What is android application developer

Mobile Application Development

What is mobile application development?

Mobile application development is the process to making software for smartphones and digital assistants, most commonly for Android and iOS. The software can be preinstalled on the device, downloaded from a mobile app store or accessed through a mobile web browser. The programming and markup languages used for this kind of software development include Java, Swift, C# and HTML5.

Mobile app development is rapidly growing. From retail, telecommunications and e-commerce to insurance, healthcare and government, organizations across industries must meet user expectations for real-time, convenient ways to conduct transactions and access information. Today, mobile devices—and the mobile applications that unlock their value—are the most popular way for people and businesses to connect to the internet. To stay relevant, responsive and successful, organizations need to develop the mobile applications that their customers, partners and employees demand.

Yet mobile application development might seem daunting. Once you’ve selected the OS platform or platforms, you need to overcome the limitations of mobile devices and usher your app all the way past the potential hurdles of distribution. Fortunately, by following a few basic guidelines and best practices, you can streamline your application development journey.

To learn more about the specifics of mobile application development on either platform, read our articles on iOS app development and Android app development.

Choose a platform

Many independent application development teams choose to build their apps for Android first. Why? The vast majority—around 70 percent—of smartphones run Android, and the Google Play Store has fewer restrictions than the Apple App Store. On the other hand, mobile applications developed for iOS have far fewer devices that need support, making optimization simpler. And user retention is typically higher for iOS applications.

Depending on the intended use case and target audience for the mobile application you are developing, you might have other considerations. For example, if you’re designing an app for your organization’s employees, you’ll need to support the platforms they use, which may mean developing cross-platform apps that work for both Android and iOS. Or if you’re building a mobile application for your customers and you know the majority of them use iPhones, then developing iOS applications should be a top priority. Additional considerations when developing your mobile applications include monetization strategies and anticipated user behavior, which can be influenced by geographical and cultural factors.

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Develop for both Android and iOS: Native apps or hybrid apps?

Let’s say you need to do mobile application development for both the Android operating system and iOS. What is the best software development approach?

You could develop two native applications. Taking advantage of native APIs and OS-specific programming languages can help you build a powerful app. Most enterprise apps, especially ones that require substantial API traffic, benefit from native development.

If you decide to develop native applications one at a time, you’ll likely want to begin with Android—for some of the same reasons that independent app developers often focus on Android. You’ll probably have better luck developing the full application as an MVP on Android and then converting and optimizing it to iOS after release.

You will still need to debug and rewrite the code for the native language and redesign the front-end user interface, because the two operating systems function very differently, making cross-platform operation impossible.

So why not start completely from scratch? While you can’t simply translate the code into a new programming language, much of the back end can be replicated cross-platform. Frameworks, libraries and third-party extensions often function identically in both environments, allowing you to avoid costly reworking. You can also use a prebuilt mobile cloud service, such as IBM Mobile Foundation, to manage the web back end.

Another option is to go hybrid, taking a write-once-run-anywhere approach. Hybrid apps use a single codebase that can function on either platform. They’re typically coded in a programming language that’s universally recognized, such as Java, JavaScript, HTML or CSS. Because you’re denied access to the operating system’s native APIs, hybrid mobile application development works best for simple web applications—three- or four-page mobile applications with limited functionality.

Think light: Building for a mobile platform

Whether you choose native or hybrid mobile application development, one of the first hurdles you’ll need to overcome is the relatively limited resources on mobile devices. Your target mobile device will have much less processing power and memory than desktop computers or enterprise servers. These constraints might seem like a significant challenge, especially if you’re more familiar with the comparatively boundless resources for conventional software development for web apps.

Limited mobile platform resources mean you need to adjust your goals for your app design.

Throughout the mobile application development process, developers must work to ensure that their mobile app is less resource intensive than a typical desktop application.

Delivering a great user experience is vital. That starts with understanding that your user interface for a mobile app should be simpler than a desktop application interface. By creating a straightforward UX design that is focused on critical functions, you can provide a better user experience while consuming fewer resources.

Your mobile app interface should be designed for touch. Mobile users must be able to navigate your app easily and provide input without excessive typing.

Fortunately, these requirements for efficient, simple touch-based apps map well to user expectations. Mobile users generally want to accomplish tasks simply, with just a few taps. They want apps that are above all fast, convenient and easy to use on their mobile devices.

Offload processing to the cloud

What if your mobile application requires more processing than a typical mobile platform can support? Consider offloading that processing to the cloud.

Through the judicious use of APIs, you can connect your app to cloud-based services and databases to provide advanced functionality without slowing your application or straining the device it is running on. You can even offload data storage and caching to a cloud-based server, leaving very little data on the device.

Extend your app with advanced cloud services

The cloud can offer additional advantages beyond performance boosts. Connect your mobile application to powerful cloud services to add features and improve usability. Employ APIs to integrate new features, such as advanced cloud-based services that can help you enhance your mobile apps. These include push notifications, IBM Watson®-powered AI analytics, Internet of Things (IoT) smart device integration and more.

Join a developer program

Neither Android nor iOS is a completely open environment. Before your application can be officially distributed, you’ll need to join the appropriate developer program.

The Android mobile application development program lets you use your existing Google account to create a developer account, pay the USD 25 fee and submit your application. Google Play, the official Android store, does have quality standards that must be met prior to publication, but they’re more guidelines than actual rules. As part of your app development process, you can also distribute your applications outside the Google Play store and allow users to directly download and install them.

By contrast, the Apple mobile application development program sets a high barrier to entry. You need to pay a program fee of USD 99 per year and adhere to high standards. Once you’re a member of the program, you get early access to beta versions of the operating systems and proprietary frameworks or APIs. Meeting the high standards for the App Store also signifies to the world that you’ve developed a high-quality app.

Mobile application development and IBM Cloud

Mobile application development is necessary for most enterprises. When you build your application with both operating systems in mind, try to make judicious use of APIs and understand the specifics of the required developer programs. That approach will help you deliver to your users an app that’s flexible, convenient and lightweight—the perfect way to serve information or services—along with an excellent user experience.

To help mobile app developers, IBM Cloud offers a variety of solutions, including IBM Cloud App ID, which allows you to add authentication and back-end security, and IBM Push Notifications, which lets you send personalized real-time messages to mobile applications.

To learn more about the specifics of mobile application development on either platform, read our articles on iOS app development and Android app development.

To help you explore mobile application development, IBM offers a simple tutorial on building a voice-enabled Android-based chatbot.

Learn about the features and capabilities of the IBM Mobile Foundation, in addition to IBM Push Notifications through the Introduction to Mobile Foundation course in the IBM Cloud Professional Developer curriculum.

If you are ready to start using IBM Cloud today, sign up here.

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Top 5 Android App Development Fundamentals for Beginners

Table of Contents

The cool features that come along with apps are what draw the interests of users. Apps make phones “smart” and through their benefits, apps have drastically transformed how we function today. Adept programmers are getting busy, designing, and building apps of their own and embedding them with favorable features. In this article we will cover the top 5 Android App development fundamentals that you should know before you begin programming an Android application:

1. Master the language
2. Familiarity with the right application development tools and environment
3. Knowledge of the application components
4. Awareness over fragmentations, android application, threads, loaders, and tasks
5. Choosing the right tools.

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Android App Development Fundamentals

1. MasterВ the Language

Java and XML are the two main programming languages used in Android App development. Knowledge and mastery over these programming languages are, therefore, prerequisites to developing an Android app. Some of the fundamentals of the Java programming language include:

• Packages
• Objects & classes
• Inheritance & interfaces
• Strings & numbers, generics,
• Collections
• Concurrency

Proper understanding of Java and XML will help you build/develop a more robust and elegant android app.

2. Familiarity with the Right Application Development Tools and Environment

If you are stepping into Android App development, it is very important that you familiarize yourself with the build automation tools as well as the integrated development environment before you start developing your app. You can use Android app studio IDE or Eclipse for the tools; they will help you learn the basics and many other things that will help improve your code. You can learn Apache Maven, Apache Ant, and Gradle as they provide a powerful set of tools to help in managing your builds.
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It is also important that you familiarize yourself with source control tools and concepts. Learn git and then create a git-source repository (by creating an account on Bitbucket or GitHub). To understand the basic concepts and terms of how the platform operates, you can use the Git Pocket Guide.

3. Knowledge of the Application Components

Application components are the essential building blocks of Android app development. Each of the components is a different point by which the system can enter your app. Although each one of them exists as its own entity and plays a specific role, there are some which depend on each other, and not all of them are actual entry points.

There are five different types of app components each serving a distinct purpose with a distinct life cycle which defines how it is created and destroyed. They include:

Activities:

Services:

Content providers:

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Broadcast receivers:

Activating components:

4. Awareness over Fragmentations, Android Application, Threads, Loaders, and Tasks

Android is a fragmented market with many different devices and operating system versions. Note that, if your device supports more devices and/or versions it will definitely require more maintenance and testing as well as the related costs. The vice-versa is also true. You also require appropriate fonts, assets, and layouts that will help in ensuring that the best possible experiences in the various screen characteristics are given. You should also consider the array of android supported sensors or UI facilities. All android apps have an application class, one or more activities, and one or more fragments.

Sometimes, you may have services for background tasks that should run continuously but other times you may not. If you want to deliver a great and smooth user interface, always ensure that the thread is never blocked. Therefore, the long operations (computations, I/O, network, etc.) should all be run asynchronously in the background (mainly on a different thread of execution). This is why it is important to learn the Java language concurrency facilities.

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5. Making the Right Choice over Needed Tools

The simple tools that you need for Android app development are just a Mac or Windows PC, any type of Linux, and Eclipse, the ADT Plugin, and the Android SDK—all of which are free. You can go through the installation guide on Google to learn how to set up your development environment; it provides documentation of everything needed. Android has some unique parameters that you should consider when writing an Android app. Some of them include:

• Performance and responsiveness: You should always respond to user input within five seconds otherwise the operating system will ANR you. (ANR-application not responding – the only option that you will have is to force close your app.)
• Lags of more than 100ms will be noticed by the users: As mentioned above, the UI thread should never be blocked because it is only one.
• Limited resources: Wake-locks (the mechanism that forces the device to do a certain thing despite the recommendation to put the device to sleep by the battery manager) should be used sparingly. Do not unnecessarily poll hardware (e.g. GPS or accelerometer) because it will quickly run down the battery.

Check out our video that takes you through the introduction to Android Application Development to get a taste of what the course entails.

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Conclusion

77% of Americans today own a smartphone, and apps are where the majority of their time is spent. In fact, in 2017, 197 billion apps were downloaded, ensuring that a career as an Android App Developer is a stable one with lots of opportunities for growth. When it comes to Android App development, there’s a lot to learn, so consider getting started with Simplilearn’s Google-authorized Certified Android App Developer training course. You’ll learn to master Android fundamentals along with the other skills you need with hands-on experience, developing six trending applications during the course. The course is aligned with the Associate Android Developer (AAD) Exam conducted by Google. Happy app-developing!

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About the Author

Eshna writes on PMP, PRINCE2, ITIL, ITSM, & Ethical Hacking. She has done her Masters in Journalism and Mass Communication and is a Gold Medalist in the same. A voracious reader, she has penned several articles in leading national newspapers like TOI, HT, and The Telegraph. She loves travelling and photography.

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