RTL improvements

Android 4.3 includes RTL performance enhancements and broader RTL support across framework UI widgets, including ProgressBar/Spinner and ExpandableListView. More debugging information visible through the uiautomatorviewer tool. In addition, more system UI components are now RTL aware, such as notifications, navigation bar and the Action Bar.

To provide a better systemwide experience in RTL scripts, more default system apps now support RTL layouts, including Launcher, Quick Settings, Phone, People, SetupWizard, Clock, Downloads, and more.

Utilities for localization

Pseudo-locales make it easier to test your app's localization.

Android 4.3 also includes new utilities and APIs for creating better RTL strings and testing your localized UIs. A new BidiFormatter provides a set of simple APIs for wrapping Unicode strings so that you can fine-tune your text rendering in RTL scripts. To let you use this utility more broadly in your apps, the BidiFormatter APIs are also now available for earlier platform versions through the Support Package in the Android SDK.

To assist you with managing date formatting across locales, Android 4.3 includes a new getBestDateTimePattern() method that automatically generates the best possible localized form of a Unicode UTS date for a locale that you specify. It’s a convenient way to provide a more localized experience for your users.

To help you test your app more easily in other locales, Android 4.3 introduces pseudo-locales as a new developer option. Pseudo-locales simulate the language, script, and display characteristics associated with a locale or language group. Currently, you can test with a pseudo-locale for Accented English, which lets you see how your UI works with script accents and characters used in a variety of European languages.
Accessibility and UI Automation
Starting in Android 4.3, accessibility services can observe and filter key events, such as to handle keyboard shortcuts or provide navigation parity with gesture-based input. The service receives the events and can process them as needed before they are passed to the system or other installed apps.

Accessibility services can declare new capability attributes to describe what their services can do and what platform features they use. For example, they can declare the capability to filter key events, retrieve window content, enable explore-by-touch, or enable web accessibility features. In some cases, services must declare a capability attribute before they can access related platform features. The system uses the service’s capability attributes to generate an opt-in dialog for users, so they can see and agree to the capabilities before launch.

Building on the accessibility framework in Android 4.3, a new UI automation framework lets tests interact with the device’s UI by simulating user actions and introspecting the screen content. Through the UI automation framework you can perform basic operations, set rotation of the screen, generate input events, take screenshots, and much more. It’s a powerful way to automate testing in realistic user scenarios, including actions or sequences that span multiple apps.

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