color-change effect color-changing date text a mask can also be applied to multiple layers simultaneously. combined with tag expressions, you can create effects such as colors that scroll across text. step 1: create and configure the color images create seven images in different colors on separate layers. to make each image move sideways every second, in the image properties for each layer, define the tag expression for image placement using the following formula: [sec] <= x ? 0 : ([sec] - x)*4 in the formula, replace “x” with “0” for the topmost layer, “10” for the second layer, and so on, incrementing by 10 for each layer. do not define a tag expression for the bottommost layer. figure 5: define tag expressions when the seconds value is equal to or less than x, the image is in its initial position. as the second value increments past x, each second the image moves 4 pixels to the right. to make it easier to work with the set of color images, select all of them and add them to a group. step 2: add the date component and mask create a digital clock date component and adjust its size to cover the color images. in a similar way to creating the mask for the watch index, move the date component to the bottom layer. select it and all the color images above it, then click “mask.” all the color image layers are simultaneously masked by the date text. figure 6: masked date component to complete the watch face, add watch hands to it. watch face preview when you have implemented both the watch index and date, you can preview the watch face in wfs. download the sample project from here and open it with watch face studio. click “run” and select “on watch” to see how the watch face looks on a real device. figure 7: watch face preview note : watch faces with multiple masks can affect device performance. conclusion image masking is a powerful technique that can be used to enhance or manipulate images in various ways. watch face studio makes it easy and intuitive to implement masked text layers in your design, enabling you to create unique and attractive watch faces. for more information about watch face studio, see the watch face studio documentation. you can also visit the samsung developers forum, an active and friendly community where you can ask for and receive help with your application development. if you face any issue regarding wfs, feel free to contact the developer technical support team. sample mask project (247kb) apr. 18, 2023

the latest edition of galaxy unpacked was held on wednesday, august 5th, and for the first time it was virtual. we unveiled five new devices that empower work and play. galaxy unpacked featured lots of exciting updates for our designer and developer community, and what was mystery became mystic (bronze). you can watch the full livestream on youtube, or fast forward to these time codes for key moments 8:50 galaxy note20 and note20 ultra 53:45 galaxy watch3 1:08:01 galaxy z fold2 be sure to check out our galaxy watch3 artboards, now available on the galaxy store asset creator. and now, here are the key takeaways on each of the new devices unveiled at galaxy unpacked. galaxy note20 and note20 ultra the galaxy note20 series is a productivity powerhouse that works like a computer and lets users game like a pro. the series comes in two versions: galaxy note20 ultra, designed for note fans who demand the ultimate in power and productivity, and galaxy note20, for those note users looking to maximize their time for work and play. the galaxy note20 series includes the ever-popular s pen. developers, you can leverage the s pen remote sdk, s pen framework, and air actions to enhance the experience of your apps and games. as part of our continued partnership with microsoft, xbox game pass is coming to galaxy store. with an xbox game pass ultimate subscription, users will be able to play their favorite xbox games in the cloud (beta) right from their galaxy device. galaxy users are always looking for new games to play, so be sure to submit your own game to galaxy store. if your game has in-app items for sale, be sure to check out the samsung in-app purchase sdk which lets users transact with any of the payment methods associated with their samsung account, including samsung pay and samsung rewards. we also have numerous technical resources and best practices on optimizing your game and getting the most out of the device gpu in galaxy gamedev. we also unveiled the new wireless version of samsung dex. as samsung dex becomes even easier to use, you'll want to ensure your apps are optimized for samsung dex. our resources detail how to add multi-window support, handle runtime configuration changes, and support different input modes. galaxy watch3 the galaxy watch3 is a next-generation companion for managing routines, smashing fitness goals, and taking ownership over health. built with premium materials and a slimmed-down version of the popular rotating bezel, galaxy watch3 features the craftsmanship of a luxury timepiece, while still being comfortable enough to wear all day and all night. developers can build tizen-based apps while designers can build watch faces with galaxy watch studio to enhance and customize the user's experience. we will begin reviewing new watch face designs starting next week, but you can get a head start on the requirements now. as we mentioned, a new version of the galaxy store asset creator, which includes the galaxy watch3, is now available. new lifestyle photo assets featuring the galaxy watch3 are available as well. the new galaxy watch3 runs tizen 5.5. developers can check out this video tutorial to learn what is new in tizen 5.5. galaxy z fold2 last, but certainly not least, was the galaxy z fold2. this device builds on the experience of both the galaxy fold and the galaxy z flip to deliver unique foldable experiences. more details about the galaxy z fold2 will be released on september 1st. in the meantime, check out our resources on designing and optimizing for foldable devices. wrap up we also showcased the galaxy tab s7 and s7+, devices where your apps and games will be featured in galaxy store. the galaxy buds live introduced a new shape for wireless earbuds, an ergonomic design that’s being described as the perfect fit. can't get your hands on a physical device? stay tuned to our news feed - we'll announce when the new devices are available in our remote test lab. we can't wait to see what you create for these new devices. make sure to join us on the developer forums to share what you're working on and get your questions answered. catch up on all of yesterday's announcements on the samsung newsroom or watch the replay on youtube.

what is water lock mode? water lock mode was introduced on the galaxy watch to prevent accidental touches and wake-up gestures on your screen while swimming. and the thrilling news for developers is that you can enable water lock mode directly from your app. if you have a fitness-related app, you can use this feature to enhance your app’s capability for various water-based exercises like swimming, water aerobics, and aqua teaser. let’s dig into the details of how to do this in a tizen web app. how do you enable water lock mode from your app? this implementation is quite simple. water lock mode can be enabled using the application launch api. it involves three simple steps: configure your app with privileges retrieve application id enable water lock mode let’s get started. configure your app with privileges first, add the following privileges to the config.xml file. <tizen:privilege name="http://tizen.org/privilege/application.launch"/> <tizen:privilege name="http://tizen.org/privilege/application.info"/> <tizen:privilege name="http://tizen.org/privilege/power"/> http://tizen.org/privilege/application.launch - allows the application to open other applications http://tizen.org/privilege/application.info - allows the application to retrieve information related to other applications http://tizen.org/privilege/power - allows the application to control power-related settings retrieve application id you can enable water lock mode directly using the launch() method of the application api. the launch() method launches an application with the given application id. that’s why we need to know the application id of the water lock mode pop-up. retrieve the app id using the following code snippet in the js file. the following code snippet returns the list of all applications installed on the watch. among them you can choose the exact id of the app which you need to launch. for example, we picked the id com.samsung.clocksetting.water-lock-popup to enable water lock mode. function onlistinstalledapps(applications) { for (var i = 0; i < applications.length; i++) console.log("id : " + applications[i].id); } tizen.application.getappsinfo(onlistinstalledapps); figure 1: installed application list enable water lock mode once you get the app id, you can enable water lock mode with following code snippet in the js file: tizen.application.launch("com.samsung.clocksetting.water-lock-popup"); and that’s it. water lock mode is launched. please note that, if the mode is launched for the first time in the device, a pop-up appears with a permission message. when water lock mode is enabled, the touchscreen, as well as the wake-up gesture feature, is deactivated. so, there is no user interaction between the user and your app. meanwhile your application runs in the background. so if you want to keep your app running in the foreground, you can use the power api. to set the power state, the request() method is called. to manage the screen and cpu state, use the following code snippet in the js file: tizen.power.request(“screen”, “screen_normal"); tizen.power.request("cpu", "cpu_awake"); tizen.power.release("screen"); tizen.power.release("cpu"); for example, here i have added a time counter while the water lock mode is on using an open source library named easytimer.js. first, add the js library to the html file. <script src="lib/easytimer/dist/easytimer.min.js"></script> after that, add the following code snippet to the js file to implement a time counter. var timerinstance = new easytimer.timer(); timerinstance.start(); timerinstance.addeventlistener('secondsupdated', function (e) { document.getelementbyid("excercise_timer").textcontent=timerinstance.gettimevalues().tostring(); }); document.getelementbyid("counting_done").addeventlistener("click", function(){ timerinstance.stop(); }); figure 2: water lock enabled to disable water lock mode, users must long press the home key. after disabling water lock mode, the user can start interacting with your app immediately. for example, the user can stop the time counter using the done button in the sample app (see figure 2). quite simple, right? you can check out the sample app here. if you have any questions, you can post your queries to samsung developer's forum.

in this article, you will learn how to integrate the samsung in-app purchase (iap) sdk in your unity games. you can also follow along on youtube. unity plugin for samsung iap in order to use the samsung iap sdk in your unity game, follow these steps: download the unity plugin for samsung iap install the plugin. in unity, click assets -> import package -> custom package drag the script onto a game object. this can be any ui object, or as seen in the video, a character from your game. once you have included the script, review the documentation to see in detail how to call the sdk from your game code. here are the basics: operation mode in order for galaxy store to know if your game is in testing or production mode, you must use the setoperationmode method. samsungiap.instance.setoperationmode(operationmode.operation_mode_test); the possible values for the parameter are operationmode.operation_mode_test, operationmode.operation_mode_test_failure, and operationmode.operation_mode_production. request information about the items available for sale to find out what items can be offered from the game, you must invoke the getproductsdetails method. samsungiap.instance.getproductsdetails("com.mygame.product1, com.mygame.product2,com.mygame.product3", ongetproductsdetails); in this example, the information for products 1, 2, and 3 is being requested, since the identifiers of those products are being sent, separated by commas. samsungiap.instance.getproductsdetails("", ongetproductsdetails); in this example, the information of all available products is being requested, since no product identifier is being sent. start a payment in order to start the purchase of a product, the startpayment method must be invoked. samsungiap.instance.startpayment("com.mygame.product1", "pass_through_value", onpayment); this example is starting the transaction for "com.mygame.product1". you can specify the value of the second parameter and use it to verify the success of the purchase. and finally, the callback is specified, which is the method that will be invoked when the transaction is completed, regardless of whether it was successful or not. consumable items you can use the consumepurchaseditems method to replenish consumable products. for example,the player could buy energy in your game as many times as he wants. the first parameter is the identifier of the purchase of the item. samsungiap.instance.consumepurchaseditems(purchase_id, onconsume); and the second parameter is the onconsume method that fires when the process has finished, and this contains information about the consumed item and the processing of api calls. query previously purchased items to get the list of all the products that a player has bought, you can use the getownedlist method. samsungiap.instance.getownedlist(itemtype.all, ongetownedlist); the first parameter can be itemtype.all, itemtype.item, or itemtype.subscription. with itemtype.all the method returns all non-consumable items previously purchased, consumable items that have not been consumed, and subscription items with active subscriptions. with itemtype.item the method returns all non-consumable items purchased and consumable items that have not been consumed. and finally, with itemtype.subscription the method returns all subscription items purchased with active subscriptions. the second parameter is the method that will be triggered when the process has finished. list your app and items for sale in galaxy store the process for selling your game in galaxy store, when it includes payments and microtransactions through the samsung iap sdk, is as follows: 1. seller portal registration to create your account and publish in galaxy store, go to http://seller.samsungapps.com click on the top corner to create your account. if you already have a samsung account, sign in with it. 2. request commercial status once you have created your account on the seller portal, request commerical seller status by clicking the button indicated in the image. this is necessary to be able to sell different items from your application. 3. app registration to see all the details of how to register your application in the seller portal, watch this video. you will be prompted to enter your game information, such as the name, description, and promotional images. 4. register in-app items when your account has been approved as a commerical seller account, you will be able to access the “in-app purchase” section. here you can register the different items you are going to sell, such as unlimited lives, special powers, or customization options for the characters in your game. in the video, you can see a little more detail on how to register each of the items. learn more about creating games with samsung and reaching its global audience: https://developer.samsung.com/galaxy-games you can connect with diego, a sr. developer evangelist, on twitter. have questions? post them in our forums.

app continuity and multi-window are key features of foldable smartphones. with app continuity, you can seamlessly go from the small screen to the large screen without the need to reopen the app that you were using. with multi-window, you can reply to an email in a pop-up window while using other apps and it is even easier to make dinner plans over text while checking your calendar. the large display is called the main display, while the inner small display is called the cover display. in this blog, we learn how to adapt these essential features in our app. figure 1: multi-window and pop-up window let us find out how much needs to be changed to take advantage of these features. app continuity moving an app between the two displays affects the size, density, and aspect ratio of the display it can use. moreover, your app data needs to be preserved during the transition to provide a seamless experience. this is what happens during the transition the activity is destroyed and recreated whenever the device is folded or unfolded. to implement this, app data needs to be stored and then used to restore the previous state. the app data can be stored in two ways. in this blog, we have stored the app data using the onsaveinstancestate() method of android. the other way is to use viewmodel which is shown in the blog how to update your apps for foldable displays. for our example, we have used an app, where we need to store the current score of two teams before the activity is destroyed so that we can restore the score when the activity is recreated after the screen transition (this sample app is provided at the end of this blog). we store the scores in a bundle inside onsaveinstancestate, using two key-value pairs. override fun onsaveinstancestate(outstate: bundle) { scoreview1 = findviewbyid(r.id.team1score) as textview scoreview2 = findviewbyid(r.id.team2score) as textview outstate.putstring("score1", tempscore1.tostring()) outstate.putstring("score2", tempscore2.tostring()) super.onsaveinstancestate(outstate) } we can check inside the oncreate function if the savedinstancestate is null. if it is null, then the activity has just been launched without a saved prior state. if it is not null, then we should retrieve the value from the savedinstancestate bundle and restore the value to the ui in order to provide an immersive experience to the users. if(savedinstancestate != null){ var text1: string? = savedinstancestate.getstring("score1") var text2: string? = savedinstancestate.getstring("score2") scoreview1?.text = text1 scoreview2?.text = text2 team1score = text1?.toint()!! team2score = text2?.toint()!! } demonstration app continuity figure 2: screen transition multi-window and multi-tasking another vital feature of foldable devices is multi-window. two or more apps can run in split-screen (multi-window) mode on the main display of foldable devices. users can create their own layouts with up to three app windows on the screen. pop-up view is another option, which lets you temporarily use another app without closing the current app, such as to quickly view a message while enjoying a movie. to implement these features, the developer needs to focus on responsive layout while designing their ui. to implement multi-window and enable multi-tasking, we need to use the following flags: screensize, smallestscreensize, and screenlayout. if you want to manually handle these changes in your app you must declare those flags values in the android:configchanges attributes. you can declare multiple configuration values in the attribute by separating them with a pipe (|) character. you can check out details for each value here. in addition, we need to set android:resizeableactivity as true, which allows the activity to be launched in split-screen and free-form (pop-up) modes. if the attribute is set to false, the activity does not support multi-window mode. <activity android:name=".mainactivity" android:configchanges="screensize|smallestscreensize|screenlayout" android:resizeableactivity="true"> demonstration multi-window figure 3: multi-window pop-up window figure 4: pop-up window sample app a sample app has been developed to illustrate how to implement app continuity and multi-window. in this app, a simple ui is designed to keep score of two teams playing a game. to adapt this app for foldable ui, some configurations have been changed by following the official guide. sample app - app continuity and multi-window (20.15mb) oct 18, 2021 conclusion foldable devices provide a richer experience than phones. to take advantage of the features of foldable devices, new form factors should be added to the app configuration. implementing app continuity enables users to enjoy uninterrupted experiences. and, with adjustable split-screen capabilities, users can enjoy up to three active windows simultaneously. if you have questions about developing for galaxy z devices, please visit our developer forums.

the galaxy store seller portal team was very busy in q2, adding or updating many features including updates to samsung in-app purchase (iap) management, support for themes on the cover screen of new devices, restructuring of the help tab, and improving the readability of galaxy store statistics. more importantly, there have been announcements about changes to the requirements for android apps and themes. while notifications about these requirements were sent out directly, they are worth repeating here. requirement for android target api level starting august 24, 2022, android apps registered or updated in seller portal must set the targetsdkversion (or minsdkversion, in the event targetsdkversion is not specified) to android 8.0 (api level 26) or higher. android apps that are currently being sold in galaxy store are not affected by this requirement. however, it is recommended you update these apps in order to improve security, performance, privacy, and the overall user experience of your apps. more details are included in the seller portal notice. requirement for galaxy themes studio version starting august 1, 2022, all themes (new or currently for sale, including wallpapers, icons, and aods), must be exported from the latest version of galaxy themes studio and updated in galaxy store. any theme that is generated from galaxy themes studio version 9.2.01 or earlier cannot be distributed in galaxy store as they will have image display errors due to a change in the image solution policy. see the seller portal notice for more information, including tips on how to find the themes that need updating and how to export the apk from the latest version of galaxy themes studio. samsung iap management updates samsung iap is key to helping you make money from your apps. the following features have been added or updated: real-time item management – make changes to in-app items that are for sale in galaxy store and publish those changes without having to go through the seller portal review process. price template – set the same local price for different in-app items without having to manually update the local prices for each in-app item. update exchange rate – update the local prices of your in-app item or price template using the latest daily exchange rate. bulk upload items – four new fields have been added to the csv file: price template id, price exception (custom price and currency), phone bill (payment), and status. refer to this seller portal notice for additional information. themes with cover screen seller portal provides a new field and section to support themes that can be shown and used on new devices or screen types. help menu the faqs were reorganized to make it easier to find answers to common questions about seller portal and using seller portal. before you contact us, search the faqs to see if there is a solution to your problem. from seller portal, click help > contact us > faqs. click on the relevant topic in the left menu bar and scroll through the list on the right to search for your issue. if the left menu bar is not displayed, click on the green hamburger icon in the lower left corner to open it. galaxy store statistics the readability of the dashboard, tables, and charts have been improved. also, in the statistics menu, for certain metrics, you can toggle between displaying a pie chart or bar chart of the data. to view the bar chart, from seller portal, click statistics to open galaxy store statistics. select an app and click statistics from the left navigation bar. select a metric (only new downloads, sales, ratings volume, item purchases, item sales, and downloads by total devices show charts). select all countries or models from the filter, click ok, and click on its split-up tab. finally, click the show bar charts toggle (in the upper right corner) to on to display a bar chart. additional resources on the samsung developers site the samsung developers site has many resources for developers looking to build for and integrate with samsung devices and services. stay in touch with the latest news by creating a free account and subscribing to our monthly newsletter. visit the galaxy store games page for information about bringing your game to galaxy store and visit the marketing resources page for information about promoting and distributing your android apps. finally, our developer forum is an excellent way to stay up-to-date on all things related to the galaxy ecosystem.

one advantage of the large display in the galaxy z fold series is the ability to split the screen and simultaneously use up to three apps. in multi-window mode, you can split the screen, having one window being the main focus and the other two windows being active but not focused. this means all three windows remain active, not just the largest one. you can therefore multitask in either landscape or portrait orientation, giving you even more flexibility. the drag-and-drop feature of android is one of the operations suitable for multi-window mode. the operation starts when the user makes a ui gesture on the application, such as a long press on a ui element, and the application recognizes it as a signal to start dragging data such as an image, video, plain text, url, and so on. a drag shadow becomes visible during this operation to show that the event is happening. when the user releases the shadow, the operation is ended. one example of the operation is dragging a video from the file explorer to a video player application in order to play the video. the official android guide provides a detailed article on how to implement drag-and-drop in your application. in this blog, we show how to implement the drag-and drop-feature between multiple applications. this means we need to implement the functionality in two test applications and will also demonstrate interaction with other applications such as a web browser. figure 1: multi-window mode so let’s see what is needed to take advantage of the multi-window mode and the drag-and-drop feature. implementation step 1 to ensure that your application works in multi-window mode, you need to add an attribute in its manifest’s <activity> element. if you set android:resizeableactivity to true, the activity can be launched in multi-window or in pop-up view, and can adapt to a different screen size. android:resizeableactivity= "true" note : unless you enable this attribute, the user is not able to open the application in multi-window mode. step 2 to be able to drag your desired view, add setonlongclicklistener to it, as shown below: textview1.setonlongclicklistener { v: view -> val item = clipdata.item(v.tag as charsequence) val mimetypes = arrayof(clipdescription.mimetype_text_plain) val data = clipdata(v.tag.tostring(), mimetypes, item) // instantiates the drag shadow builder val dragshadow = view.dragshadowbuilder(v) val flags = view.drag_flag_global // starts the drag v.startdrag(data // data to be dragged , dragshadow // drag shadow builder , v // local data about the drag and drop operation , flags ) return@setonlongclicklistener true } note : the drag_flag_global flag is required to enable drag-and-drop across applications. this means you can drop this view to another application only when the flag is set. step 3 in mainactivity.kt, register a drag event listener object by calling setondraglistener for each view of the application for which you want to enable dragging and dropping: textview1.setondraglistener(ondraglistenertv1) textview2.setondraglistener(ondraglistenertv2) textview3.setondraglistener(ondraglistenertv3) here, ondraglistenertv1, ondraglistenertv2, and ondraglistenertv3 are callback functions for textview1, textview2, and textview3, respectively. step 4 next, implement the callback functions. here, only the callback function for textview1 is shown. you first need to declare a variable to store the action type for the incoming event. val action: int = event.getaction() step 5 inside dragevent.action_drop, get the dragged item from clipdata and check its mime type. if the mime type is set to text/plain or text/html, get the text value from the item object and allow the drop operation. otherwise, simply show a toast message. val item: item = event.getclipdata().getitemat(0) var mtype = event.clipdescription.getmimetype(0) if(mtype == "text/plain" || mtype== "text/html"){ // gets the text data from the item. dragdata = item.text.tostring() } else{ toast.maketext(applicationcontext,"operation not allowed"+mtype,toast.length_long).show() return@ondraglistener true } note : in textview1, we allow any string to be dragged and dropped. but in textview2, only numbers are allowed and in textview3, only email addresses are allowed. necessary validations are added accordingly. demonstration figure 2: both dragapp and dropapp opened in multi-window mode along with a browser figure 3: selecting text from the browser figure 4: text dropped into dropapp from the browser figure 5: text "hello world!" dragged from dragapp to dropapp sample application a sample application has been developed to illustrate how to implement drag-and-drop between applications in multi-window mode. dragndropblog-multiwindow (1.23 mb) sep 27, 2022 conclusion foldable devices provide a richer experience than phones and to take advantage of their features, every new form factor should be added to the application configuration. the drag-and-drop feature can further enhance the application user experience. additional resources on the samsung developers site the samsung developers site has many resources for developers looking to build for and integrate with samsung devices and services. stay in touch with the latest news by creating a free account and subscribing to our monthly newsletter. visit the galaxy store games page for information on bringing your game to galaxy store and visit the marketing resources page for information on promoting and distributing your android apps. finally, our developer forum is an excellent way to stay up-to-date on all things related to the galaxy ecosystem.

maintaining the legacy of foldable technology, samsung recently released the new galaxy z fold2. this device is designed to provide a new and seamless experience to users with its infinity flex display. as a developer, you can adjust your app to provide the best ui experience to your users. in this blog, we will demonstrate how a stopwatch app can be modified to adjust with galaxy z fold2 devices. the stopwatch app is pretty simple, having three functionalities—start, pause and reset the time. figure 1: stopwatch app example in order to provide a seamless experience to the user, we have to ensure app continuity, adjust the activity according to the ui, support multi-resume in multi-window, and check the display cutout. so let’s get started. app continuity like the previous galaxy z fold, the new galaxy z fold2 has two separate physical screens. the cover display is 2260 x 816 pixels and the main display is 2208 x 1768 pixels. to provide a seamless experience to the user while folding and unfolding the device, the app must maintain its continuity by preventing data loss. you can ensure continuity by using the onsaveinstancestate() method. first, save the data of the current state with onsaveinstancestate(). for the stopwatch app, the time that has passed is saved in seconds before the activity is paused. @override public void onsaveinstancestate(bundle savedinstancestate) { savedinstancestate.putint("seconds", seconds); savedinstancestate.putboolean("running", running); savedinstancestate.putboolean("wasrunning", wasrunning); } then restore the data of the activity using the oncreate() function. @override protected void oncreate(bundle savedinstancestate) { super.oncreate(savedinstancestate); setcontentview(r.layout.activity_main); if (savedinstancestate != null) { seconds = savedinstancestate.getint("seconds"); running = savedinstancestate.getboolean("running"); wasrunning = savedinstancestate.getboolean("wasrunning"); } } figure 2: continuity of the stopwatch while folding and unfolding the device ensure dynamic resizing of your app if you want your app to support multi-window mode, define the activity as resizable. this can be done by setting the resizableactivity attribute to true in manifest.xml. this ensures the maximum compatibility with both the cover screen and the main screen of the device. <activity android:name=".mainactivity" android:resizeableactivity="true"> … </activity> another approach is to define an aspect ratio for your app. galaxy z fold2’s cover screen has a ratio of 25 : 9 whereas the main screen has a ratio of 22.5 : 18. to be compatible with the device, you should test your apps for these ratios and that they fill up the entire display. you can use the minaspectratio or the maxaspectratio flag to constrain your app within the feasible aspect ratios. please note that, if the resizableactivity attribute is set to true, the minaspectratio and the maxaspectratio flag are ignored. figure 3: dynamically resizable app in pop-up view and split-window view multi-resume for multi-window up to android 9, only one of the activities visible in the multi-window operation is allowed to stay in the resumed state. all other activities are put into the paused state. therefore, you have to force your app to be in the resumed state by adding the following in the manifest.xml file. <meta-data android:name="android.allow_multiple_resumed_activities" android:value="true" /> however, starting from android 10, all activities visible in multi-window are allowed to stay in the resumed state. you no longer need to force your app to have multi-resume behavior. however, there are some cases where an app can be in the paused state in android 10, in which case you need to enforce the multi-resume behavior: • in a minimized split-screen (with launcher on the side), the top activity isn't resumed because it's not focusable • in picture-in-picture mode, the activity isn't resumed because it's not focusable • when activities are covered by other transparent activities in the same stack figure 4: multi-resume in multi-window display cutout the main display of the galaxy z fold2 has a punch hole in the upper right side. you can set a display cutout mode according to your content style. by default, the content is rendered into the cutout area while in portrait mode and letterboxed while in landscape mode. if you want your content to be rendered into the cutout area in both portrait and landscape modes, you can define the mode as shortedges. in the sample app, the cutout mode is set to shortedges in the style.xml file. the sample app is set to full screen and display cutout mode is set to shortedges. <item name="android:windowlayoutindisplaycutoutmode">shortedges</item> <item name="android:windowtranslucentnavigation">true</item> figure 5: display cutout default mode figure 6: display cutout in shortedges mode hopefully this blog helps you to update your app for the galaxy z fold2 and give the user a better ui experience. to check out the sample app, click here. you can also view samsung’s official documentation for galaxy z devices. if you have any questions regarding foldable ui, feel free to post it in the samsung developers forums.

starting this year, we are announcing seller portal updates on a quarterly basis, presenting the most meaningful information about the changes made over the last 3 – 4 months. in this blog, we’ll discuss updates to managing your reviews and specifying devices when registering your android app. manage reviews many consumers rely on the overall rating of an app and written reviews to decide if they should install it. therefore, it’s important to constantly monitor and manage your customer ratings and reviews. keep in mind that the customers who try your app and take the time to leave a review are valuable because they show an interest in and support your app. when you regularly manage your reviews and respond quickly to negative reviews, you can attract potential customers and gain loyal followers. to get to the buyer comments section in seller portal, select assistance > buyer comments. filter reviews by default, reviews are sorted with the newest comments at the top. you can search and filter your reviews so that you can quickly find and respond to comments left by your customers. in addition to filtering your reviews by content id, app name, country/region, device, star rating, and time period, seller portal has added two new filters for status and keywords. also, the star rating filter has been improved. star rating – search for reviews in a range of ratings. for example, you can find all reviews that rate your app with three stars or fewer. user comment status – search for reviews based on your reply status. find reviews to which you have not yet replied (to see if you need to respond to them), reviews to which you have already replied, or reviews that have been modified after you have replied (to see if you need to update your response). review comments – search for reviews by keywords such as “bug” or “super.” select and reply while you can continue to reply individually to each review comment, you can now select one or more review comments to reply to (using the same response) and you can save frequently used responses to use at a later time. while it is better to personalize your response to each comment, sometimes it may be necessary to reply quickly to similar comments with the same response (for example, if a recently updated app has a problem, you can reply to any negative reviews with a message that a fix will be released soon). to reply to one or more review comments, select the checkbox next to all comments to which you want to reply and click select and reply (located above the table of comments, next to the green excel button). select the checkbox next to save this response to save your message for future use. learn how to increase the number of customer reviews for your app by adding a galaxy store review link. specify devices when registering your android app, you specify the devices on which your app runs (based on resolution or other criteria). we’ve made this task easier by allowing you to specify the devices after uploading your binary. additionally, compatible devices are automatically selected for you and you can filter devices based on device specifications such as type, resolution, android sdk version, chipset, gpu, ram and screen density. we hope that this will make it easier to select or exclude the devices on which your app runs. note that the exact specifications for each device are not displayed and these detailed specifications cannot be downloaded. depending on the filter, some older devices may not be found in a search. also, because specifications change, the list should be used as a reference only (you may need to select or unselect devices whose specifications have changed). additional resources on the samsung developers site the samsung developers site has many resources for developers looking to build for and integrate with samsung devices and services. stay in touch with the latest news by creating a free account and subscribing to our monthly newsletter. visit the marketing resources page for information on promoting and distributing your apps. finally, our developer forum is an excellent way to stay up-to-date on all things related to the galaxy ecosystem.