10 Android Development Hacks 2022¶

Android - The name directly reflects in your mind and you start searching your smartphone. Well, in the current scenario, the most trending operating systems for smartphones are Android and iOS. Right now, every single person reading this blog will have an idea of what operating system they have on their phone. It is very simple to understand the operating system but difficult when it comes to android application development. There are many aspirants who are looking forward to making a career in Android application development. They are trying hard but still, the efforts go in vain.

Android is a popular choice because it is accepted globally. This is one of the reasons that is attracting a lot of people towards android application development. For android applications, you need to have more skills and not just the basics. If you are claiming to have basic knowledge and dive into the field of android application development, then it will become hard for you to accomplish what you want. With a basic understanding of a wide range of programming languages, you can develop a small working application.

But your intention does not end with the basic android applications, right? You need to accomplish something that will leave a mark in the digital world. For that, you must be aware of various advanced things. This is possible with some Android development hacks.

Most of you might be knowing a lot of things about Android development, but these hacks will help you to get a step ahead. You need to put in more effort to gain the right knowledge to gain the results that you want. It will help you to stand out from the crowd and provide the best value to the users.

Do you know what is the major turn off for an Android User? “App Not Responding”. People would end up giving the Android application a one-star rating. Will you feel right if any such thing happens? No! A bad review for your android application is an undesirable thing for any developer. To avoid such things you must be aware of different Android developing hacks.

By using these Android hacks, you will be able to develop and design a cutting-edge Android application that will provide you with happy customers. Once you are clear with your basics and use the android hacks, the work becomes simple. So what are those simple Android hacks? If you are not aware of it, then you have come to the right place. We have consulted the Android experts and listed some effective and efficient Android hacks that you can use for Android application development. These android development hacks are for beginners as well as android experts.

First of all, we will discuss it for the beginners and then for the android experts.

1 Ensure About Your Knowledge Of The Language:¶

Having proper knowledge of the languages that will be essential for Android Development is a primary requirement. If you are not having proper knowledge of the languages, you won’t be able to develop anything. So you need to have a basic understanding and experience of coding with JAVA. Besides this, you should also have an understanding of Kotlin. This was announced by Google in the year 2017 that Kotlin will be an official support language for Android. Simple words, a basic understanding of one or both of these languages is essential to begin developing an Android app.

2 Beware Of Using The Right Framework For The Android Application Development - Android Studio And Eclipse:¶

In earlier times, the eclipse was considered the best framework or IDE (Integrated Design Environment) for Android application development. But today, you should be aware of Android Studio. You must have some experience of working in Android Studio. Just check out all the features and tools offered by the IDE for you to work with for developing a dynamic application. In the year 2015 itself, the android application developers started focussing on the use of Android Studio and consider it as the official Android IDE.

What makes Android Studio so special?¶

With the help of Android studio, you have the flexibility of developing android applications at a faster rate. It has got super code editing tools that help in increasing the overall performance of the coding and debugging. It has some really flexible application building systems. Besides this, it offers an emulator/simulator for deploying the applications and testing them.

3 The use of Right Android SDK:¶

SDK in simple words means Software Development Kit. This is one of the most important things that you need when you start developing applications with APIs. Alongside the APIs, you need the important libraries and development tools to build, test and debug applications for Android. Android SDK includes libraries, documentation, emulator, debugger, sample code, and tutorials.

4 You Should Know About The Activity Or Fragments:¶

When you are talking about Android application development, Activity is the first thing that you need to be concerned about. It is the basic entry point through which you will actually work on the application design and development. Activity or Fragment refers to the main single screen that has all the controls. It is essential for enhancing the effect of the user interface. So the important thing is every Android application will have at least one Activity.

You can refer to Activity as Fragment but it is slightly different from it. The fragment is basically a component that is used for designing activities. It is lightweight and gets the support of the Activity. An activity belongs to a particular Android application but a fragment can be used by multiple activities. In Activity and Fragment, you will find controls like Button, TextView, and RadioButtons, etc with which users can give their input or the developer can display the information to users.

5 Android Functioning Of The Databases:¶

For Android Applications, you will get the support of SQLite. It is a basic database that helps in storing offline data. Android chooses SQLite because it is an open-source database and it supports standard relational database features like SQL syntax, transactions, prepared statements, etc. It can hold any kind of data like Text, Integer or Real numbers. When you are using the SQLite database for Android, you just need to provide the right SQL statements. These statements help in creating, updating the databases used for the Android Application. You will always find the SQLite database in the default location - in the directory DATA/data/<package-name>/databases/<db-name>

6 Understanding The Concept Of Threads:¶

Threads refer to the basic background operations or tasks in an Android application. are nothing but background tasks. Whenever you want the Android application to work on the background activities without making any interference in the front-end interface, use Threads. These background activities are not to be seen by the users. The threads will perform in the background and you will get the notification when it is completed.

Now that you have got a basic understanding of Android development, here are some development hacks for the experts.

7 The Expert Android Developer Must Know About The Efficiency Of The Bitmaps¶

Well, we all have heard the saying that “A picture is worth a thousand words.” This is 100% true. You just need to know that it is applicable in Android applications as well. While adding an image in the application you need to know its size. The greater the size of the image, the extra weight is added to the application. You cannot add heavy images in the Android application as it will increase the overall size of the Android application. You should choose the images that help the application to run smoothly and don’t add any extra weight to it. You can also ensure that it will not make your application sluggish. Every expert Android developer must know about the concept of Bitmap. If you cannot manage the Bitmap well, it will be the major reason for the slow speed of your application. You can make use of the libraries such as Picasso, Glide, and Fresco, in order to efficiently load images and store them in the cache. You can use these images later on as well. You do not have to get it from the network again and again.

8 You Need To Develop The Android Application That Is Compatible On All The Android Devices:¶

Android devices are available in different shapes and sizes all around the world. Right now, you have a high level of fragmentation and thus will help you to get the attention of your target audience. But it is only possible when you are able to overcome some of the challenges - you have to configure the Android application that is compatible with all the Android devices and their versions.

To overcome the challenge you will have to maintain the density of each Android device and the version. Choose the layout wisely so that it becomes easy for you to match up all the device requirements.

9 You Should Choose The LIbraries In An Efficient Way:¶

The first thing all developers tend to do as soon as a requirement arrives from the client is to search for a library. The libraries will help you to accomplish the work in a convenient way. If the library is related to architecture or core functionality, however, it will work in 99% of cases.

10 Have You Heard Of Proguard?¶

If not, then this is the right time to do so. Proguard refers to the free Java class file shrinker, obfuscator, optimizer, and verifier. Progaurd is used by the developers in order to develop your APK files as small as you need. Proguard detects and eliminates unused fields, classes, attributes, and methods from your app. It also optimizes the bytecode and removes any unused code instructions. It renames the remaining fields, classes, and methods using random short names.

Conclusion:¶

So now you’re well versed with the Android developing hacks that are essential for beginners as well as experts. If you want to suggest some more Android development hacks, you can provide them in our comment section. For more updates on Android, stay tuned to CoderzColumn!