As of now, the contribution of Android applications to the overall mobile app market exceeds 85% and has successfully overtaken its iOS counterpart; whereas its future is also bright!
That said, the number of Android users is increasing day by day which also puts pressure on the tech market to manage the apps and improve the user experience at all steps.
Whether you’re developing the next powerful Android app from scratch or simply migrating the existing version, make sure its architectural base is transparent, easy, and robust.
Back in 2017, Google announced a new, improved version of Java that streamlines the entire app development process, known as Kotlin.
Let’s have a brief look into Kotlin before diving deep into the actual app development.
Table of Contents
Sneak-Peek into Kotlin for Android App Development
Kotlin’s origin dates back to 2011 with its official release in 2016 and actual implementation as a preferred open-source programming language for Android app development.
It allows faster and easy coding, quick turnaround, and being a modern statistically typed, more than 60% of Android app development companies and solo developers work on Kotlin as it boosts productivity, and satisfaction makes for easy and secure coding, saves a lot of time and development cost.
That said, some of the leading mobile app development companies in Dubai prefer Kotlin for Android apps.
Kotlin as a Successor to Java – Answering the What & Whys
More Concise & Specific – Kotlin comes with many modern integration features that make it easier for Android app development companies to make full use of their creative ideas by writing worthy and reusable codes.
Safer & Securer Coding – It has @Nullable and @NonNull in the type system to help coders avoid annoying NullPointerExpectations thus reducing the chances for Android app crashes by 20% while promising safer coding.
Interoperability – Unlike various programming languages, Kotlin is 100% compatible to seamlessly integrate into the language you’re currently using for app development. For someone willing to merge Java stacks with Kotlin, the transition process is quite simple.
Other than the amazing reasons mentioned above which make Kotlin rule over Java, this particular mobile app development programming language has also resolved many issues and voted for the best app development experience.
- Enable easy development and support of multiple property types.
- Availability of string templates and primary constructors
- Enable access to many different data class types
- Fewer coding means less time-consuming and more productive without compromising the quality
- Amazing IDE and built-in tools to maximize the app development process and user-experience
- Kotlin is also an enterprise-grade app development language that gives Android app developers an edge over many others
With so many amazing features, no doubt Kotlin has everything that makes it one of the best programming and app development languages.
Android App Development with Kotlin
Gear Up the Android Studio – When starting with your very first Android app development with Kotlin, understanding the baseline is very important, as with every other programming language. Download and install Android Studio first.
Project Creation – Once installed, register yourself as an Android Developer on the Android Studio and begin by defining the basic layouts of the project such as the user interface for the fragment.
Virtual Device Setup & Running the App – Create an emulator for app testing purposes. Run the app for testing possible glitches and have them resolved.
Layout Editor & App Publishing – The Layout Editor lets you change the property values and enables UP upgradation which moves your Android app into the publishing phase. Simply follow the Google Play Store guidelines and have the app published.
For better understanding, let’s explore each of the above steps in detail so you can have the best Android app.
Step 1: Piloting the Android Studio
Being a statically-typed programming language, Kotlin is fully compatible with Java and all you need to do when starting with the app development is by installing the Android Studio program. For someone new and unfamiliar with the platform, it’s better to approach a professional app development company.
Step 2: Creating the Project
Click on “create a new project” in the Android Studio and select a specific project genre/category.
Step 3: Project Layout
Android Virtual Device (AVD) allows the creation of a virtual device that simulates android device configuration through a set of special programming characteristics. That said, Android Studio comes with a pre-built AVD manager to ease the development and management of virtual devices. It simply means you can create a virtual emulator device to run and test the app.
Step 4: Run the App
Simply click on the Run icon in the toolbar during which the icon will change automatically. Once the app is built completely and the emulator is ready, the Android Studio will upload it to the emulator and run it for review.
Step 5: Exploring the Layout Editor & User Interface Setup
Go to the Layout Editor and double-click on the “fragment_first.xml”. Just in case you’re unable to see the file, have a mobile app developer help you out in running the program. You can add a palette, configure the entire app design just the way you want, component tree, and even edit the layout of the app by selecting between portrait or landscape view.
Final Note
The above steps will help you to make the most out of amazing Kotlin features for a super powerful Android app development that’s definitely going to secure a good online presence and get published on the Google Play Store.
+ There are no comments
Add yours