The Best Way To Develop Android Apps: The Ultimate Guide To Becoming A Successful Developer

No other digital platform on the market today can compete with the success of Android. With over 1 billion active devices and over 1 million new apps being released each month, Android is the most powerful mobile ecosystem in the world. Yet, despite the incredible number of people using Android apps and the success of the platform, not enough developers are producing quality apps.

The Android Ecosystem

When most people think about apps, they think about Apple and iOS. People often see the developers from these platforms as super-talented individuals that know a great deal about how to make apps, but on Android the competition is fierce. As the creator of the XDA Developer Forums, people often ask me if I consider making apps to be a skill that only the most talented developers can attain. My answer is a bit more complex than that: yes, you do need a great deal of skill to make the best Android apps. However, even if you aren't a pro developer, you can learn to become a better Android app developer in a relatively short amount of time.

What is a Developer?

There is a distinction between developers and developers. Developers are folks who program Android apps. Developers have skill sets in areas such as UX and UX design, data architecture and systems programming, as well as coding for Android. However, as great as developers are, not everyone can become one. What I like to do is encourage developers to see the value of becoming part of a team working with other developers to achieve the same goals. In turn, you are able to help others achieve the same goals. For those that want to work alone, I’ll outline the best Android development courses, books, conferences and how to resources on the market today.

How to become a Successful Developer

In this article, we’ll lay out the foundation for becoming a successful Android developer. As this article contains over 11,000 words, we highly recommend you read it in its entirety, as well as any of our other free resources like the Android eBook and Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) API Guide. Android Basics: Creating a New App Creating a new Android app is as easy as adding a new manifest file and running the Android build command, or you can use one of the many tools available online. For the sake of this article, we’ll be working in the emulator with just the intent of adding a manifest file. Creating a New Android Manifest File First, click on the Play Store icon on the homescreen and select Add New App. Then, select New Manifest File… and select the AndroidManifest.

Tools for Android Development

1. The Xamarin tool suite Xamarin is a toolset used to develop cross-platform mobile apps. It’s most commonly used in the form of Xamarin Studio, but that’s not the only way to get started. There’s also the native Eclipse or IntelliJ platforms. If you’re looking for a really complete development environment that gives you access to all the tools needed for Android development, consider getting Xamarin Development Studio. 2. Android Studio Android Studio is the name of Google’s development environment for Android. It’s designed to make Android development as seamless as possible and gives developers access to Google’s products, such as Google Play. 3. Apktool Apktool is a cross-platform tool that can be used to develop Android applications using existing sources or from scratch.

Coding for Android Apps

Whether you want to launch your app on the Google Play store or on the iOS App Store, developing an app for Android is a completely different animal from making a mobile app for iOS or Windows. Most Android apps are built using Google’s native SDK, and developers can target devices running older versions of Android or newer versions of Android. This means that Android development is completely different from developing for iOS or Windows. Instead of using C++, Java, or any other programming language that is built for the modern Windows or Mac OS, you’ll be coding for the more popular Android mobile platform. Android development is unique because it is designed to be simple. This is because Google wants all apps to work on a wide variety of devices.

Testing and Publishing Android Apps

As you’re probably already aware, it’s imperative that you conduct thorough testing for each and every aspect of your app. Otherwise, you’ll run the risk of having your app fail and your customers demanding a refund. You’ll also end up spending an inordinate amount of time debugging a single bug. First, make sure you have a properly-configured Android development environment set up. For the purpose of this guide, I recommend you use Xamarin.iOS. These are fairly well-known platforms in the developer world. The best way to learn how to develop Android apps is to use them. These platforms offer you the best flexibility and the easiest way to test your apps and determine what changes need to be made. You’ll want to create a list of all the various platforms that your app could run on.

Conclusion

Developers today want their apps to perform as well on any device as they do on their desktop computers. They also want their apps to be seamlessly optimized for smartphones and tablets, which means developers need to think differently about their app development and prototyping processes. Developers who aren’t looking to optimize their apps and make the most of the latest advancements in their industry need to examine the opportunities available through Android, as well as the challenges and roadblocks that might exist in developing Android applications.