Every Android engineer wants to create memorable experiences for people all over the world. Your job as a designer doesn't get easier as more people rely on your apps than ever before, and expectations are higher than ever. Making your mark in the market requires you to not only keep up-to-date but also stand out from your competitors
Regardless of the reason, it's important to apply the best techniques to stay ahead of the competition in this highly competitive market.
I have compiled a list of 10 Android development best practices in this article in order to assist you.
1. Debugging Android projects with Android Debug Bridge (ADB)
There are a lot of android-tech enthusiasts using ADB, but very few use it to its fullest potential and it is mostly overlooked. You can communicate with Android operating systems using ADB, a command-line tool, or a client-server program. This tool is not used by developers on a daily basis, but you can use it to ease your many recurring developing experiences. It allows you to add, remove, and access a lot of hidden data from your Android devices with just a few clicks on your computer. Android OS devices are tested and modified using these tools by developers. It is possible to unlock a device with ADB if a user forgets his mobile password by deleting the password file from the Android directory, rebooting the device, and resetting the password.
2. Design patterns should be used
There are a number of design patterns in software engineering that can be used to solve problems associated with a certain scenario. Besides being a possible solution to a problem, knowledge of a pattern simplifies working in a team when you're familiar with it. MVC, MVP, MVVM, MVI, and Clean Architecture are some of the architectures we have today. Your project should be suited to a particular architecture, not the most popular one. All of the architectures listed above are appropriate if they meet your project requirements and your code is clean and follows standard coding guidelines.
3. Work in an agile manner
When it comes to mobile app development, agile offers several significant advantages over a waterfall. A continuous and productive partnership between all stakeholders is enabled by better cohesion between the development and customer teams.
Customer feedback can be incorporated into the app development process using the Agile model, providing full transparency into the development process for customers. Keeping the project aligned with the client's vision throughout the process ensures that it remains consistent with its vision.
Developing an Android app according to agile principles can also enable you to launch a minimum viable product faster, allowing you to gather feedback from real users for subsequent iterations.
4. QA should be integrated throughout the development process
It is ideal that the end-user does not interact with an app for the first time after the development team has completed it. Because of this, Quality Assurance (QA) teams are a critical part of mobile app development.
It is the main responsibility of QA to ensure that the app is fully functional and free of bugs during the development process. The purpose of quality assurance is to set quality standards, define functional requirements, and ensure that apps meet all their quality requirements. Assuring that all releases are "Fit for purpose" and "Right first time" is the responsibility of this department before they are released to end-users.
Dynamic tests are performed by QA teams before apps are released. As part of these tests, several attributes are covered, including user experience/user interface, cross-device functionality, and security.
QA should be integrated throughout the development process of apps as a best practice.
5. Quality of code is important
When a person learns how to code correctly, he gets a flavor that improves with every code he writes. Additionally, your ability to code creatively reflects your skill as a developer. The quality of code developed should always be given priority. Long code increases the likelihood of errors, wastes a lot of time, and causes a lot of confusion. Reviewing another expert's code and analyzing their approach can give you the best view of your own code.
6. All logs should be kept in DEBUG mode only.
Using logs allows us to display information, identify errors, analyze workflows, or troubleshoot a problem. It is also important to note that every bit of information we log could be a potential security risk! Before the code goes live, make sure you remove it.
For those who really want to keep these logs, you can either use Timber library which allows you to log your messages and control how they flow through the logs, or you can create a custom class to print debug logs.
7. Ensure the highest level of security
Security should always be prioritized by developers, regardless of the application they are creating. Cloud security is one of the most overlooked since it is not only a large concept, but many appear to have problems with it. The apps you develop will contain a lot of data and sensitive information about both the company and the users. You may need to include payment information, as well as crucial information like home address, phone number, and many more things that the user has provided you. Unless your app is secure, users are unlikely to share information with you. You may be unable to recover your brand if your security is breached.
8. Data Storage
It is always necessary for our apps to store data. In order for data to be protected from access by other applications, it must be stored securely. In Android, sensitive data is recommended to be stored internally rather than externally since external storage does not impose security restrictions, and the external storage medium is not guaranteed to stay attached to the device. You can also use SharedPreferences in private mode or encrypt small amounts of data if you need to store them to prevent other applications from accessing them.
9. Make use of the Optimization Thread
Whenever a long-running task needs to be performed, a background thread can be created. A better user experience and better performance can be achieved by doing so. This can be done using the Android Studio profiler, which only appears when the app is running, so you can monitor the performance of your app while you are developing it. When your app is running, you can measure the number of device resources it consumes.
10. When creating image drawables, consider using SVGs or WebPs
A developer's nightmare is sometimes supporting multiple resolutions. In addition to increasing the project size, including numerous images at different resolutions is also a problem. By compressing lossless images, you can solve the image size problem by using vector graphics like SVG or WebP.
Conclusion
To conclude, Android app development is about not just creating beautiful apps, but also creating functional and pleasing applications that users will enjoy using and that will contribute value to businesses. That specific outcome can only be achieved with a development team that is appropriate, and with careful planning for the UI, UX, and usability of the product.
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