Android is one of the most popular operating systems in the world it’s mobile market share is 75.44% worldwide. The internet is full of blogs that provide you with valuable insights on how to build an app that will run on this OS.
Any application developed to be supported by the Android Apps Operating system using the android software development kit (SDK) on android studio is the process of android development. The open-source operating system designed by Google, especially for mobiles, is Android. Android OS has been developed using Linux Kernel. Because of the ability to be easily adjustable (as it’s open-source), most android developers have used different GUIs even when using the same basic operating system. The open-source code used for the development of android applications is Android Open Source Project (AOSP),
Any application for the android system can be easily created by installing the freely available SDK. These applications support any device which is built in android OS and written In Java. These run on Java Virtual Machines (JVM).
Android Apps has been the most best-selling OS since 2011. Android comes with different versions of it, and each comes with new features, distinct from all the old ones. The latest Android which hit the market is Android 13.
Android is an open-source operating system with the highest community and developer’s reach, the highest reason for increased marketing and inter-app integrations. Android developers move towards this field because of the reduced cost and resources and the highest success ratios built on the richest development environments. And features such as beautiful user interface, highest connectivity rates, storage, media support and messaging is the reason why Android serves as the biggest market in today’s technology world. It also has other features such as web browsing, multi-touch, multitasking, resizable widgets, android beam, Google cloud messaging (GCM) and multi-language.
Types of app Development
· Educational apps
· Lifestyle apps
· Social media apps
· Productivity apps
· Entertainment apps
· Game apps
Update for Android App developers at Google I/O
As Android App developers, we are all driven by building experiences that delight people worldwide. And with people depending on your apps more than ever, expectations are higher, and your jobs as developers aren’t getting easier. Today, at Google I/O, we covered a few ways that we’re trying to help out, whether it be through Android 13 – one of the biggest design changes ever, Jetpack, Jetpack Compose, Android Studio, and Kaitlin to help you build beautiful high-quality apps. We’re also helping to extend your apps wherever your users go, like through wearable and larger-screened devices. You can watch the full Developer Keynote, but here are a few highlights.
API Level:
As Android has different versions in the market, each having distinct features, the main asset is the Application Programming Interface (also known as API) Level which is the specific API framework identifier. Different versions of Android have different features and advancements.
Android Architecture for App development:
The Android architecture starts with the main user interface, which supports the front end of the android applications. These can include applications such as calculator, clock, Email and alarm etc.
The second layer of the android architecture is the android apps framework, which consists of the windows firewall, service providers, and various managers such as packages manager, activity manager, etc. The third layer consists of the Libraries and Android runtime, consisting of SQL, SSL, SQLite and Lib-c etc. The lowest layer of an OS system consists of the Kernel, which has all the Wi-Fi drivers, Bluetooth drivers, etc.
Android Apps Development Basics – Libraries:
The libraries are the basic tools for the development of android applications. Some of the libraries used in android apps development and their main features are:
· Android.app: The basic for all the android applications is this library which is the key that provides access to the model of the application.
· Android.content: This is the second most important library, which enables content access and the relationship between application components and the messages transferring between them.
· Android.database: The main database supported by the android is SQLite, and this library is used to connect the application to the database and access its data via the content providers.
· Android.opengl: This library is which allows graphics 3D rendering via the JAVA interface using a java development kit, also known as the JDK.
· Android.os: operating system services such as messages, inter-process communication, task allocation and memory management are provided to the android applications via this library.
· Android.text: The library supports text manipulation and enables the application to render the text graphics on the android device.
· Android.view: This key of the application development supports the user interface alteration.
· Android.widget: The user interface components such as lists, buttons, scroll bars, layout managers and radio buttons are provided by the induction of the library.
· Android.webkit: This is the library used to inherit the web applications and include the web browsing capabilities into the applications.
What about Android App Application Framework?
The Android app applications are created in the dedicated IDE Android Studio, using any specific resolution set for any Android version. The high-level front-end services are provided by the Application framework – Java in the form of classes. The basic activities in the android application framework are:
· Activity Manager: This is the Java class included in the android app application, which interacts with all the activities currently possessing the application interface and running on the program overhead. It tracks all
· Content Providers: The content provider class in Android works to provide data to other application classes. It works as the intermediary on the requests controlled by the class name Content Resolver. It can also act as a data centralizer where it contains all the data, and the rest of the apps can access it. The developer can perform the CRUD (create, read, update, delete) operations on the data provided by the content provider.
· Resource Managers: A tool window manages all the resources embedded with the created application. Giant drivable can be easily imported into the project via the resource provider. The application logo, which is named mipmap in the application settings, is also a resource managed by the Resource Manager.
· Notifications Managers: The title bar of the android app is where the notification resides, and the notification manager can easily alter it. That can create notifications via the notification class, which uses the notification manager class from the context.
· View System. (Layouts): Basically, the user interacts with the screen and views the functions displayed. Objects in these are called widgets such as buttons, Text View and Image View etc. Various layout types are available, such as Linear Layout and Constraint Layout. Those layouts are declared either at the time of creating the user interface (UI) in XML or at runtime.
These were some android development basics that a novice user should possess in order to start creating android applications using the android studio. More documentation and tutorials are available on the web at the official Android Studio Docs, which clearly explains step-by-step usage of the advanced terms used in development.
Gctlinfosys specializes in developing multiplatform Android apps for iPhone, iPad, Android. Along with developing publicly available apps via Apple App Store or Google Play, we can also develop custom business to business (b2b) apps addressing your specific business process.
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