How to Get Started With Android Application Development
By: Sanjay Priyadarshi
Tags: Coding, Android App Development, Programming, AndroidDev, Software Development

How to Get Started With Android Application Development

Also Contains Links to Free Courses

Photo by Rami Al-zayat on Unsplash

Android App Development guide for beginners.

Why you should learn android development.

If you want a well-paying job, then you should go for the Android app development. According to the glassdoor website: the average salary for an Android developer is approximately 6 lakh per annum in India and the average salary for an Android developer is $ 96,000 per annum in the United States.

If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, you must also learn to develop Android applications. Many startup ideas need an Android app. Consider if you want to build a startup that helps people rent power banks for mobile charging, then it would be great if you had a dedicated Android app for that.

The Android mobile operating system has a good reach and is available in 70% to 75% of all smartphones. There is a huge supply of jobs and the demand for Android developers will increase as apps for smartwatches and smart TVs are increasing.

Photo by Masakaze Kawakami on Unsplash

Android is an open source software package that is based on the Linux operating system. There have been several versions of Android available with code names and API level.

There are mainly two types of applications that can be built for Android platforms.

Native applications: They are built in a specific language that is compatible with the Android operating system. These Android specific languages include Java and Kotlin.

Hybrid applications — They are built with coding languages used for creating websites which includes HTML, CSS and Javascript.

As a beginner, I suggest that first you practice creating native applications.

There are several advantages to building native applications as a beginner.

A native application integrates very well with the device hardware that includes GPS, camera and others.

Now what programming language should you choose to develop native Android apps? You can choose any language between Java and Kotlin.

As a beginner, learning Java will be easy, and there are several online sources available for learning Java.

How much Java, Kotlin knowledge do you need to begin android development?

There is a common misconception among students trying to learn Android development that they need to become Java or Kotlin experts.

You don’t have to be a Java or Kotlin expert to learn Android.

Here is a list of all the concepts in java language you will need for developing applications.

How to declare variables. Familiarity with operators, expressions, final keyword, Java string class is also required.

Knowledge about branching and switch statements is must. You will need to know how to declare loops. For example, for and while loop.

How to declare classes, define methods, objects and this keyword will definitely help.

Android application development is based on the concept of OOPs, so you should know all the concepts of OOPs like inheritance, polymorphism. File I/O Basics is required.

If you know all these concepts, you can start with Android development.

There will be some concepts in Java that you don’t know. If you come across any of these concepts, try learning it right then with a simple Google search.

Resources for learning basics of android app development. I am mentioning some free online learning resources. This is the best resource one can get for free.

Android Basics: User Interface — This course consists of beginner-friendly concepts and will teach you the basics of the Android user interface.

Android Basics: User Input — In this course, you will create an interactive coffee ordering application. This course will teach how to practically implement OOPs concepts in applications.

Android Basics: Multiscreen Apps — In this course you will learn about intents and activities, practically implement loops to display data to users, adding images, playing audio in your app.

Android Basics: Networking — In this course, you will discover how to use a web API in your Android application, HTTP Networks, and how to use the thread to do time consuming background work, AsyncTask overview.

Android Basics: Data Storage — In this course you will discover about the SQLite database in your application, the configuration of the contract class, etc.

Take a look at Firebase — it will make Android app development easy.

With Firebase you can create applications quickly and easily.

After doing all these courses, you will have strong basic knowledge about Android.

Now you need to build some projects on your own to see how much you have learned.

Android Development Projects Ideas.

Todo List Application

Try to built a todo list application having these features:

Create a new task list to manage different tasks.

Add / edit / delete an item to our Everything list.

Each task can have detailed note options.

Implement the search option for All.

Sort your to-dos and tag them by category.

Tinder Clone

Try to create a tinder clone through this app, you will learn about how to create a difficult user interface and how to access Firebase database, Firebase authentication and Firebase storage. It should include these features:

Create an account with name, age, gender and email authentication.

Sign in to the account.

View user of opposite sex only.

Add swipe features for every opposite sex user you like.

Edit your profile and you can add a profile photo.

Able to match two users.

Once two users match, they should be able to chat with each other.

Try to build some more applications with what you have learned.

Make some applications about using the rest API. As an Android developer, you should always know how to beautifully display json data in your Android app.

Put your code for all your projects online on github.

If you get stuck at any point while creating a project always take a look at two great resources.

Stackoverflow: It is likely that all your errors are already fixed here.

Android Documentation: To add any new features to your Android app, you should check its official documentation.

If you followed all the steps mentioned above, you have become an Android developer and now you can apply for internships at the company you want.

Prepare your resume and cv and discuss all your projects. You will now get an internship in a dream company.

Further reading: