Facebook Releases Major Update to SDK for Android, New Android Developer Center

Janet Wagner, October 23rd, 2012

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Facebook has announced the release of the Facebook SDK 3.0 Beta for Android and the launch of the new Android Developer Center. This latest release of the SDK for Android is what Facebook is calling the “biggest overhaul of our Android SDK so far.”

Friend Picker UI and Login UI. — Image Credit: Facebook

You can find a complete list of the new features added to the SDK for Android in the changelog. Below is an overview the new features:

• Simplified user session management – It is now possible to prepare applications for low memory scenarios and manage user login states automatically.
• Ready-to-Use native UI views – Pre-built components are now included in the SDK for Android including Friend Picker, Places Picker, Profile Picture Control and Login Controls.
• Better Facebook APIs support – The ability to “batch SDK requests for Facebook API calls” is now included which makes access times faster. MVC-style programming is now better supported.

Android Developer Center

Coinciding with the major update of the SDK for Android, Facebook has launched a new Android Developer Center that includes new content and resources:

• Scrumptious Tutorial – This tutorial shows how to create a Facebook Timeline app that integrates into an Android application.
• Concepts – This section offers information on how to build, distribute and promote Facebook integrated Android applications.
• Reference – This reference page includes a complete list of classes, exceptions and interfaces for the SDK for Android.

Scrumptious Tutorial. — Image Credit: Facebook

The Facebook SDK 3.0 Beta for Android has been designed to make it easier and faster for developers to create Android applications that can be integrated with Facebook. Using the Facebook SDK for Android along with the new Android Developer Center, developers can build Facebook integrated Android apps in no time!