Introduction to Android Development- A new way of welcoming innovations!

In this competitive world, where technology is surging at a fast pace with many opponents around, Android has given rise to many incredible collections of innovations to the tech world and Google is lending a hand of support to bring the products to the forefront of many tech companies. Simply stated, Android is a platform that enables mobiles to reflect how technology can be blended to bring upheaval and power to the devices.

When someone starts the journey of learning Android App Development, it’s obvious to have some confusion in mind as some may think Android Development is analogous to Web Development and the only difference might be in the platform and technical components. Both the Developers indeed have equal and enormous demands as today we need these developers to present our business digitally, which can assist the businesses 24/7 without manual support.

A basic yet visible difference in both of these profiles is that Web developers build websites and web applications whereas Android developers build mobile applications for android devices. Before diving instantly over the technicalities of any domain, it’s important to understand the basics and gather needful resources to rekindle your adventure.

So first and foremost, let’s get over the landscape of discovering Android. Or you can say the “must-haves” to become an Android Developer!!

Picking up a programming language first!

Many learners, who want to start exploring this vast domain, might be having a hard time digging for quality stuff to start with Android and getting your hands dirty over it. Well then, this will help you kickstart your journey in Android and to forge a path towards being an Android Developer.

There are many ways by which you can start developing your applications for Android. Firstly, you have to choose the right programming language and start learning it.

Although, there are multiple programming languages and frameworks for developing Android applications. Some of the official languages used for Android are Java, Kotlin, C++, C#, Python, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, etc.

There are some frameworks used for cross-platform mobile development that will build and run the applications on multiple platforms like Android, iOS, and Windows using a single code base. These languages include React Native, Ionic, Flutter, Xamarin, etc.

Laying down the groundwork!

First things first, this is the time when you will have to take a look at Android’s official developer website which will make your android learning journey easier. As android is open for everyone to experiment and build things, it’s constructed from the ground up to be customized skillfully.

Moreover, you need to install Android Studio to get started with the application development and start applying your Java/Kotlin code or any other framework you choose to use over to build your applications. As Google officially endorses the Kotlin language for android, this has been the most preferred language, and most of the companies today are developing their applications using Kotlin.

Although Kotlin and Java are interchangeable and interoperable, it’s a plus point if you know Java as well. Start learning from the basics to in-depth concepts in Kotlin from the official Kotlin doc.

Explore the language, clear your OOP and DSA concepts and lastly practice coding more and more as it’s the most crucial step to becoming an android developer. Oh wait, there’s one more thing to make you warm!

Gradle build it is! Did you know who builds, tests, and deploys your application after you finish developing it?

Yes, Gradle scripts are the one who automates the task and every android project requires it to generate an apk. Explore Gradle and see how it is more important for a developer to pass the Gradle build sync successfully : D

As the world is intensely competitive and more complex than we anticipate, running an application on production is not just enough and we need to make sure it’s open and easily accessible to everyone. We use mobile apps for every little thing today and it’s a kinda savior for people who have busy lives.

With the technology transforming, from multi-window video platforms, security apps, to child-friendly apps, android has brought many innovations to the table.

Commit and Push!!

Ultimately, when you learn the language and start utilizing it to build some awesome apps, you need to save your code and the records of the modifications made to it. Manually, it’s troublesome to constantly compile the copies of code/projects locally in different folders.

When you work in a team, where each member is developing a certain part of the project, you need a Version Control System that records the versions of your code over time and keeps it in a database called repositories. Here, you can look back into your project history, and in case you wish to revert to an earlier state, you get that chance too!

There are 2 types of VCS systems-

1. Centralized VCS- All the team members are bound to a central and single server for the latest copies of the project and commit their changes to it. Examples of centralized VCS systems are CVS and Subversion, etc.
2. Decentralized/Distributed VCS- In this type of VCS System, every team member can track the changes in the files as they have a copy of the project with its history on their computer. The most commonly used VCS is Git, which is open source, free and scalable.

Although Android Studio has enabled version control with it, through which you can create a repo on the way, make the changes and manage the source code while keeping track of every change in the code. Now that you have enough details about Version Control, you can begin learning Git and GitHub.

Every developer starts his/her coding journey by creating a profile on GitHub. It’s a repository hosting service that hosts your projects in different programming languages and keeps track of every change.

Maintaining a GitHub profile is essential as companies browse your GitHub which might boost your probability of getting hired. Well, there are many good repo hosting services along with GitHub like GitLab, SourceForge, Google Cloud Source Repositories, AWS CodeCommit, etc.

So, that’s how you can set your foot on to start your Android journey. What more does it take to become an Android Developer?

Well, stay updated with all the latest news and creations in Android, and subscribe to some official Android or Kotlin newsletters that will keep you on the exact track!

Let’s have some more glimpses about android and how to build an app right from scratch in the next part of this blog. I hope you will start working towards Android and take yourself to the next level.

Happy coding!!!