First look: Google’s new ‘EyeDropper’ app will help you pick colors in Andr

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TL;DR

• Google is developing a native color picker tool called “EyeDropper” that is expected to be released with Android 17.
• This new app will provide a system-wide API, allowing any app to let users select a specific color from their screen and get its value.
• The tool is designed for both touchscreens and desktop modes, with logic to handle multiple displays when a mouse and keyboard are detected.

For professionals who work with images and videos, knowing the exact colors they’re dealing with is critical. Eyeballing it isn’t always enough, as many jobs require precise color reproduction. That’s why hexadecimal codes are often used to represent colors, providing a standard way to accurately replicate them across different software. While most professional apps and web browsers have built-in color pickers that can grab these codes, Android currently lacks this feature. That could change in next year’s Android 17 release, though.

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While looking through the new 2510 Android Canary update that Google released this week, I discovered a new system application named “EyeDropper.” It’s a small, simple app with a single purpose: providing a public API for other Android apps to implement a color picker. This new, native solution means developers will no longer need to build their own in-app color pickers or import third-party libraries, which will simplify development, save time, and slightly reduce the file size of their apps.




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