Google Releases Jetpack Compose 1.4 with New Features for Native UI
Google has launched version 1.4 of its popular Android UI toolkit Jetpack Compose, offering developers built-in support for horizontal and vertical page changes, flow layouts, and more text field customization options. Jetpack Compose is the recommended toolkit for creating native user interfaces in Android, and it utilizes the Kotlin programming language.
Smooth Page Transitions with VerticalPager and HorizontalPager
Jetpack Compose 1.4 introduces two new experimental composables: VerticalPager and HorizontalPager, which enable a function similar to the PageViewer in the View system. Developers can easily switch between pages without resorting to adapters or fragments, making it easier to embed a composable within the pager. By default, HorizontalPager takes up the entire screen width and VerticalPager takes up the entire screen height, but developers can adjust these values as needed.
Flow Layouts for Dynamic Containers
The new FlowRow and FlowColumn layouts in Jetpack Compose 1.4 can improve the efficiency of presenting items within a container where the size of the items and container is unknown or dynamic. The flow layouts allow items to flow to the next row or column when space is limited, and also support dynamic size adjustment using weights to distribute items within the container.
Improvements to Text Fields
The Jetpack Compose team also made improvements to TextField, which now ensures that a text field within a scrollable column or lazy column is not covered after focusing with the on-screen keyboard. There are also new options for text customization, such as the ability to provide text with an outline using TextStyle.drawStyle and precise line breaks using TextStyle.lineBreak. Developers can also make their text move using the basicMarquee modifier, which can be applied to any composable that should move like a marquee.
More about Jetpack Compose 1.4
To know more about the new features and improvements of Jetpack Compose 1.4, visit the Android developer blog. This new release is sure to delight developers who are looking for efficient ways to create native user interfaces on Android using Kotlin with its improved functionality for page changes, dynamic containers, and text fields.
