• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, May 19, 2022

Google released details on Thursday of the progress made for Privacy Sandbox on Android, the first update since announcing the initiative in February.

Its current design proposals are focused on supporting mobile devices and apps, but Google has received many questions about whether it will support connected TV (CTV) devices. There will be more details on that later, the company said.

Developers are also asking whether Privacy Sandbox will support Kotlin, a new JVM language created by Jetbrains, which has become the go-to programming language used for Android development.

“We're working on iterating the Privacy Sandbox API design and intend to enable developers to write idiomatic Kotlin code,” according to the post.

Google’s progress updates released today highlight details such as changes to timelines and answers to frequently asked questions received to date.

Google recently released the first iterations of the Developer Preview that provides an early look at the Attribution Reporting API, plus the Topics API and the SDK Runtime. Marketers can review the detailed APIs, begin to assess any impact to workflows, and provide feedback.

Developer Preview release notes are intended to help with early development, testing, and feedback. Android Privacy Sandbox Developer Previews are early builds that are still in active development, so things might not always work as expected.

There were several specific updates to the design proposals such as an example that shows how view, click, and conversion events may be registered by multiple parties.

The Topics API now returns a list of up to three topics, one for each of the past three epochs during the past 3 weeks. Google also updated the Topics API technical proposal to clarify that the returned topics represent the interests of the user. Any or all the returned topics can be used for ads personalization.

This Developer Preview gives an early look at the Topics API and the SDK Runtime. To help test the feature released on April 28, marketers must have access to developer resources including documentation, API reference, sample apps, SDK, emulators, and system images for supported Pixel devices.

Marketers can build and install a runtime-enabled SDK and use it to render a WebView-based ad, or use the Topics API to retrieve test values. The plan is to update the developer preview resources as new functionality is released in the coming months.

Each Developer Preview will come with detailed notes and guides to describe the functions.

Here is a list of updates:

Available now:

• Developer Preview 1 - Early look at SDK Runtime and Topics APIs (see above for details)

May and June 2022:

• Early look at FLEDGE APIs (both Custom Audience and Ad Selection APIs)
• Early look at Attribution Reporting APIs (both event and aggregate APIs)
• Updates to the SDK Runtime and Topics API developer previews

July 2022 and after:

• Regular updates to the developer previews for all APIs and SDK Runtime

By end of 2022:

• Beta release of the Privacy Sandbox on Android on consumer mobile devices

Developer resources and tools for testing available now:

• Android SDK and 64-bit Android Emulator system images that include the Privacy Sandbox APIs. This is described in the setup guide.
• Device system images for Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 6, Pixel 5a (5G), Pixel 5, Pixel 4, and Pixel 4a. This preview release is for developers only and not intended for daily or consumer use, so it is available by manual download only.
• Developer guides for the SDK Runtime and Topics API.
• Sample code that demonstrates the implementation of runtime-enabled SDKs and usage of the Topics API, available on GitHub.
• Privacy Sandbox API reference.