Things support library is the new library developed by Google to handle the communication with peripherals and drivers. This is a completely new library not present in the Android SDK and this library is one of the most important features. It exposes a set of Java Interface and classes (APIs) that we can use to connect and exchange data with external devices such as sensors, actuators, and so on. This library hides the inner communication details, supporting several industry standard protocols such as:
- GPIO
- I2C
- PWM
- SPI
- UART
During the book, we will discover how to use this library to connect to several devices.
Moreover, this library exposes a set of APIs to create and register new device drivers called user drivers. These drivers are custom components deployed with the Android Things app that extends the Android Things framework. In other words, they are custom libraries that enable an app to communicate with other device types not supported by Android Things natively.
This book will guide you, step by step, to learn how to build real-life projects using Android. You will explore the new Android Things APIs and how to use them. In the next sections, you will learn how to install Android Things on Raspberry Pi 3 and Intel Edison.