Apps have revolutionized our lives in countless ways, from how we conduct business to how we educate, recreate, and enjoy ourselves! This has made mobile app development one of the most fascinating and exciting professions available. It is also worth noting that Google Play has the largest market share in terms of mobile games. Android’s dominance in the mobile software development industry ensures its developers a great deal of job security.

Since Android applications continue to link people all around the world and allow users to engage in more innovative and interesting ways, the global economy has recognized a need for qualified professionals in this field. To be an successful Android developer, you must have a thorough understanding of a number of skills and apply them in the appropriate circumstances at the perfect moment to provide your customers with the most pleasurable experience possible.

The following are ten important abilities you’ll need to thrive as an Android developer.

1. Android foundations

The most fundamental element of Android development is the programming language. Kotlin and Java are the most popular languages for writing Android apps. To create applications, you may utilize either Kotlin or Java—or a combination of both—to their full potential. You must have a basic understanding of the fundamental principles of one or both of these two programming languages, such as fundamentals and syntaxes, collection framework, concurrency and multithreading, and generic programming.

In Android, we employ XML to create layouts (user interface). XML is a markup language that stands for eXtensible Markup Language and is similar in nature to HTML. These XML Layouts are then linked to Kotlin/Java files, where business logic is written, after they have been created.

Although Android Studio can’t produce mobile apps, the platform and tools are ideal for creating clean XML layouts and building business logic in an integrated environment. To automate and manage your build process, Android Studio relies on Gradle, a sophisticated build toolkit. The Android plugin for Gradle is a plugin that enables developers to integrate Gradle into Android Studio. You should understand what Gradle is and how to utilize it specifically for external dependencies before you begin.

The Gradle and Android plugin operate independently of Android Studio. This implies you can develop Android apps from within Android Studio, the command line on your machine, or on systems where Android Studio is not installed (such as continuous integration servers). If you don’t use Android Studio, you may learn how to construct and run your application from the command line.

2. Android interactivity

User interaction with Android applications should be given a high priority. Callbacks, implementing suitable gestures such as drag and drop, offering the correct keyboard for user input, and utilizing pan and zoom in the appropriate locations all contribute to providing a smooth user experience. These are tiny but extremely important for improving user engagement. In any case, activity is an Android component that enables human-to-human interaction.

An Activity is a single, concentrated thing that the user may do. Almost all Activities interact with the user, so the Activity class handles creating a window for you where you can put your UI.

The Android device has a variety of display configurations. One of them is the screen orientation. It can be either portrait or landscape mode. Every Activity may be viewed in either a portrait or landscape format. When the screen is rotated, the current activity is erased and rebuilt in a new orientation. When the display’s orientation changes, Activity stability should be maintained at all times.

3. Android UI

An application is said to be unfinished if it does not have a contemporary user interface. An application may have useful features, but if it fails to meet today’s UI standards, it will ultimately fail.

A few of the fundamental principles that every developer must follow in their apps include utilizing RecyclerView to create lists and grids, using Constraint Layout to construct complex layouts, implementing animations to improve user experience, employing relevant menus, following Material design standards and utilizing vector drawables instead of raster graphics. 

When it comes to designing layouts, keep in mind that there are many different screen types. A program should look distinct on every device. Dual-pane designs should be used effectively on a tablet display, for example. On a smartphone, single pane is sufficient. Use Fragments to implement this behavior. Furthermore, in some cases, you may need to modify Views to meet your needs. Custom components for your Views can help you do so.

4. Implementing navigation

The interactions that allow users to go from one component of content to another are known as navigation. There are a number of UI components you can use for effective UI navigation.

The most fundamental is the app bar, which is also known as the Toolbar. On your Toolbar, you can add a popup menu, menu icons, and a navigation drawer symbol. This navigation drawer symbol aids in the opening and closing of the navigation drawer, one more component to consider. The navigation drawer may be used to add new menu items, allowing you to swap fragments in your current Activity or carry out other relevant tasks.

The BottomNavigationView is a type of navigation element that lets you navigate between multiple Fragments in the same Activity by using tabs at the bottom of the screen. ViewPager is the best choice for you if you want to show tabs attached to the Toolbar that can be swiped between Fragments (individual pages).

The user’s intent is the most essential element of navigation. The user may wish to start a new Activity, return to an earlier one, or send data to another program. These goals can be obtained by using Intents in Android. If you know your target Activity’s name, use an Explicit Intent; otherwise, a Implicit Intent is the way to go. You have complete control over your intentions.

Finally, Android Jetpack’s Navigation component allows you to implement navigation in a variety of ways, from simple button clicks to more complex patterns such as app bars and the navigation drawer. Before you begin developing Android navigation, take a look at this component.

5. Android testing

Users engage with your app on a variety of levels, from clicking a Submit button to downloading data onto their device. As a result, you should test a wide range of use cases and interactions while developing your app iteratively. Expresso, Junit, Mockito, Robolectric, and UI Automator are the most popular testing libraries. 

6. Working with data

Data is an essential component of your software that must not be overlooked. You could need to get data from the server, query data from the local database, save user preferences, and handle file management.

To utilize a local database, you must use the Room database, which is a component of Android Jetpack’s architecture. You may want to securely export your database from your app using the ContentProvider API.

Jetpack’s DataStore, which utilizes Kotlin coroutines and Flow to save data, is another option for saving a little amount of data.

Use the Data Binding Library to connect your UI components in your layouts to a data source in your app using a declarative syntax.

You may use large file system APIs available to you to manage files in your app.To summarize, Retrofit 2 enables you to send data between your server and Android client in a simple and efficient way.

7. Notifications

Notifications are one of the most effective methods to enhance app usage. It appears outside of your app’s user interface to offer reminders, communications from other individuals, or timely data from your application. A notification enables users to directly access your app or take a certain action from the alert. You may create a notification, arrange it however you want, include an action to it, and even categorize numerous Notifications using Notification channels.

8. Firebase on Android

If you’re a backend developer that despises his or her work, Firebase for Android is the answer. Firebase is a mobile platform that allows you to rapidly build high-quality applications while also expanding your user base and earning more money. To make the life of an Android developer easier, Firebase offers numerous useful features.

You may utilize the Firebase App Indexing API to make your app more visible in Google search. To keep track of data on your server, you can use cloud storage and Cloud Firestore. Use Cloud Functions to execute backend code automatically in response to Firebase features and HTTPS requests. The Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) allows you to send notifications to your clients. You may use FCM to notify a client application when new email or other data is available for synchronisation. Use Firebase Crashlytics, a lightweight, real-time crash reporter that helps you prioritize and resolve stability concerns. If you’ve ever used deep links in your app, try out dynamic links. With Dynamic Links, users get the greatest possible experience for the platform on which they access your link.

You might also want to check out other Firebase features, such as Firebase Invites, Firebase Performance Monitoring, Firebase Remote Config, and Remote Config.

9. Android security

Android offers built-in security capabilities that substantially reduce the number and severity of application security bugs. You may use permissions to protect the user’s privacy. You may securely share information by using signature-based permissions. When it comes to data security, internal storage, external storage, and ContentProviders should be handled with extreme caution. Unless explicitly required, do not export your Android component, such as a ContentProvider or Service, without first double-checking.

To avoid web security concerns such as cross-site scripting (JavaScript injection), Android has restricted WebView’s functionality to the absolute minimum. You still need to be careful, however, and minimize the number of times your user is asked for their credentials. Instead, utilize an authorization token and refresh it on a regular basis.

10. Git: Version control system

Git is an open-source version control system. With Git, you may test out new app features and coding techniques with ease. You can experiment with fresh project ideas while keeping your current working copy intact with confidence. You may revert to a prior version with ease and correct your course if you realize the project is veering off track.

As the mobile environment grows, Android app developers will be able to profit from a market for their products or provide critical value to organizations in need of mobile app development expertise.