Android Development
We Help You Upgrade, Modernize, and Develop With Android
Intertech specializes in helping businesses like yours develop software using the most current and cutting-edge Android technologies.
Android Studio (Official IDE)
Android Studio is the official integrated development environment (IDE) for Android app development, created and maintained by Google. It is built on JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA and offers a comprehensive set of tools tailored for building Android applications.
IntelliJ IDEA
IntelliJ IDEA is a powerful IDE by JetBrains, widely used for Java development and fully capable of supporting Android development. It offers a similar experience to Android Studio, especially since Android Studio itself is based on IntelliJ.
Visual Studio with Xamarin
Xamarin is a cross-platform development framework that allows developers to write Android apps using C# and .NET in Visual Studio. Xamarin provides native Android performance while allowing for code-sharing between Android, iOS, and Windows apps.
Flutter with Android SDK
Flutter is a UI toolkit developed by Google for building natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase. It uses Dart as its programming language and can be used to build Android apps as part of a cross-platform strategy.
Cross-Platform Web-Based IDEs
Several cloud-based Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) allow for Android development without requiring a powerful local machine. These include platforms like Codeanywhere or Gitpod.
Command-Line Tools
Experienced developers can build Android apps entirely using command-line tools without relying on a full IDE. The Android SDK provides command-line tools such as adb (Android Debug Bridge) and sdkmanager for managing the development environment.
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What Is Android Technology
Android is an open-source operating system developed by Google, primarily designed for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.
Based on the Linux kernel, Android is the world’s most popular operating system for mobile devices, powering billions of smartphones and tablets globally.
In addition, Android comes with a suite of development tools, primarily centered around Android Studio, its official integrated development environment (IDE), and provides developers with a platform to create a wide range of applications—everything from simple utility apps to complex, immersive experiences like games, augmented reality (AR) apps, and much more.
What is Android Used For?
Android is a versatile operating system used for many purposes. We've listed some below, including:
- Mobile Applications: Android is predominantly used for building mobile apps for smartphones and tablets. With Android’s market dominance, businesses target Android users to deliver various apps, such as social media, e-commerce, banking, entertainment, productivity, and gaming.
- Wearables: Android powers Wear OS, which is designed for smartwatches and other wearables. Developers can create apps that work seamlessly on both phones and wearable devices, offering users more functionality, like fitness tracking and notifications.
- Automotive: Android Auto is used to enhance in-car infotainment systems, providing drivers with navigation, music, and hands-free communication. Additionally, Android Automotive OS is a full-stack platform for cars, enabling developers to build in-vehicle apps.
- Smart TVs and Set-Top Boxes: Android TV brings Android capabilities to televisions, allowing users to access streaming services, games, and other content directly from their TVs.
- IoT Devices: Android can be used in Internet of Things (IoT) devices, making it a popular choice for smart appliances, home automation systems, and more.
- Tablets and Large-Screen Devices: Android is designed to work across a variety of screen sizes, making it a flexible choice for developers creating apps for tablets or even foldable devices.
- Embedded Systems: Android is also used for custom embedded systems, from digital signage to healthcare equipment, due to its versatility and broad hardware compatibility.
Benefits of Android Technology
Android offers several advantages when compared to other mobile operating systems like iOS, or other mobile platforms:
- Open Source Flexibility: One of Android’s biggest advantages is its open-source nature. Developers and hardware manufacturers can modify the Android operating system to suit their specific needs, leading to a variety of custom Android devices, from phones to IoT solutions.
- Broad Device Compatibility: Android runs on a wide range of devices, from low-end budget smartphones to high-end flagship models. This flexibility allows businesses to reach a global audience, including users in emerging markets, at different price points.
- Customization: Android provides more customization options for both users and developers than other platforms. Developers can design custom user interfaces, implement unique features, and provide extensive personalization options to end-users.
- Wider App Market Reach: The Google Play Store, where Android apps are distributed, is available in more countries than Apple's App Store, allowing developers to access a larger and more diverse audience. Additionally, developers can publish apps on third-party app stores, further expanding their reach.
- Multitasking and Background Processing: Android is designed with true multitasking capabilities. It supports background services, allowing apps to continue functioning or syncing data while not in the foreground, something that is more restricted on other platforms like iOS.
- Cost-Effective Development: For businesses, developing an Android app can be more cost-effective, especially when targeting low-income regions where Android devices are more popular due to their affordability.
- Integration with Google Services: Android’s native integration with Google services such as Gmail, Maps, YouTube, and Google Assistant makes it a convenient platform for businesses that rely on Google’s ecosystem. Developers can also leverage Google APIs for location services, machine learning, and cloud storage.
- Cross-Platform Tools: Android supports Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile (KMM), enabling developers to share code between Android and iOS, which reduces development time and effort when building apps for both platforms.
When to Use Android Technology
Android is a very powerful technology that has the backing of Google, so you know it will always be supported at the highest level. For this reason, you should consider using it for purposes that include:
- Large and Diverse Target Audience: If your target audience includes a broad spectrum of users in different regions or income brackets, Android is a strong choice due to its widespread use, especially in regions where Android has significant market share, such as Asia, Africa, and South America.
- Custom Hardware or Embedded Systems: For companies creating custom hardware (e.g., smart home devices or automotive systems), Android offers a flexible platform that can be tailored to work on a wide range of devices.
- Budget Considerations: For startups or businesses with smaller budgets, Android development can be more cost-effective, particularly because there are fewer hardware restrictions, and more affordable devices are available for testing.
- Greater Flexibility: If you need more control over the user experience, such as customizing the interface, implementing deep system integrations, or allowing multitasking features, Android is a superior option.
- Google Ecosystem Integration: If your business relies heavily on Google services like Maps, Gmail, and Google Assistant, Android provides a seamless way to integrate these features into your application.
Why Use Android
Android's global market share is the highest among mobile operating systems, meaning that developing for Android gives you access to billions of potential users, but that is not the only reason. Other reasons to consider include:
- Fast Development with Modern Tools: Android’s support for modern development frameworks such as Jetpack Compose, Kotlin, and Firebase accelerates the development process while ensuring better performance and user experiences.
- Support for Emerging Technologies: Android is constantly evolving with support for emerging technologies like 5G, Edge Computing, Augmented Reality (AR), and Artificial Intelligence (AI), allowing developers to create innovative and cutting-edge applications.
- Diverse Hardware: With Android’s ability to run on various hardware devices, from smartphones to wearables to smart TVs, businesses can use the same development platform to create apps for multiple devices, ensuring a consistent user experience across form factors.
- Open Ecosystem: The ability to distribute apps through multiple app stores beyond Google Play gives developers more flexibility and control over how and where they sell their apps.
Android is a versatile, powerful, and open platform that caters to a wide range of needs, from consumer mobile apps to specialized IoT devices. Its ability to reach a vast, diverse audience, along with its flexibility and cost-effectiveness, makes it an ideal choice for many types of projects. Whether you are developing a consumer-facing mobile app or building custom embedded systems, Android technology offers robust tools and opportunities that few other platforms can match. For businesses looking to innovate while staying cost-efficient, Android remains an essential technology.
The Order for Modernizing or Building a New Android Application That We Recommend
When modernizing or building a new Android application, the our consulting and your development process should follow a structured and logical order that considers the various technical components and best practices of Android development. Below is the order of consultation, covering adapters, fragments, debugging, threading, testing, and other critical aspects of Android development that we recommend.
Project Planning and Requirement Gathering
The first step involves defining the app's purpose and key functionalities while aligning them with business objectives. It's crucial to identify the target audience, considering device types, Android versions, and screen sizes (smartphones, tablets, and wearables) to ensure the app meets user expectations. If you need help with this, let us know.
Development Environment Setup
The next step in the process involves choosing the appropriate development tools such as Android Studio or alternatives like IntelliJ IDEA, setting up the Android SDK, and preparing emulators or real devices for testing. Additionally, it includes integrating a version control system like Git to manage code changes and facilitate collaboration among developers.
UI/UX Design, Fragments, and Prototyping
One of the most important steps is determining usability. If it is not intuitive you may be wasting your time, During this phase, design the app’s user interface based on Material Design principles, ensuring a responsive and intuitive experience. This is where fragments come in. Utilize fragments to manage reusable sections of UI, particularly for supporting multiple screen sizes, and plan how fragments will handle activity lifecycle changes.
Data: Binding and Adapter Setup
When planning and working with the data layer, the focus is on determining how data will be presented, utilizing appropriate adapters like RecyclerView.Adapter or ArrayAdapter for different data types and Data Binding or View Binding to streamline the connection between the data layer and UI components. This will help reduce boilerplate code and ensure a clean architecture.
Threading & Fragment Implementation
When we begin the development process, we'll start by implementing core app functionality, focusing on handling long-running tasks using threading mechanisms like Kotlin Coroutines, Thread, AsyncTask (deprecated), or WorkManager for background tasks. we'll also ensure smooth performance by avoiding blocking the main UI thread. In addition, Fragments are integrated to handle the UI efficiently, ensuring smooth communication with parent activities and managing lifecycle events.
Networking, APIs, and Data Persistence
Implementing network calls using libraries like Retrofit or Volley to retrieve and post data to APIs ensures the app handles API failures and offline modes gracefully. As to data persistence, it's important to set up local data storage solutions such as SQLite or Room Database for handling offline data access and storage. These are the items that will be addresses during this stage.
Debugging and Performance Optimization
This debugging and optimization step involves using Android Studio's debugging tools like Logcat and Android Profiler to detect and resolve bugs, memory leaks, and performance issues. Additionally, memory and CPU optimization is done to ensure efficient app performance across devices without excessive resource consumption.
Security and Permissions
Security measures such as encryption for sensitive data, secure API communication, and user authentication are implemented to protect the app. Proper permission management is also applied, adhering to Android’s permission model to request only necessary permissions and provide clarity to users.
Testing and Quality Assurance
Automated unit tests are written using JUnit or Robolectric to verify individual components, while UI tests are automated using Espresso or UIAutomator to ensure consistent functionality across devices. Performance and load testing is also conducted to ensure the app handles real-world scenarios effectively.
Pre-launch Debugging and Final Checks
Prior to deployment, a final round of debugging will help catch edge cases and help ensure the app’s compatibility across different devices and Android versions. In addition, user Acceptance Testing (UAT) is conducted with stakeholders to validate that the app meets the functional and business requirements before launch.
Deployment and Post-launch Support
You may have multiple uses for the application, but if presenting to the world, we'll help you prepare the app for Google Play Store submission by packaging it as an APK or AAB, ensuring compliance with store guidelines. After launch, monitoring tools like Firebase Crashlytics are used to track performance, and post-launch maintenance is planned to address any issues and implement future updates based on user feedback.
In summary, consulting on modernizing or building a new Android application follows a clear process, beginning with planning and environment setup, followed by UI/UX design, adapter configuration, development, threading, debugging, testing, and finally deployment. Each step must be carefully considered to ensure a high-quality and performant application. Our team of experts can help your team of experts and leave you stronger than you've ever been.
Optional Android Development Environments
When starting an Android development project, choosing the right development environment is crucial. There are several tools and platforms available that provide the necessary functionalities for building Android apps. While Android Studio is the official IDE for Android development, other optional environments are available depending on the needs of the project, such as cross-platform frameworks or alternative IDEs.
Android Studio (Official IDE)
Android Studio is the official integrated development environment (IDE) for Android app development, created and maintained by Google. It is built on JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA and offers a comprehensive set of tools tailored for building Android applications. Some of the features that Android Studio provide, include:
- Code Editor: Android Studio provides a powerful code editor that supports Java and Kotlin (the official languages for Android development), along with XML for UI design.
- Emulator: An Android Virtual Device (AVD) emulator allows developers to simulate different Android devices and OS versions to test their apps.
- Gradle Build System: A flexible build system that automates tasks like compiling code, managing dependencies, and generating APK or AAB files.
- Layout Editor: A visual layout editor to design and preview app interfaces.
- Real-Time Profiler: Tools for tracking CPU, memory, and network usage.
- Built-in Support for GitHub and Version Control: Easy integration with version control systems like Git for collaborative development.
IntelliJ IDEA
IntelliJ IDEA is a powerful IDE by JetBrains, widely used for Java development and fully capable of supporting Android development. It offers a similar experience to Android Studio, especially since Android Studio itself is based on IntelliJ. A few features of IntelliJ to note, include:
- Java and Kotlin Support: Full support for Android’s official programming languages.
- Plugin for Android Development: IntelliJ IDEA can be extended with Android development features by installing the Android plugin, which enables UI design tools, emulators, and more.
- Cross-Language Refactoring: Tools for refactoring and navigating between multiple programming languages like Java, Kotlin, and XML.
IntelliJ IDEA is a good alternative for developers who prefer a more general-purpose IDE and don’t need some of the specific Android Studio features like built-in profiling or layout design tools.
Visual Studio with Xamarin
Xamarin is a cross-platform development framework that allows developers to write Android apps using C# and .NET in Visual Studio. Xamarin provides native Android performance while allowing for code-sharing between Android, iOS, and Windows apps. Reasons to consider VS with Xamarin, include:
- C# Language Support: Write Android apps using C#, providing developers familiar with .NET an alternative to Java or Kotlin.
- Cross-Platform Code Sharing: Code can be shared across multiple platforms (Android, iOS, Windows) while using native UI components.
- Xamarin Android SDK: Xamarin provides full access to the Android SDK and native APIs.
- Hot Reload: Real-time preview of UI changes without restarting the app.
- Xamarin.Forms: A UI toolkit to build native UIs for multiple platforms from a single codebase.
Xamarin is an excellent choice for developers or teams already familiar with C# and .NET who want to develop Android apps while sharing code across multiple platforms.
Flutter with Android SDK
Flutter is a UI toolkit developed by Google for building natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase. It uses Dart as its programming language and can be used to build Android apps as part of a cross-platform strategy. Some of the features associated with Flutter, include:
- Single Codebase for Multiple Platforms: Write one codebase that runs on Android, iOS, web, and desktop
- Customizable Widgets: Flutter provides a rich set of customizable UI widgets that follow Android and iOS design guidelines.
- Hot Reload: Instant feedback when making changes to the UI or code.
- Performance: Near-native performance with Flutter’s use of its rendering engine.
You may want to use Flutter when developing cross-platform apps that require a single codebase for Android, iOS, web, and desktop platforms. It’s also ideal for building highly customizable UIs with performance close to native apps.
Cross-Platform Web-Based IDEs
Several cloud-based Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) allow for Android development without requiring a powerful local machine. These include platforms like Codeanywhere or Gitpod and provide features like:
- No Local Setup Required: Cloud-based environments can be set up quickly without requiring complex installations.
- Code from Anywhere: Developers can work on Android projects from any device with a browser, including lower-powered machines.
- Collaborative Development: Many cloud-based IDEs include collaboration features for teams working together on projects.
Use web-based IDEs when developers need lightweight environments or collaborative coding environments, or when local machines are underpowered.
Command-Line Tools for Advanced Users
Finally, experienced developers can build Android apps entirely using command-line tools without relying on a full IDE. The Android SDK provides command-line tools such as adb (Android Debug Bridge) and sdkmanager for managing the development environment. Some of the benefits of command-line tools, include:
- No IDE Overhead: Lightweight setup with only necessary tools.
- Direct Access to Build Tools: Use Gradle and other Android tools directly from the terminal.
- Flexibility for Automation: Ideal for continuous integration (CI) environments where automation of builds and testing is needed.
Command-line tools are best suited for developers working on large automated systems or those who prefer a minimal setup without an IDE’s overhead.
Choosing the right development environment for Android development depends on the needs and preferences of the team and the project’s goals. Android Studio is the go-to IDE for most Android projects due to its robust tools tailored for Android development. However, alternatives like IntelliJ IDEA, Visual Studio with Xamarin, and Flutter offer additional flexibility, especially when developing cross-platform apps or leveraging specific languages like C# or Dart.
Key Milestones and Legacy Technologies in Android Development
In the evolving landscape of Android development, certain terms and technologies such as KitKat, Nougat, AsyncTask, SOAP, and Root have played significant roles in shaping the Android ecosystem. Each of these has its own place in Android’s history, from foundational operating system versions to legacy programming patterns and device management techniques. Understanding these concepts is important not only for their historical relevance but also for the lessons they offer to modern Android development.
KitKat
Android KitKat (version 4.4) was a significant release that focused on optimizing Android for lower-end devices with limited hardware resources, making it more accessible to a wider range of users. It introduced features such as immersive mode, improved performance, and better memory management, and while it is now considered outdated, it laid the foundation for modern Android apps that target devices with varying capabilities.
Nougat
Android Nougat (versions 7.0 and 7.1) brought several key features, including split-screen multitasking, bundled notifications, and enhanced battery-saving modes like Doze. It introduced Vulkan API for improved graphics performance and Direct Boot for faster device start-up times, making it a critical update for performance, security, and user experience improvements.
AsyncTask
AsyncTask was a class in Android designed to handle background operations and update the UI without blocking the main thread. While it was widely used in earlier Android versions, it has been deprecated due to limitations in memory management and performance, with modern alternatives like Kotlin Coroutines and the WorkManager API offering more efficient ways to handle background tasks.
SOAP
SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is a legacy protocol used for web service communication in Android applications, though it has largely been replaced by RESTful APIs due to its complexity and slower performance. While SOAP is still supported in certain enterprise environments for backward compatibility, it is rarely used in modern Android development.
Root
Rooting refers to the process of gaining administrative privileges on an Android device, allowing users to bypass manufacturer restrictions and access deeper system functions. While rooting offers more control over the device, it also poses significant security risks and can void warranties, and as such, it is typically discouraged in mainstream Android development.
While many of these technologies and concepts have become less common in today's Android development practices, they laid the groundwork for the features and tools we rely on now. From the improvements in system performance seen in KitKat and Nougat, to the evolution away from AsyncTask and SOAP toward more modern solutions, these elements represent key stages in Android's growth. Rooting, though increasingly rare, highlights the ongoing balance between user control and security. As Android continues to advance, developers can appreciate how these components helped shape the robust platform we work with today.
Intertech Android Experts Help Where You Need It Most…
Core Stages
Results
Conclusion
Our senior Android consultants bring deep expertise and a comprehensive understanding of the technology, providing valuable guidance and support to your development teams. Whether your team is composed of full-time employees or offshore resources, having one of our senior consultants on board guarantees the success of your software modernization and development initiatives.
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