STM30253 Mobile Application Assignment 1.pptx

history of android versions

1. What are the pros of Android development services? Given the extensive amount of Android users, your business has multiple opportunities to reach out to clients worldwide. Yet, Android development can be quite challenging for non-experts. Below are some of the reasons why opting for Android development services is a worthwhile investment: Increase efficiency.  When you work with a team of developers who are experienced in Android development, you can expect an increase in overall business efficiency. Teams of Android application developers can swiftly create products of high quality.

2. Stay flexible.  One of the biggest advantages of Android development services is that they offer you more flexibility. You can choose the team of developers you want to work with and the type of product you want to create, matching your expectations and specific expertise. Deliver products to a large and growing market.  Android is the most popular mobile operating system in the world, and it continues to grow in market share. This means that there are a large number of potential users for Android applications, and your business can contact broader customer segments. Develop for a wide range of devices.  Android devices come in all shapes and sizes, from small phones to large tablets. This gives developers a lot of flexibility in terms of the types of applications they can deliver.

3. Benefit from a well-established development ecosystem.  Android has been around for a long time and has a very well-developed ecosystem of tools and libraries. This advantage makes it easier for developers to get started with Android development and speed up the development cycle. Increase your business outreach.  Android devices account for a large portion of the global mobile market share, so developing an app for the Android platform gives your business access to a wider audience. Customize the final product.  Android offers more customization options than iOS, so you can tailor your app more specifically to your target audience. The trick is to find the right time to kickstart your project with  custom mobile development . Finally, one of the best things about Android development services is that they can offer you improved customer service. You will be able to get in touch with the team of developers whenever you need to so that the expertise of the highest quality empowers your project.

4. Introduction to Android Development Last Updated : 12 Jun, 2024 Android operating system  is the largest installed base among various mobile platforms across the globe. Hundreds of millions of mobile devices are powered by  Android  in more than 190 countries of the world. It conquered around  71%  of the global market share by the end of 2021, and this trend is growing bigger every other day. The company named  Open Handset Alliance  developed Android for the first time that is based on the modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software.  Google  sponsored the project at initial stages and in the year 2005, it acquired the whole company. In September 2008, the first Android-powered device was launched in the market. Android dominates the mobile OS industry because of the long list of features it provides. It’s user-friendly, has huge community support, provides a greater extent of customization, and a large number of companies build Android-compatible smartphones. As a result, the market observes a sharp increase in the demand for developing Android mobile applications, and with that companies need smart developers with the right skill set. At first, the purpose of Android was thought of as a mobile operating system. However, with the advancement of code libraries and its popularity among developers of the divergent domain, Android becomes an absolute set of software for all devices like tablets, wearables, set-top boxes, smart TVs, notebooks, etc.           Features of Android Android is a powerful open-source operating system that open-source provides immense features and some of these are listed below.             Android Open Source Project so we can customize the OS based on our requirements. Android supports different types of connectivity for GSM, CDMA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc. for telephonic conversation or data transfer. Using wifi technology we can pair with other devices while playing games or using other applications. It contains multiple APIs to support location-tracking services such as GPS. We can manage all data storage-related activities by using the file manager. It contains a wide range of media supports like AVI, MKV, FLV, MPEG4, etc. to play or record a variety of audio/video. It also supports different image formats like JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, MP3, etc. It supports multimedia hardware control to perform playback or recording using a camera and microphone. Android has an integrated open-source WebKit layout-based web browser to support User Interfaces like HTML5, and CSS3. Android supports multi-tasking means we can run multiple applications at a time and can switch between them. It provides support for virtual reality or 2D/3D Graphics.

5. What are the cons of Android development services? There are a few potential drawbacks of Android development services, particularly if you are not experienced with Android development. Android development is often more complex and time-consuming than other mobile development platforms because Android devices come in many different shapes and sizes and have a variety of different hardware and software configurations. It can make it challenging to develop and test apps for all Android devices. Another disadvantage of Android development is that Google Play, the main app store for Android apps, is not as well organized or as easy to use as other app stores such as Apple’s App Store or Amazon Appstore.  A third potential disadvantage of Android development services is security. If you are using a service provider, you may be trusting them with sensitive information about your app. Make sure to vet any service provider before sharing any sensitive information carefully. Moreover, it is essential to do your research to ensure you are hiring a vendor with the appropriate experience level for your project. Last but not least, developing an Android app can take time, depending on the complexity of the app. If you are on a tight deadline, pay special attention to the time framework and potential challenges facing the project.

6. Advantages of Android Development The Android is an open-source Operating system and hence possesses a vast community for support. The design of the Android Application has guidelines from Google, which becomes easier for developers to produce more intuitive user applications. Fragmentation gives more power to Android Applications. This means the application can run two activities on a single screen. Releasing the Android application in the Google play store is easier when it is compared to other platforms. Disadvantages of Android Development Fragmentation provides a very intuitive approach to user experience but it has some drawbacks, where the development team needs time to adjust to the various screen sizes of mobile smartphones that are now available in the market and invoke the particular features in the application. The Android devices might vary broadly. So the testing of the application becomes more difficult. As the development and testing consume more time, the cost of the application may increase, depending on the application’s complexity and features.

7. There are multiple tools available for Android development. You must choose the right tools for you to get started. This includes the preferred IDE, programming language, and external tools. At first, you may find it difficult to get used to them; the more you practice, the better you get at developing these applications. Table of Content What is Android Development? 10 Best Android Development Tools in 2024 1. Android Studio 2. Kotlin Programming Language 3. Firebase 4. Jetpack Compose 5. GitHub 6. Dagger Hilt 7. Coil 8. LeakCanary 9. Jira 10. Espresso Conclusion What is Android Development? Android development  is generally the process of creating applications (apps) that run on devices powered by the Android operating system, such as smartphones and tablets. It typically involves writing code using programming languages like  Java or Kotlin  that designs the  user interface (UI)  of the app and helps in integrating various features like data storage, networking, and user interactions. Android developers use specialized tools like Android Studio, which is an IDE provided by Google in order to build and test their apps. Once an app is developed, it can be published on the  Google Play Store  for users to download and use on their Android devices.  10 Best Android Development Tools in 2024 Here are the list of  Best Android development tools  that will help you in creating robust and stable android applications. Let’s begin… 1. Android Studio Android Studio is by far the most important tool you need for Android Development.  It was created by both Google and JetBrains and it is very similar to IntelliJ IDEA. Android Studio is a specific IDE used by Android developers. This can also be used to develop cross-platform applications using Flutter. Android Studio allows you to have multiple features relating to Android Development like: Wireless Debugging:  You can debug your applications on a physical device wireless, provided you are on the same network. Preview:  For Compose Applications, you can view the preview of the specific component you are building. Sync with Android SDK:  Android Studio has great synchronisation with your system’s available  SDK  and provides flawless code intellisense . Built-in Gradle system:  Android, being a  JVM  application, uses the  Gradle build system . The UI allows for an easier interface to run commands. Logcat:  Your application does not work as intended. Debugging in Android is done using the system’s Logcat, an inbuilt window inside Android Studio. Device Manager and Profiler:  Building an Android application involves analysing multiple application areas such as device usage, battery usage, memory usage, and more. 2. Kotlin Programming Language Android development first started using  Java  as their preferred language of development. However, since JetBrains announced their stable release of  Kotlin , we have had multiple migrations from Java to Kotlin quickly. In May 2019, Google announced Kotlin to be Android’s preferred language of development. Every new technology released since then by Google has been written in Kotlin. But what does Kotlin have to offer? Why are so many developers choosing Kotlin over Java? Kotlin builds upon the foundation of improving the drawbacks of Java. It reduces the verbose syntax and adds functionality that Java developers have complained about for multiple years. Kotlin’s concise syntax and robustness was the primary reason for the migration of Java developers to use Kotlin for development. Hold on. What do we do about the legacy applications written in Java? Their technology would be obsolete in the coming years. Thankfully, there is an easy fix for that. Kotlin is 100% interoperable with Java. In other words, Kotlin code can invoke and use Java classes and functions, and the other way around. You can have both Kotlin and Java code in the same codebase without any configuration costs. Old legacy code does not need to be fully replaced with Kotlin. 3. Firebase Firebase  is perhaps one of the best tools to use if you are not familiar with building backend API Servers, or you may be just too lazy to build one yourself. Firebase is a Google-run backend service that is free to use until a certain limit. This service includes databases, cloud storage, cloud functions, authentication, and more. If you are creating an application that requires the user to be logged in, then why would you create an entire Authentication system for that if you can simply press a few buttons and write about 20 lines of code? Similarly with databases and cloud storage. Other features that  Firebase offers are Crashlytics, ML kit, and Hosting (for web apps) . One should check this tool if you are into any kind of mobile development (even for websites). 4. Jetpack Compose One of the best tools to be released by Google in the past years is  Jetpack Compose . This is a brand new UI toolkit written entirely in Kotlin for Kotlin developers. Shifting from the old norm to having separate XML layouts and connecting them to the backend code, Jetpack Compose is a declarative style UI toolkit where “Composable functions” are drawn on the screen. Jetpack Compose reduces much of the boilerplate code that was present in the old XML layout way of creating UIs. It is state-driven and also 100% interoperable with Android Views. Since its stable release, multiple users have shifted to this tool and I believe you should too. 5. GitHub This tool is a no-brainer to use regardless of the work you are doing. Imagine you have some code that is working, but it breaks when you implement a feature. OH no! You need to revert back to the previous stage when it was working, but you forgot the exact code. Your entire code is now broken and you must start over. . . NO! This is when you create zip files of your code every day. Again, NO! You should use a Version Control System like Git and upload your code on a platform like GitHub. Your code is saved by identity strings called “Commit Hashes” and  GitHub  is a cloud platform that saves your code for others to see, like your friends, peers and recruiters. They can contribute to the code you write and develop Android applications together. 6. Dagger Hilt Dagger Hilt  is a dependency injection library commonly used in the Android Development community. This is an advanced technique that is popularly used in architectures like  MVVM (Model View ViewModel )  and  Clean Architecture. Dependency Injection is a solution to the Dependency Inversion principle from  SOLID principles  in Software Engineering Design. Let’s say that you are using API X to get all your data regarding Football! Everything works fine until, oh no API X is decommissioned and no longer maintained. You need to use API Y now to get your application working. However, your code didn’t use the dependency inversion principle – i.e. you had coupled your application to use the components from API X only. You have to change the entire application so that it is compatible with API X. With Dagger Hilt and dependency inversion principles, you can replace the old implementation of API X with the new implementation of API Y without making core changes to your application. This way of structuring your code also allows for testing individual components in isolation. 7. Coil Coil is a brilliant library to use, especially with Kotlin and Jetpack Compose, to load images from the internet.  If your application uses many images, it may be a bad idea to have the images bundled with your APK file (making the application big). Instead, you can have your images stored somewhere on the cloud, and use the Coil library to load the images when the user opens the application. 8. LeakCanary LeakCanary is an open-source memory leak detection library to detect memory leaks in your application.  What are memory leaks, you ask? Memory leaks are portions of memory that can no longer be accessed anymore. Let’s say you allocated some memory to be used in the application. However, if the application is destroyed and you did not properly clear out this memory, then this piece of memory stays in the system forever. There is no longer a pointer to this chunk; hence, it cannot be destroyed. Additionally, you cannot use the same chunk. Memory leaks are deadly for your application. LeakCanary helps you identify when there were any memory leaks and points you to the line of code that initiated the memory leak. This is a tool important when building real applications for the store. 9. Jira Oftentimes, you will be working in a team of developers. There would be ideas and bugs popping up every minute of development that need to be dealt with. Post-covid, most people don’t work at the same time and one cannot expect one person to fix all the bugs they spot. JIRA  is a great project management website that can be tailored to your needs and is used to track issues, plan projects and promote team collaboration. JIRA supports  Agile development  methodology and support features such as Agile Poker, Sprint cycles and much more. This tool shines in streamlining the development process and improves team communication. 10. Espresso Last but not least, it is important to write tests for your application. JUnit and Mockito are great  JVM libraries  to use to unit test and mock your code. Android development requires UI Tests too to make sure that the UI is as intended.  Espresso is the most popular library for writing UI tests for your application . There are counterparts available for testing Compose applications, which are evidently better and easier to work with. Conclusion It is important to have the best tools for a successful Android development career.  Over my time as an Android developer, these tools changed and more tools were developed which enhanced the previous tools.  5 years from writing these articles, there would be another set of tools that are best for you. As a result, it is necessary to have an open mind regarding new developments and test them as they get increasingly popular.

8. There are multiple tools available for Android development. You must choose the right tools for you to get started. This includes the preferred IDE, programming language, and external tools. At first, you may find it difficult to get used to them; the more you practice, the better you get at developing these applications. Table of Content What is Android Development? 10 Best Android Development Tools in 2024 1. Android Studio 2. Kotlin Programming Language 3. Firebase 4. Jetpack Compose 5. GitHub 6. Dagger Hilt 7. Coil 8. LeakCanary 9. Jira 10. Espresso Conclusion What is Android Development? Android development  is generally the process of creating applications (apps) that run on devices powered by the Android operating system, such as smartphones and tablets. It typically involves writing code using programming languages like  Java or Kotlin  that designs the  user interface (UI)  of the app and helps in integrating various features like data storage, networking, and user interactions. Android developers use specialized tools like Android Studio, which is an IDE provided by Google in order to build and test their apps. Once an app is developed, it can be published on the  Google Play Store  for users to download and use on their Android devices.  10 Best Android Development Tools in 2024 Here are the list of  Best Android development tools  that will help you in creating robust and stable android applications. Let’s begin… 1. Android Studio Android Studio is by far the most important tool you need for Android Development.  It was created by both Google and JetBrains and it is very similar to IntelliJ IDEA. Android Studio is a specific IDE used by Android developers. This can also be used to develop cross-platform applications using Flutter. Android Studio allows you to have multiple features relating to Android Development like: Wireless Debugging:  You can debug your applications on a physical device wireless, provided you are on the same network. Preview:  For Compose Applications, you can view the preview of the specific component you are building. Sync with Android SDK:  Android Studio has great synchronisation with your system’s available  SDK  and provides flawless code intellisense . Built-in Gradle system:  Android, being a  JVM  application, uses the  Gradle build system . The UI allows for an easier interface to run commands. Logcat:  Your application does not work as intended. Debugging in Android is done using the system’s Logcat, an inbuilt window inside Android Studio. Device Manager and Profiler:  Building an Android application involves analysing multiple application areas such as device usage, battery usage, memory usage, and more. 2. Kotlin Programming Language Android development first started using  Java  as their preferred language of development. However, since JetBrains announced their stable release of  Kotlin , we have had multiple migrations from Java to Kotlin quickly. In May 2019, Google announced Kotlin to be Android’s preferred language of development. Every new technology released since then by Google has been written in Kotlin. But what does Kotlin have to offer? Why are so many developers choosing Kotlin over Java? Kotlin builds upon the foundation of improving the drawbacks of Java. It reduces the verbose syntax and adds functionality that Java developers have complained about for multiple years. Kotlin’s concise syntax and robustness was the primary reason for the migration of Java developers to use Kotlin for development. Hold on. What do we do about the legacy applications written in Java? Their technology would be obsolete in the coming years. Thankfully, there is an easy fix for that. Kotlin is 100% interoperable with Java. In other words, Kotlin code can invoke and use Java classes and functions, and the other way around. You can have both Kotlin and Java code in the same codebase without any configuration costs. Old legacy code does not need to be fully replaced with Kotlin. 3. Firebase Firebase  is perhaps one of the best tools to use if you are not familiar with building backend API Servers, or you may be just too lazy to build one yourself. Firebase is a Google-run backend service that is free to use until a certain limit. This service includes databases, cloud storage, cloud functions, authentication, and more. If you are creating an application that requires the user to be logged in, then why would you create an entire Authentication system for that if you can simply press a few buttons and write about 20 lines of code? Similarly with databases and cloud storage. Other features that  Firebase offers are Crashlytics, ML kit, and Hosting (for web apps) . One should check this tool if you are into any kind of mobile development (even for websites). 4. Jetpack Compose One of the best tools to be released by Google in the past years is  Jetpack Compose . This is a brand new UI toolkit written entirely in Kotlin for Kotlin developers. Shifting from the old norm to having separate XML layouts and connecting them to the backend code, Jetpack Compose is a declarative style UI toolkit where “Composable functions” are drawn on the screen. Jetpack Compose reduces much of the boilerplate code that was present in the old XML layout way of creating UIs. It is state-driven and also 100% interoperable with Android Views. Since its stable release, multiple users have shifted to this tool and I believe you should too. 5. GitHub This tool is a no-brainer to use regardless of the work you are doing. Imagine you have some code that is working, but it breaks when you implement a feature. OH no! You need to revert back to the previous stage when it was working, but you forgot the exact code. Your entire code is now broken and you must start over. . . NO! This is when you create zip files of your code every day. Again, NO! You should use a Version Control System like Git and upload your code on a platform like GitHub. Your code is saved by identity strings called “Commit Hashes” and  GitHub  is a cloud platform that saves your code for others to see, like your friends, peers and recruiters. They can contribute to the code you write and develop Android applications together. 6. Dagger Hilt Dagger Hilt  is a dependency injection library commonly used in the Android Development community. This is an advanced technique that is popularly used in architectures like  MVVM (Model View ViewModel )  and  Clean Architecture. Dependency Injection is a solution to the Dependency Inversion principle from  SOLID principles  in Software Engineering Design. Let’s say that you are using API X to get all your data regarding Football! Everything works fine until, oh no API X is decommissioned and no longer maintained. You need to use API Y now to get your application working. However, your code didn’t use the dependency inversion principle – i.e. you had coupled your application to use the components from API X only. You have to change the entire application so that it is compatible with API X. With Dagger Hilt and dependency inversion principles, you can replace the old implementation of API X with the new implementation of API Y without making core changes to your application. This way of structuring your code also allows for testing individual components in isolation. 7. Coil Coil is a brilliant library to use, especially with Kotlin and Jetpack Compose, to load images from the internet.  If your application uses many images, it may be a bad idea to have the images bundled with your APK file (making the application big). Instead, you can have your images stored somewhere on the cloud, and use the Coil library to load the images when the user opens the application. 8. LeakCanary LeakCanary is an open-source memory leak detection library to detect memory leaks in your application.  What are memory leaks, you ask? Memory leaks are portions of memory that can no longer be accessed anymore. Let’s say you allocated some memory to be used in the application. However, if the application is destroyed and you did not properly clear out this memory, then this piece of memory stays in the system forever. There is no longer a pointer to this chunk; hence, it cannot be destroyed. Additionally, you cannot use the same chunk. Memory leaks are deadly for your application. LeakCanary helps you identify when there were any memory leaks and points you to the line of code that initiated the memory leak. This is a tool important when building real applications for the store. 9. Jira Oftentimes, you will be working in a team of developers. There would be ideas and bugs popping up every minute of development that need to be dealt with. Post-covid, most people don’t work at the same time and one cannot expect one person to fix all the bugs they spot. JIRA  is a great project management website that can be tailored to your needs and is used to track issues, plan projects and promote team collaboration. JIRA supports  Agile development  methodology and support features such as Agile Poker, Sprint cycles and much more. This tool shines in streamlining the development process and improves team communication. 10. Espresso Last but not least, it is important to write tests for your application. JUnit and Mockito are great  JVM libraries  to use to unit test and mock your code. Android development requires UI Tests too to make sure that the UI is as intended.  Espresso is the most popular library for writing UI tests for your application . There are counterparts available for testing Compose applications, which are evidently better and easier to work with. Conclusion It is important to have the best tools for a successful Android development career.  Over my time as an Android developer, these tools changed and more tools were developed which enhanced the previous tools.  5 years from writing these articles, there would be another set of tools that are best for you. As a result, it is necessary to have an open mind regarding new developments and test them as they get increasingly popular.

9. There are multiple tools available for Android development. You must choose the right tools for you to get started. This includes the preferred IDE, programming language, and external tools. At first, you may find it difficult to get used to them; the more you practice, the better you get at developing these applications. Table of Content What is Android Development? 10 Best Android Development Tools in 2024 1. Android Studio 2. Kotlin Programming Language 3. Firebase 4. Jetpack Compose 5. GitHub 6. Dagger Hilt 7. Coil 8. LeakCanary 9. Jira 10. Espresso Conclusion What is Android Development? Android development  is generally the process of creating applications (apps) that run on devices powered by the Android operating system, such as smartphones and tablets. It typically involves writing code using programming languages like  Java or Kotlin  that designs the  user interface (UI)  of the app and helps in integrating various features like data storage, networking, and user interactions. Android developers use specialized tools like Android Studio, which is an IDE provided by Google in order to build and test their apps. Once an app is developed, it can be published on the  Google Play Store  for users to download and use on their Android devices.  10 Best Android Development Tools in 2024 Here are the list of  Best Android development tools  that will help you in creating robust and stable android applications. Let’s begin… 1. Android Studio Android Studio is by far the most important tool you need for Android Development.  It was created by both Google and JetBrains and it is very similar to IntelliJ IDEA. Android Studio is a specific IDE used by Android developers. This can also be used to develop cross-platform applications using Flutter. Android Studio allows you to have multiple features relating to Android Development like: Wireless Debugging:  You can debug your applications on a physical device wireless, provided you are on the same network. Preview:  For Compose Applications, you can view the preview of the specific component you are building. Sync with Android SDK:  Android Studio has great synchronisation with your system’s available  SDK  and provides flawless code intellisense . Built-in Gradle system:  Android, being a  JVM  application, uses the  Gradle build system . The UI allows for an easier interface to run commands. Logcat:  Your application does not work as intended. Debugging in Android is done using the system’s Logcat, an inbuilt window inside Android Studio. Device Manager and Profiler:  Building an Android application involves analysing multiple application areas such as device usage, battery usage, memory usage, and more. 2. Kotlin Programming Language Android development first started using  Java  as their preferred language of development. However, since JetBrains announced their stable release of  Kotlin , we have had multiple migrations from Java to Kotlin quickly. In May 2019, Google announced Kotlin to be Android’s preferred language of development. Every new technology released since then by Google has been written in Kotlin. But what does Kotlin have to offer? Why are so many developers choosing Kotlin over Java? Kotlin builds upon the foundation of improving the drawbacks of Java. It reduces the verbose syntax and adds functionality that Java developers have complained about for multiple years. Kotlin’s concise syntax and robustness was the primary reason for the migration of Java developers to use Kotlin for development. Hold on. What do we do about the legacy applications written in Java? Their technology would be obsolete in the coming years. Thankfully, there is an easy fix for that. Kotlin is 100% interoperable with Java. In other words, Kotlin code can invoke and use Java classes and functions, and the other way around. You can have both Kotlin and Java code in the same codebase without any configuration costs. Old legacy code does not need to be fully replaced with Kotlin. 3. Firebase Firebase  is perhaps one of the best tools to use if you are not familiar with building backend API Servers, or you may be just too lazy to build one yourself. Firebase is a Google-run backend service that is free to use until a certain limit. This service includes databases, cloud storage, cloud functions, authentication, and more. If you are creating an application that requires the user to be logged in, then why would you create an entire Authentication system for that if you can simply press a few buttons and write about 20 lines of code? Similarly with databases and cloud storage. Other features that  Firebase offers are Crashlytics, ML kit, and Hosting (for web apps) . One should check this tool if you are into any kind of mobile development (even for websites). 4. Jetpack Compose One of the best tools to be released by Google in the past years is  Jetpack Compose . This is a brand new UI toolkit written entirely in Kotlin for Kotlin developers. Shifting from the old norm to having separate XML layouts and connecting them to the backend code, Jetpack Compose is a declarative style UI toolkit where “Composable functions” are drawn on the screen. Jetpack Compose reduces much of the boilerplate code that was present in the old XML layout way of creating UIs. It is state-driven and also 100% interoperable with Android Views. Since its stable release, multiple users have shifted to this tool and I believe you should too. 5. GitHub This tool is a no-brainer to use regardless of the work you are doing. Imagine you have some code that is working, but it breaks when you implement a feature. OH no! You need to revert back to the previous stage when it was working, but you forgot the exact code. Your entire code is now broken and you must start over. . . NO! This is when you create zip files of your code every day. Again, NO! You should use a Version Control System like Git and upload your code on a platform like GitHub. Your code is saved by identity strings called “Commit Hashes” and  GitHub  is a cloud platform that saves your code for others to see, like your friends, peers and recruiters. They can contribute to the code you write and develop Android applications together. 6. Dagger Hilt Dagger Hilt  is a dependency injection library commonly used in the Android Development community. This is an advanced technique that is popularly used in architectures like  MVVM (Model View ViewModel )  and  Clean Architecture. Dependency Injection is a solution to the Dependency Inversion principle from  SOLID principles  in Software Engineering Design. Let’s say that you are using API X to get all your data regarding Football! Everything works fine until, oh no API X is decommissioned and no longer maintained. You need to use API Y now to get your application working. However, your code didn’t use the dependency inversion principle – i.e. you had coupled your application to use the components from API X only. You have to change the entire application so that it is compatible with API X. With Dagger Hilt and dependency inversion principles, you can replace the old implementation of API X with the new implementation of API Y without making core changes to your application. This way of structuring your code also allows for testing individual components in isolation. 7. Coil Coil is a brilliant library to use, especially with Kotlin and Jetpack Compose, to load images from the internet.  If your application uses many images, it may be a bad idea to have the images bundled with your APK file (making the application big). Instead, you can have your images stored somewhere on the cloud, and use the Coil library to load the images when the user opens the application. 8. LeakCanary LeakCanary is an open-source memory leak detection library to detect memory leaks in your application.  What are memory leaks, you ask? Memory leaks are portions of memory that can no longer be accessed anymore. Let’s say you allocated some memory to be used in the application. However, if the application is destroyed and you did not properly clear out this memory, then this piece of memory stays in the system forever. There is no longer a pointer to this chunk; hence, it cannot be destroyed. Additionally, you cannot use the same chunk. Memory leaks are deadly for your application. LeakCanary helps you identify when there were any memory leaks and points you to the line of code that initiated the memory leak. This is a tool important when building real applications for the store. 9. Jira Oftentimes, you will be working in a team of developers. There would be ideas and bugs popping up every minute of development that need to be dealt with. Post-covid, most people don’t work at the same time and one cannot expect one person to fix all the bugs they spot. JIRA  is a great project management website that can be tailored to your needs and is used to track issues, plan projects and promote team collaboration. JIRA supports  Agile development  methodology and support features such as Agile Poker, Sprint cycles and much more. This tool shines in streamlining the development process and improves team communication. 10. Espresso Last but not least, it is important to write tests for your application. JUnit and Mockito are great  JVM libraries  to use to unit test and mock your code. Android development requires UI Tests too to make sure that the UI is as intended.  Espresso is the most popular library for writing UI tests for your application . There are counterparts available for testing Compose applications, which are evidently better and easier to work with. Conclusion It is important to have the best tools for a successful Android development career.  Over my time as an Android developer, these tools changed and more tools were developed which enhanced the previous tools.  5 years from writing these articles, there would be another set of tools that are best for you. As a result, it is necessary to have an open mind regarding new developments and test them as they get increasingly popular.

10. There are multiple tools available for Android development. You must choose the right tools for you to get started. This includes the preferred IDE, programming language, and external tools. At first, you may find it difficult to get used to them; the more you practice, the better you get at developing these applications. Table of Content What is Android Development? 10 Best Android Development Tools in 2024 1. Android Studio 2. Kotlin Programming Language 3. Firebase 4. Jetpack Compose 5. GitHub 6. Dagger Hilt 7. Coil 8. LeakCanary 9. Jira 10. Espresso Conclusion What is Android Development? Android development  is generally the process of creating applications (apps) that run on devices powered by the Android operating system, such as smartphones and tablets. It typically involves writing code using programming languages like  Java or Kotlin  that designs the  user interface (UI)  of the app and helps in integrating various features like data storage, networking, and user interactions. Android developers use specialized tools like Android Studio, which is an IDE provided by Google in order to build and test their apps. Once an app is developed, it can be published on the  Google Play Store  for users to download and use on their Android devices.  10 Best Android Development Tools in 2024 Here are the list of  Best Android development tools  that will help you in creating robust and stable android applications. Let’s begin… 1. Android Studio Android Studio is by far the most important tool you need for Android Development.  It was created by both Google and JetBrains and it is very similar to IntelliJ IDEA. Android Studio is a specific IDE used by Android developers. This can also be used to develop cross-platform applications using Flutter. Android Studio allows you to have multiple features relating to Android Development like: Wireless Debugging:  You can debug your applications on a physical device wireless, provided you are on the same network. Preview:  For Compose Applications, you can view the preview of the specific component you are building. Sync with Android SDK:  Android Studio has great synchronisation with your system’s available  SDK  and provides flawless code intellisense . Built-in Gradle system:  Android, being a  JVM  application, uses the  Gradle build system . The UI allows for an easier interface to run commands. Logcat:  Your application does not work as intended. Debugging in Android is done using the system’s Logcat, an inbuilt window inside Android Studio. Device Manager and Profiler:  Building an Android application involves analysing multiple application areas such as device usage, battery usage, memory usage, and more. 2. Kotlin Programming Language Android development first started using  Java  as their preferred language of development. However, since JetBrains announced their stable release of  Kotlin , we have had multiple migrations from Java to Kotlin quickly. In May 2019, Google announced Kotlin to be Android’s preferred language of development. Every new technology released since then by Google has been written in Kotlin. But what does Kotlin have to offer? Why are so many developers choosing Kotlin over Java? Kotlin builds upon the foundation of improving the drawbacks of Java. It reduces the verbose syntax and adds functionality that Java developers have complained about for multiple years. Kotlin’s concise syntax and robustness was the primary reason for the migration of Java developers to use Kotlin for development. Hold on. What do we do about the legacy applications written in Java? Their technology would be obsolete in the coming years. Thankfully, there is an easy fix for that. Kotlin is 100% interoperable with Java. In other words, Kotlin code can invoke and use Java classes and functions, and the other way around. You can have both Kotlin and Java code in the same codebase without any configuration costs. Old legacy code does not need to be fully replaced with Kotlin. 3. Firebase Firebase  is perhaps one of the best tools to use if you are not familiar with building backend API Servers, or you may be just too lazy to build one yourself. Firebase is a Google-run backend service that is free to use until a certain limit. This service includes databases, cloud storage, cloud functions, authentication, and more. If you are creating an application that requires the user to be logged in, then why would you create an entire Authentication system for that if you can simply press a few buttons and write about 20 lines of code? Similarly with databases and cloud storage. Other features that  Firebase offers are Crashlytics, ML kit, and Hosting (for web apps) . One should check this tool if you are into any kind of mobile development (even for websites). 4. Jetpack Compose One of the best tools to be released by Google in the past years is  Jetpack Compose . This is a brand new UI toolkit written entirely in Kotlin for Kotlin developers. Shifting from the old norm to having separate XML layouts and connecting them to the backend code, Jetpack Compose is a declarative style UI toolkit where “Composable functions” are drawn on the screen. Jetpack Compose reduces much of the boilerplate code that was present in the old XML layout way of creating UIs. It is state-driven and also 100% interoperable with Android Views. Since its stable release, multiple users have shifted to this tool and I believe you should too. 5. GitHub This tool is a no-brainer to use regardless of the work you are doing. Imagine you have some code that is working, but it breaks when you implement a feature. OH no! You need to revert back to the previous stage when it was working, but you forgot the exact code. Your entire code is now broken and you must start over. . . NO! This is when you create zip files of your code every day. Again, NO! You should use a Version Control System like Git and upload your code on a platform like GitHub. Your code is saved by identity strings called “Commit Hashes” and  GitHub  is a cloud platform that saves your code for others to see, like your friends, peers and recruiters. They can contribute to the code you write and develop Android applications together. 6. Dagger Hilt Dagger Hilt  is a dependency injection library commonly used in the Android Development community. This is an advanced technique that is popularly used in architectures like  MVVM (Model View ViewModel )  and  Clean Architecture. Dependency Injection is a solution to the Dependency Inversion principle from  SOLID principles  in Software Engineering Design. Let’s say that you are using API X to get all your data regarding Football! Everything works fine until, oh no API X is decommissioned and no longer maintained. You need to use API Y now to get your application working. However, your code didn’t use the dependency inversion principle – i.e. you had coupled your application to use the components from API X only. You have to change the entire application so that it is compatible with API X. With Dagger Hilt and dependency inversion principles, you can replace the old implementation of API X with the new implementation of API Y without making core changes to your application. This way of structuring your code also allows for testing individual components in isolation. 7. Coil Coil is a brilliant library to use, especially with Kotlin and Jetpack Compose, to load images from the internet.  If your application uses many images, it may be a bad idea to have the images bundled with your APK file (making the application big). Instead, you can have your images stored somewhere on the cloud, and use the Coil library to load the images when the user opens the application. 8. LeakCanary LeakCanary is an open-source memory leak detection library to detect memory leaks in your application.  What are memory leaks, you ask? Memory leaks are portions of memory that can no longer be accessed anymore. Let’s say you allocated some memory to be used in the application. However, if the application is destroyed and you did not properly clear out this memory, then this piece of memory stays in the system forever. There is no longer a pointer to this chunk; hence, it cannot be destroyed. Additionally, you cannot use the same chunk. Memory leaks are deadly for your application. LeakCanary helps you identify when there were any memory leaks and points you to the line of code that initiated the memory leak. This is a tool important when building real applications for the store. 9. Jira Oftentimes, you will be working in a team of developers. There would be ideas and bugs popping up every minute of development that need to be dealt with. Post-covid, most people don’t work at the same time and one cannot expect one person to fix all the bugs they spot. JIRA  is a great project management website that can be tailored to your needs and is used to track issues, plan projects and promote team collaboration. JIRA supports  Agile development  methodology and support features such as Agile Poker, Sprint cycles and much more. This tool shines in streamlining the development process and improves team communication. 10. Espresso Last but not least, it is important to write tests for your application. JUnit and Mockito are great  JVM libraries  to use to unit test and mock your code. Android development requires UI Tests too to make sure that the UI is as intended.  Espresso is the most popular library for writing UI tests for your application . There are counterparts available for testing Compose applications, which are evidently better and easier to work with. Conclusion It is important to have the best tools for a successful Android development career.  Over my time as an Android developer, these tools changed and more tools were developed which enhanced the previous tools.  5 years from writing these articles, there would be another set of tools that are best for you. As a result, it is necessary to have an open mind regarding new developments and test them as they get increasingly popular.

11. Android  began in 2003 as a project of the American technology company Android Inc., to develop an operating system for digital cameras . In 2004 the project changed to become an operating system for smartphones. Android Inc., was bought by the American search engine company Google Inc., in 2005. History of Android Last Updated : 03 Jun, 2024 Android devices form a very essential part of a huge section of mobile phone users in today’s world. With the global turmoil in the COVID-19 eras, the population has now entered a digital sphere. Android is the most used OS in smartphones during these days of transformation. But when did something like an android take birth in the first place and how did it decide its journey of growth? We did not know earlier than mother planet was to go on a social distancing strike in 2020, so how were we still prepared? Let’s answer all these questions right here! When did it all start? The story of Android dates back to 2003 when  Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears, and Chris   White  co-founded a start-up  Android Inc.  in  Palo Alto, California . However, the company was later faced with the insufficiency of funds which brought Google into the picture. Google could sense the potential the product carried within and sealed a deal worth $50 Million to acquire Android in 2005. All the four Co-founders soon moved to the  Googleplex  to continue to develop the OS further under their new owners. The first public Android Beta Version 1.0 was finally published on  5th November 2007 .