Google today made a preview of its Android Things platform available to developers.
Android Things is for the Internet of Things. It lets developers create smart and connected devices using existing Android APIs and Google services. More importantly, the platform relies on toolsets that developers are already familiar with, including Android Studio, the Android SDK, Google Play Services, and Google Cloud Platform.
Along with the developer preview, Google has named several “turnkey” developer hardware packages, including the Intel Edison, NXP Pico, and Raspberry Pi 3. Google believes together these will allow developers to create devices without worrying about backend cloud services, which they’ll be able to communicate with automatically.
Google expects to update the preview over time with more features and a broader range of devices. It will eventually debut an Android Things mobile application API for Android and iOS devices as it works to merge its Brillo, Weave, and Nest Weave platforms.
To get started, check out Google’s IoT developer site, or go directly to the Android Things, Weave, and Google Cloud Platform sites for documentation and code samples. You can also join Google’s IoT Developers Community on Google+ to get the latest updates and share and discuss ideas with other developers.
