How to begin you Android Development Journey?
Tags: android, tutorial
Published: 2020-06-05 09:47:40

Android Development is quite raging these days. With almost everyone having a smartphone, demand for apps has lead to the exponential rise of the app industry. Big businesses are shifting their base to an online model to capitalize as much as possible. 

Hence, companies are looking to hire people who have good knowledge of app development. Therefore, we are going to discuss how to begin your Android Journey from scratch

But before jumping to that, let us have a brief overview of Android Development.

<h2>What is Android Development?</h2>

Android app development has huge market scope, considering Android is one of the most widely used OS in smartphones these days. It occupies a huge market share, thanks to the strong backing by Google and mobile companies using it as their primary OS.

<h2>Advantages of Android App Development</h2>

1. <b>Higher Income</b>– App development provides a great opportunity for those who want to make good money. According to Payscale, the average salary of an entry-level Android developer in the United States is $98000. It is quite a huge competitive amount if you compare it with other developments or other domains. Therefore, it is a good option to consider getting into, for those who want to make a good amount of money.

2. <b>Revenue Generated</b>– This is no hidden truth, that apps are a great source of capital. Google Play Store gives you a great chance to sell your app. The number of downloads and ads you run on it determines the net revenue of the app. According to latest statistics, the revenue generated by apps on Google Store and Apple Store was $51 million and $84 million respectively.

3. <b>Freelancing</b>– One of the biggest benefits of app development is the ability to do freelancing. You can easily work for yourself as per your need and convenience. Furthermore, one can work from the comforts of your home without actually going to the workplace/office.

Now that we have got the basics of <a href="https://codersera.com/blog/how-to-begin-learning-android-app-development/">Android</a> covered, let us begin with the development process.

<h2>How to start Android App Development?</h2>


<b>1. Go to the official Android website</b>

<img src="https://www.thedroidsonroids.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Screenshot-2020-03-24-at-14.54.03-e1586871586312-940x486.png">

First, visit the website. It has many things that would help you in getting an idea about the ecosystem and a variety of solutions, ideas, and technologies linked with Android. You won't understand everything but you would know where to look the next time you forget something.

<b>2. Check out Kotlin</b>

<img src="https://www.thedroidsonroids.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Screenshot-2020-03-24-at-15.09.21-940x537.png">

Google officially supports Kotlin on Android as a “first-class” language since May 2017. Fewer companies are developing commercial applications using only Java, so studying Kotlin is a necessary step to become a successful Android Developer. For all the documentation related stuff, you can refer to Kotlin's official website.

<b>3. Get to know material design</b>

<img src="https://www.thedroidsonroids.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Image-2020-04-14-at-3.48.28-PM-940x477.png">

Material design allows you to design beautiful products, design, and build with new tools for customizing material and sharing work. Try to feel it. Be the material. Think like material. Behave like material. You shouldn’t miss this point while getting started with Android.

<b>4. Download Android Studio</b>

<img src="https://www.thedroidsonroids.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Screenshot-2020-03-24-at-14.56.54-940x595.png">

It’s unquestionably the best IDE for Android and it’s from Google. If you have been using Eclipse previously, then you would find Android Studio a better IDE compared to it.

<b>5. Write some code</b>

<img src="https://www.thedroidsonroids.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Screenshot-2020-03-24-at-15.03.00-e1585058682106-940x533.png">

It’s time to look a bit at the code and write something. Practice together with a theory is one of the best ways of learning. Go back to the official Android website and this time go to Develop. There are two of the most important sections:

1. Training courses and Codelabs – you can find there a lot of helpful examples. Go through all these lessons before you start programming for real.
2. API Reference – I know it will be hard to go through all these texts, descriptions, examples, and so on but it’s worth it. Trust me. This section is very important.

<h2>Conclusion</h2>

Android App Development is the way to these days. It has many advantages like good ROI(Return on Investment), Freelance working, Higher salaries, and many more. It is expected to grow even more with the reach of smartphones extending to each and every person. Therefore, it is better that you have an idea of Android. It will help in improving your understanding.