Things to Know Before You Proceed With Android App Development

Android captures nearly 70% of the total mobile OS market share and has over 2.5 billion active users, worldwide. This makes it a primary choice for potential app owners to invest in when going for native app development, although choosing between Android and iOS can depend on several other factors.

As an Android app developer, you need to keep certain things in mind before you proceed with Android app development. These will be helpful for both aspiring Android developers for their knowledge as well as the ones who have started their career as an android app developer.

1. One OS, Multiple Mobile Brands

Unlike iOS which is compatible only with iPhone devices (owned by Apple), the Android operating system (though owned by Google) is utilized by plenty of smartphone manufacturers (such as Samsung, One Plus, Xiaomi) to suit their own hardware. An android device made by one manufacturer may behave differently than an android device manufactured by the other. So, during android app development, you’ll have to account for these manufacturer-based nuances.

2. Different Devices, Different Screen Sizes

As we mentioned, Android supports multiple smartphone brands. And every brand has its own preferences when it comes to the screen size of the devices. For instance, Samsung devices would have a certain screen dimension which may or may not be the same as that of Xiaomi devices. In iOS, you need not worry much about the screen dimension for the obvious reason that iOS comes with only iPhones. So if you are building an iOS app, you will have to consider only a handful of devices (screen size) during the design process, such as iPhone 7, iPhone 8, iPhone X, and iPhone 12.

On the other hand, if you are building an android app, it can get a bit challenging as the devices are plenty with varying screen sizes. There’s no one-size-fits-all. To support all those different screen layouts, the design team will have to walk an extra mile. They will have to ensure that the app suits and caters to multiple screen resolutions of multiple devices. Be ready with your permutations game!

3. Complex Programming Model

Android’s programming model is quite complex in comparison to iOS. For iPhone app development, Apple recommends designing the app using the Model-View-Controller or MVC architecture. But when it comes to creating an Android application, developers are just provided with an app-building toolbox. While some developers do like this as it allows them to have their creative freedom, it is cumbersome. It makes it quite difficult to design or program something on Android. The process is easy and less time-consuming in iOS. Furthermore, a lot of developers find Android development tools inconvenient.

Also Read: The Different Software Architectural Patterns You Should Know About

4. Frequent Updates

Updates in Android devices are pushed out more frequently than updates in iOS devices. After a certain period, the device stops receiving further updates or becomes incompatible with the newer releases. With Android capturing a majority of the mobile OS market share and the market being heavily fragmented by Android devices, developers have a task to decide which version they should program the app against without potentially alienating the customer base. An ideal option then is to program covering the older versions to cover a large segment of Android users.

5. Android App Development can be a Costly Affair

Go through the web and you will find people with a common opinion that iOS apps are usually more expensive to develop than iOS apps. Well, it may be in some cases but generally not. Take a look at this study by Cleveroad. As per their study, the average number of hours it took to develop a basic mobile app is 300, for a medium-level mobile app, the hours doubled to 600, and a complex mobile app called for 800 hours. They then looked for the Android and iOS developers’ hourly rates for the US and Eastern Europe and found that it was $150 and $35, and $168 and $35 for the iOS and Android app, respectively.

Multiplying the hourly rate with the number of hours it took to build the app, the total cost to develop an Android app was comparatively higher than the cost to build an iOS app, especially in the Eastern Europe region.

6. Java vs Kotlin

One of the crucial decisions you will have to make when going for Android app development is choosing between Java and Kotlin. Java and Kotlin are the Android programming languages – the latter being the modern and now the official language used to build Android apps. Both Java and Kotlin have their own advantages and disadvantages but since Kotlin is the modern one, it brings more enhancements and a multitude of new features. Google announced Kotlin as its preferred language for android app development in 2019.

Final Word

Android grew up rapidly ever since it came into the scene. That is why, today, it is way ahead of any other OS out there. Even the second-largest OS, i.e. iOS comes nowhere close to it. But again being this widespread brings scads of challenges with it.

We hope this blog post helped you understand a few important things you should have clarity about before you begin with an Android app development project. Besides this, do your own research and ensure that you know what exactly you are getting into.

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