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Introduction to Android App Development
What is Android?
Android is an operating system (OS) for mobile devices developed by Google Inc. It was first released in 2008 as an open-source OS and later on became available as a closed-source software. Android is one of the world’s most widely used mobile operating systems today and continues to grow rapidly!
Android is a mobile platform that allows users to interact with apps and services. Android is open-source software, meaning anyone can access and modify the source code. Google develops the Android platform, but it is also available on other platforms like Linux and Chrome OS.
Android development is a process by which developers create applications for Android devices. These applications can help people connect games and tools with their devices.
Android development is a popular career path, but it’s also a vast field. You can learn the basics of Android development in just a few weeks and then continue to grow your skills as you take on more advanced projects.
This course will cover the fundamentals of Android development and help you get started with your first app. We’ll cover topics like:
-The Android platform, including its history and key features.
-How to create new apps using the Android Studio IDE toolset.
-How to use Java and Objective-C programming languages to write apps for Android devices.
By the end of this course, you’ll have the skills and knowledge necessary to begin developing your apps!
Android development is a great way to get into the industry. It’s also a great way to learn!
The Android development course will teach you how to create apps, add features, and customize your app with the Android SDK. You’ll learn how to use Java and XML to build your app from scratch and make it more powerful by adding new features using Google Play Services.
Uses of Android Development
Android development is a significant part of the mobile industry. It’s an open-source platform for developing apps for mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches. The Android platform is used by manufacturers such as Samsung, HTC, Motorola, LG, and others to create their own branded versions of Android-based smartphones.
There are several advantages to using Android mobile app development platforms. Some of them are:
- Ease of use – The developers can easily create apps using the existing templates available in the market or customize them according to their requirements. That makes it easy for them to design and develop apps in no time at all.
- Flexibility – Users can select from a wide range of apps they want to download on their smartphone or tablet devices; this makes it possible for them to find the right app that suits their requirements without much hassle.
- Cost-effective solutions – The cost associated with creating apps using different platforms varies from one another.
Android development is a software development process that builds, tests, and maintains mobile apps for Android devices. The application will be deployed to the Google Play Store and can be downloaded by users on their Android devices.
You can develop an app for the following:
-Personal use (for yourself and your family)
-Business use (for your company) -Commercial use (for your business)
The main goal of Android development is to create a quality product that the user can easily understand.
Types of Android Development Courses
- Complete Android Course: This course is the most comprehensive and expensive. It encompasses everything from how to build and use apps that are downloaded from the Play Store to how to create your apps from scratch.
- Customized Training: This course is tailored specifically to your needs and goals. The instructor will help you design a course that meets your needs, covering particular topics or providing hands-on training with real devices.
- Self-Paced Training: If you don’t have time for an in-person class but still want some guidance on what to do next with your app, this is for you! You can take as much or as little time as you need until you feel confident enough in what you’re doing to move forward with creating more apps of your own (or sell them!).
Fundamentals of Android App Development
- Master the Language
Android is an open-source mobile operating system developed by Google, based on Linux and other open-source software. It is one of the most popular mobile operating systems in use today.
Android’s primary purpose is to provide a rich user experience for mobile devices. Its high level of customization allows developers to create applications that run on various devices, from smartphones and tablets to wearables and cars. The Android application development ecosystem offers tools, frameworks, libraries, and resources that help developers build apps quickly and efficiently.
One of the biggest challenges you’ll face as a beginner Android developer is learning how to write code. The language is different, and it can be hard to wrap your head around.
One way to make it easier is to keep a notebook full of notes and reminders about what you’re learning. That way, when trying to figure out how to do something new or make a change, you’ll have all the information at your fingertips. Plus, it’s also a great way to learn by doing!
2. Familiarity with the Right Application Development Tools and Environment
As with any other development, Android development for free starts with acquiring the skills required to build an application. In this case, the skill set needed is related to application development tools and the environment.
An Android application developer should have a good understanding of how these tools work and their uses. These include:
- API: Application Programming Interface is a set of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that developers use to create applications for different operating systems such as Android or iOS. Developers need to understand these APIs to write applications using them.
- IDE: Integrated Development Environment is an integrated platform that allows developers to write code in one place, test it and debug it easily. It also provides various helpful features such as auto-completion, code hints, autocomplete features, etc., making it easier for beginners to develop apps independently without help from others because they already know what they are doing!
- MIDP: Mobile Information Device Profile is a specification for mobile devices used by manufacturers like Samsung, Sony, Motorola
3. Knowledge of the Application Components
A basic understanding of the application components is necessary for an Android app developer to create a successful product. These three components are:
- Activity – This component allows users to interact with the application. Activities can contain text, images, media, and other items displayed when the user taps on them.
- Service – A service can run independently of activity and provide functionality. Services are helpful when you want to perform background tasks or notify other applications when something happens in your application.
- Broadcast Receiver – A broadcast receiver is a component that listens for broadcasts from other applications or devices and responds accordingly. They are helpful when you want to send updates about your application’s current state or content to other applications or devices on your device.
4. Awareness over Fragmentations
Fragmentations are a way to make your UI more flexible. Android supports the concept of fragments. These fragments can be used to create more dynamic and flexible screens. Fragments are reusable and can be split into pieces, making it easy to create different screens within one application without redesigning them entirely.
5. Android Application
An application is a software program that performs a specific task or set of functions on a user’s device. It is also known as an app or mobile application. The Android OS provides developers with the tools and APIs needed to build applications for smartphones and tablets.
Threads, Loaders, and Tasks
A thread is the basic unit of execution for an Android application. A thread has a life span and can be suspended (paused) until required again by the system at any point in time. A loader process loads resources from other files into memory so that an app may process them. Apps use tasks to perform specific functions such as playing media files or downloading data from the internet.
6. Choosing the Correct Needed Tools
You can use many tools to develop an Android app, but not all of them are good for your business or product. Before making a choice about which tools to use, it is essential that you understand why each tool is important and what it does.
For example, when choosing an Android development tool, you need to determine if it will be easy for your users to find the app on their phone and how they will be able to use it. It would be best to consider whether the app has enough built-in features to function correctly without having any extra apps installed.
As a developer, you will have to make many choices while developing an Android app. You have to choose between several tools that can be used for different purposes. However, it is not easy to make the right choice in this case as many tools are available in the market, and they all have pros and cons. This article will discuss some essential tools you should use for your Android app development.
The first tool you must use when developing an Android app is a computer with Windows or Mac OS installed. It will enable you to run the code editor and other tools required for developing an Android app.
It is also essential that your computer has at least 4GB RAM capacity so that it can handle multiple processes at once without any performance issues occurring later on down the line when running multiple applications simultaneously on your device’s screen or screen size available within your device’s memory space (RAM).
Another important thing about using a computer is having sufficient storage space available within its hard drive for storing all of your files related to your project’s development process, such as graphics and audio files.
The trend in 2022 of Android development
Machine Learning
It is a technique that has been growing in popularity, and it’s easy to see why. It allows computers to learn without being explicitly programmed. This results in an algorithm that can get smarter over time.
The most common use of machine learning is for image recognition, where algorithms can be used to identify objects in images or videos. These algorithms can also be used for speech recognition or language translation.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
It is a set of techniques that allow computers to perform tasks that would otherwise require human intelligence, like playing video games or understanding natural languages.
Navigation component
The navigation component is a component that helps you navigate your application. It is an abstraction of navigation.
The navigation component can navigate between different sections in your application. You can use the navigation components to navigate between other pages or different views of the same page.
It is a component that makes it easy for users to find their way around your app using simple UI elements and built-in features such as keyboard navigation, search, and pagination.
Android Instant Apps
Android Instant Apps is a new way to use an app without installing it on your device. They work similarly to the way Android does now, with the ability to launch apps from within other apps and share links between them. However, the main difference is that these apps will only be available in the Play Store for a limited time—either for a few seconds or until you use them up.
You can install them by tapping the “Instant App” icon in your app drawer and selecting “Install.” The Instant App will appear as an icon in your list of installed apps. When ready to use it, tap on its name, and you’ll be taken directly into the app without downloading anything first!
Languages used to make Android Apps.
- Java: Java is the OG language of Android Development. Many Android apps on Play Store are built with Java, and it is also the most supported language by Google. On top of that, Java also has a great online community to help you out when you face it (And mind you, there will be problems!).
But, on another note, truth be told, Java is not an easy language, especially for a beginner to use, as it has some tough-to-grab topics like constructors, null pointer exceptions, concurrency, checked exceptions, etc. Moreover, the toughness or complexity increases to a new level with The Android Software Development Kit (SDK.
Overall, Java is undoubtedly a must-know language to experience the happiness of being an Android Developer. But since it is a little bit tough for beginners, we’d recommend them to start with something more manageable, which brings us to our following language.
2. Kotlin: Now, Kotlin is emerging as the official language for Android App Development, as also announced by Google recently, in 2019. Kotlin, a cross-platform language, has proven to be the perfect alternative to Java since 2017. Kotlin can also work in conjunction with Java, thanks to Java Virtual Machine.
Many intricacies make Kotlin so much easier than Java. To give you an example, Kotlin doesn’t mandate null pointer exceptions. Unlike Java, you don’t need to end every sentence with a semi-colon in Kotlin.
Kotlin is a lot simpler and more accessible for newbies to try compared to its OG counterpart Java, making this language a great entry point to getting into Android App Development.
3. C++: C++ is a language that is used for Android App Development but only with the help of the Android Native Development Kit(NDK). There’s a catch with this language.
A complete app cannot be created entirely using C++, and the NDK is used to build and implement parts of an app in C++ native code. Android Native Development Kit also helps access C++ code libraries for the app as required.
While C++ can be useful for Android App Development, in some instances, it becomes much more brutal and tedious to set up and not as flexible as Kotlin and Java. It almost always leads to more bugs because of the increased complexity. So, it is best to use Java or Kotlin because it’ll save you a lot of time.
- C#: C# is a language that resembles a lot of Java, so it also becomes a right fit for Android App Development. Just as Java, C# also imposes garbage collection, so there are fewer chances of the happening of memory leaks.
C# also has a more straightforward and cleaner syntax than Java, making coding with this language much easier.
Before, the major limitation of C# was that it could only be used and run on Windows systems because it uses the .NET Framework. However, this “major problem” was solved by Xamarin… This tool built by xamarin called Android studio allows you to create native Android apps and share your code across multiple platforms.
- Python: Python is also one of the flexible languages that are used for Android App Development even after not supporting Python development, for that matter. There are many tools that can convert python apps into Android packages and make them able to be used on Android Devices.
An excellent example of this is a tool called Kivy, an open-source Python library used for developing Android apps. But a significant downside to this is that since Kivy is not natively supported, there will also be no Native benefits.
- HTML, CSS, JavaScript: Yes! Android apps can be created using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript using the Adobe PhoneGap framework. Powered by Apache Cordova. The PhoneGap framework enables you to use your web development skills to create real-world Android Apps that are basically web-based apps packaged as Android packages.
While the Adobe PhoneGap framework does sound enough to create Android apps, it also has a downside. It requires a lot of programming, like a lot, especially in the Javascript part. So you will be better off learning other languages.
But if you are only comfortable with Javascript, then you should learn React Native, which is currently very high in demand for Javascript’s open-source framework. You can develop some tremendous hybrid apps with the help of React Native. A Hybrid app can run on both platforms, which are Android and iOS. Learning React Native and building hybrid apps is one of the most in-demand jobs in the tech industry.
- Dart : And finally comes this language called Dart, one of the most powerful languages for building Android Apps. Ignoring Dart as a programming language today is a fool’s errand.
Dart is a language that powers the Flutter framework and is an open-source programming language. It has recently gained much traction because of its usability to make beautiful and high-performance apps for the web, desktop, and mobile in a short time. The major highlight of Dart is that it is designed by Google as a client-optimized language to make super-fast apps on any platform.
Dart makes the UI development a lot easier for developers with great features like hot-reload, which lets developers see changes instantly while working on the app. Dart is famous for providing fast performance, and it compiles ARM and x64 machine code for mobile, desktop, and backend. And to JavaScript for the web apps.
We have one more programming language for Android App Development i.e.
Corona: Corona is a software development kit used for developing Android apps using Lua. It has got two modes of operation, which are known as Corona Simulator and Corona Native.
The Corona Simulator is used to create apps on the go, while the Corona Native compiles the Lua code with an Android Studio project to build an app using native features.
While Lua is a bit limited compared to Java, it is also much more accessible and has a more straightforward learning curve. Corona comes with a lot of paid plugins as well that drastically reduce your time in building features. While Corona is mainly used to develop games but it is by no means limited just to that.
How to get started as an Android App Developer?
A complete guide to Becoming an Android Developer
Begin with a Programming Language
Software engineering requires you to learn at least one programming language, and in Android’s case, there are two major programming languages: Java and Kotlin. Learning Kotlin is comparatively easy to learn and to start because Google has developed the language as a replacement for Java which is quite complex and can be challenging for beginners to learn. It also offers a suite of features that make some coding processes easy.
Understand the lifecycle of an app
Your understanding of Android Development should be great. For example, the application should be programmed to work correctly, let’s say when the phone receives a text or a call. When you have this level of understanding, create an app that offers the best user experience to the users.
Learn the Basics
The Android platform has a lot of components, and it is imperative that you know these basic components and how to work with them to be excellent in developing some powerful android apps.
A nicely-planned android application development training course will teach you all these fundamental components that help in handling all the aspects of the app, working with the app’s various features, testing, and following standard practices for security and navigation. Once you know about all these components of the android platform, you will thoroughly learn the use of various tools to build and design the app.
Know the Android Tools
As a beginner, you should know the essential tools for making android apps and learn to use those tools. The first tool you need to familiarize yourself with is Android Studio, the official IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for making Android Apps.
Integrated Development Environment is software that provides the most common tools app developers use in the form of a visual user interface.
An IDE like Android Studio is utilized for writing and testing software through its different phases of development.
These phases are building coding and testing. Android Studio helps increase your productivity by reducing and lowering the setup time and standardizing the development process. Using Android Studio, you can write android apps for various devices like mobile phones, watches, TVs, etc.
Another tool you need to know thoroughly about to develop android apps is a Version Control System tool, preferably Git, which is essentially utilized for coordination among developers, keeping a note of changes in the codebase, and switching to the older versions.
The significant advantage of learning Git is that it equips you with the flexibility to handle small and large-sized projects while maintaining speed and efficiency. Finally, you should also know about Gradle- a build automation tool that is a part of the Android Studio. Gradle allows you to compile, build, and publish applications on the Android Platform.
Start with Small Projects
When you attain some basics of the android platform and learn a thing or two about the standard tools that come in handy for developing an application, you can start contributing to open-source, which is a great way to test your knowledge.
But, make it a point to be consistent and start small to progress towards being a proficient Android Developer slowly. When you create and contribute to open source, you get an opportunity to interact with your fellow mates from all levels of expertise, which can bring some great networking opportunities.
You will find a good range of projects on GitHub, which are generally open to the public. These projects come in many types, such as bug fixing, reviewing a project, and more. You can open an issue and start working on any project to improve your app development skills.
Distribute Your Project
Once you start working on small projects and develop your full-fledged android app with all your knowledge and experience in fixing a variety of projects and keeping them open to the public, the next big step is to work on distributing your android app. There are multiple ways to do it, like you can go to the official android market, list it on your website, or use a third-party website. If you want to distribute your application with the help of the Android market, you need to register as an official Android developer and pay a $25 one-time fee.
Share Your Journey
Becoming an android app developer is a journey that comes with a lot of hassles and challenges. But it is natural and essential for every newbie to face those challenges during the learning curve. What makes it a bit simple is connecting with and speaking to the community about your challenges and struggles. There are plenty of communities on platforms such as Twitter, Reddit, Meetup, or thousands of local groups where you can seek help and know-how your fellow app developers go about their app development process and what you can learn from them.
Kotlin multiplatform
Kotlin multiplatform is a framework that allows you to write code in Kotlin and compile it to native code on all platforms.
The Kotlin multiplatform framework is used with Android, iOS, and desktop applications.
It is a relatively new addition to the language and has been created as a solution for developers who want to write code once and run it on multiple platforms.
Kotlin multiplatform allows you to use the same code, but when compiled, it creates different binaries for each platform. That means when an application is executed on a specific forum, it will run exactly as intended.
Wrapping up
Android is a powerful and popular platform for developing mobile apps. Android has many advantages over other platforms, including its openness and customization ability. The open nature of the Android platform ensures that developers have access to the latest features as soon as possible. The ability for apps to be tailored means that developers can create unique, specialized apps for their specific industry or market segment. In addition, having access to the latest features on an open platform allows developers to remain competitive by providing their users with a better experience than what they could get on another platform.