Some useful tips for successful Android app development

by Rob Stephen getaprogrammer

Building an ROI-driven Android application can be a challenging task in this competitive environment. Here are the most useful tips you must follow for successful Android app development.

Android is dominating the mobile app market now holding more than 80 percent of it. Or else, you can say that the Google app store has much more mobile applications as compared to Apple and Windows. But at the same time, it is also a true fact that every single version of the Android operating system differs. As per the reports given by developer.android.com, the market share of Android 6.0 Marshmallow and Android 5.1 Lollipop is much higher as compared to the Android 7.0 Nougat’s market share. Also, with Android, the users have more options to choose from a wider range of Android devices with varying features and screen sizes. Now, this again makes Android app development a challenging task. The applications must deliver a uniform and optimal experience across all Android versions and devices to stay competitive.

And here are the most useful tips and tricks that can help you with successful Android application development.

Use the latest Android application development tools and frameworks:

Android supports many tools, frameworks and IDEs like Ionic, React native, Corona SDK, Flutter, and many more, that make the development process more efficient, effortless and faster. Adding advanced and complicated features and functionalities can also be done easily with the use of the right tools and frameworks. Apart from this, the use of these tools and frameworks make the code quality better. Testing and maintaining the applications also become simpler with these. Overall, these tools help in enhancing and accelerating the application development process.

Follow the Android design guidelines:

Google helps to build robust applications by outlining the Android design guidelines. Also, these guidelines are frequently updated to enhance the mobile app design and make the application look more intuitive and appealing. For example, Google recommends the developers create applications with material design and offers a set of tools for implementing the material design guidelines. Some of the material designs in Android are Strategy, Factory, etc., that developers can choose from.

Focus on the user inputs:

To engage more and more users in the application, the app must have some elements and features that the users look for. Developers must embed features and functionalities into the app after analysing the user demands, preferences, and after collecting feedback. Also, research on what the competitive apps lack and what the users are still looking for to create a user-driven application for Android. All these will enhance the user experience and the app’s usability.

Make sure to create a fast and responsive UI:

A lot of research and studies have proved that most of the users leave an app after one or two uses because of the slow loading speed and unresponsive UI. This makes it crucial to create fast and responsive applications considering all the versions, devices, and screen sizes of Android. Make sure to include just the essential features and elements on the interface, removing all the unwanted ones, thereby making the application lightweight. This will enhance the loading speed of the app interface. Also, make sure to test the application design on as many Android versions, devices and screen resolutions to deliver a uniform and consistent experience to all Android users.

Focus on the security of the app:

App security is always a major concern for all users. Hence, you need to incorporate robust security features into the application to make sure to keep the data safe and secure and protect the application and all its data from all external threats, hacking, and malware. Also, perform security testing of the application for identifying the loopholes that make the app vulnerable to malware attacks and breaches. You can also use the Android app security tools available to make the application secure.

Test your app thoroughly:

Android has so many different versions and devices that vary in terms of features, screen sizes, resolutions, and hardware features. Testing the application on as many as possible is important to ensure to deliver a high-performing, secure, flawless, and user-driven application. Testing the app is important to check all the bugs if any are there, to test the performance, security, usability, and overall look and feel of the application. Android supports plenty of app testing tools that you can use for rigorous and efficient testing.

Apart from these mentioned above, make sure to make your app compatible with wearables, embed mCommerce and mobile payment features, meet the emerging app development trends like IoT, AI and ML, and more. Also, it is necessary to choose the right app monetisation strategy to make your application profitable. For app monetisation, you can choose from options like in-app purchases, advertisements, affiliation programs, and more. Also, just ensure to consider the location of the users before monetising your application to make the app financially successful.

Rob Stephen is an experienced and highly proficient app developer associated with a leading Android app development company in Australia, GetAProgrammer. The author has written this article to outline some of the most useful tips for successfully building an Android application.