Mobile Applications continue to grow in leaps and bounds, and that’s no surprise considering how many people have access to cell phones. Google play store boasts of having over a million applications and given the popularity of phones, no one would be surprised if the android market continued to triple over the next few years. If you’re an Android App Developer, you probably are wondering how you can be on the very edge of technology, and the answer is simple: continuing education.
Being an App developer, it’s of utmost importance that you understand the new age tools, how to use them as well the strategies and techniques required. Fortunately for you, we cover all those strategies here and you’ll be able to stay relevant while polishing your career.
Moving onto the next segment of our discussion, why should you consider taking upskilling as an Android App Developer? The answer is simple and easily understandable. The ability to quick learn as well as adapt to new features or tools is nothing short of vital for someone in the android development field. In fact, being an Android Developer, you’d need to incorporate these new features into your work:
- Kotlin
- Jetpack Compose
- Firebase
As a developer, it’s only understandable that you’d want to aim and reach for higher goals and positions, maybe even become a Mobile App Architect, and with these skills, those roles won’t be too far into reach.
Competitive Advantage
An acute awareness of the trade’s developments guarantees that you will be set apart from competitors in the job market. There is no question that even more talented mobile app developers are needed because of the increased competition among companies.
Android App Market Development
The adoption of fifth generation telecommunications technology, the broadening of the Internet of Things, wearable gadgets, as well as new UI/UX are predicted to further develop the Android market. The market trends will benefit you provided you are able to adapt.
Important Tools to Be an Excellent Android App Developer
1. Learn Kotlin Programming Languages
As of today, only App Development through Android is carried out without knowing any other languages than English because Kotlin is now widely used as the main official language. Yes, Kotlin is considered a major improvement over java, Venturing into mobile development at Java was hard enough but since Java is no longer a requirement, Kotlin is a complete game changer.
What you need to know about Kotlin:
- Null Safety: Protect against null pointer exceptions using built-in null safety features in Kotlin.
- Extension Functions: Add new features to current classes while preserving their original code.
- Coroutines: For asynchronous programming more responsive apps.
Resources Available:
- Kotlin Official Documentation
- Jetbrains Kotlin Courses
2. Jetpack
As per my analysis, every android development course has recommended Jetpack. A set of libraries, tools, and architectural guidance known as Jetpack aids in the fast and effective development of Android applications. If you’re looking for room’s navigational jitter, data storage, processing, or UI plugins, the Jetpack libraries have got you sorted.
You can focus on the following main libraries:
- Room:Â Local database – Store data offline.
- LiveData & ViewModel:Â UI management. – Manage data that’s related to the user interface following the lifecycle of the application.
- Navigation component:Â Enhancement over the fragment manager – A better way to incorporate navigation in apps.
- WorkManager:Â Executes tasks that should be run even if the app is closed – Allows for the scheduling of work that needs to be completed whenever the app is running.
Resources Available:
- Jetpack Documentation
- Android Developers YouTube Channel
3. Jetpack Compose
An android developer must learn Jetpack Compose as the tool allows for fully detailing UI elements with a Kotlin code making the use of XML layouts obsolete. Workshop After Jetpack Compose to compose The Polish trait developers won’t have to worry about their UI elements anymore.
- Composables:Â Function – The components that make up the layout in a UI application.
- State management:Â Refers to the management of UI states with the use of Compose – Managing the UI elements that are present on the page using a state.
- Theming & Styling:Â What you want your app to look and feel like – Adjusting the Theme that the application uses.
Resources provided:
- Jetpack Compose Documentation
- Compose Pathway
4. Firebase for Android Development
For any serious app development toolbox, Firebase is a must. The app gives real time databases, authentication, cloud storage, and push notifications.
Core Features Of Firebase:
- The user sign-ups can be handled seamlessly with the help of firebase authentication.
- Push notifications can be sent to the users with the help of firebase cloud messaging.
- Cloud Firestore: The database allows for the flexible storing and syncing of information.
Resources:
- Google Firebase Docs
- Channel YouTube such as Firebase
5. Understand The Android Software Architecture Design Components
Essential concepts include MVVM, MVP, Clean Architecture that helps structure your android mobile application into a scalable and maintainable fashion.
The MVVM model is widely adopted together with the Android development Jetpack tools like Compose and LiveData, to assist you in handling UI related data in an appropriate timing of its lifecycle.
Repository Pattern: It is a design pattern that defines an abstraction over data access, so the data becomes easily manageable to use.
Resources:
- Android Architecture documentation by Google
6. Extra Skills In UI/UX Designing
Application created should consider good user interface and experience since these are important in differentiating one application from another. Learn to use Android UI Design modern principles, material design components and animations to build appealing and interactive applications.
Important Tools
- MotionLayout:Â This is a type of layout used when complex animations are being developed gradient.
- ConstraintLayout:Â This is a type of UI layout manager which assists in building UI which is responsive.
Resources:
- Material design guidelines
- Android UI patterns
7. Testing and Debugging
In order to ensure that android applications prove to be stable and perform optimally, it is important to write tests for them. Learn to incorporate junit and espresso and mockito in your codes in order to test them and debug the codes as well.
Key Testing Skills:
- Unit Testing: Which is done on one building block.
- Automated testing for app UI is referred as UI testing, while the integration testing is related with verifying the seamless working of the different portions of the app together.
The enclosed link will provide you more details on Android Testing Documentation along with the guides on Testing in Android.
CI/CD is crucial in today’s app development environment as it facilitates in automating the process of build and deployment of the app. Consequently, this eliminates errors and enhances the quality of the app.
Tools to learn include, automation tools such as GitHub Actions, Jenkins or CircleCI while also exploring Fastlane