INTRODUCTION TO JAVA (language programming) o Android provides a touch-screen user interface (UI) for

interacting with apps.

 What is Android?
o Android's user interface is mainly based on direct
o Is an operating system and programming platform
manipulation, using touch gestures such as swiping,
developed by Google for smartphones and other mobile
tapping and pinching to manipulate on-screen objects.
devices (such as tablets). It can run on many different
o Virtual keyboard for text input.
devices from many different manufacturers.
o Support game controllers and full-size physical keyboards
o Android includes a software development kit for writing
connected by Bluetooth or USB.
original code and assembling software modules to create
apps for Android users.
 Easy to develop apps
o It also provides a marketplace to distribute apps.
o Use the Android software development kit (SDK) to develop
Altogether, Android represents an ecosystem for mobile
apps that take advantage of the Android operating system
apps.
and UI.
o Android Studio provides a unified environment where you
o The SDK includes a comprehensive set of development
can build apps for Android phones, tablets, Android Wear,
tools including a debugger, software libraries of prewritten
Android TV, and Android Auto. Structured code modules
code, a device emulator, documentation, sample code, and
allow you to divide your project into units of functionality
tutorials.
that you can independently build, test, and debug.
 Android provides a rich development architecture - The
 Why develop apps for Android?
following diagram shows the major components of the
Apps are developed for a variety of reasons: addressing
Android stack - the operating system and development
business requirements, building new services, creating new
architecture.
businesses, and providing games and other types of content
 Apps: Your apps live at this level, along with core
for users. Developers choose to develop for Android in order
system apps for email. SMS messaging. calendars,
to reach the majority of mobile device users.
Internet browsing, or contacts.
 Java API Framework: All features of Android are
 Most popular platform for mobile apps
available to developers through application
o As the world's most popular mobile platform, Android
programming interfaces (APIs) written in the Java
powers hundreds of millions of mobile devices in more
language. You don't need to know the details of all of
than 190 countries around the world.
the APIs to learn how to develop Android apps, but you
o It has the largest installed base of any mobile platform and
can learn more about the following APIs, which are
is still growing fast. Every day another million users power useful for creating apps:
up their Android devices for the first time and start looking  View System - used to build an app's UI,
for apps, games, and other digital content. including lists, buttons, and menus.
 Resource Manager - used to access to non-
code resources such as localized strings,
 Best experience for app users graphics, and layout files.
  Notification Manager - used to display custom Many distributions option
alerts in the status bar.
You can distribute your Android app in many different ways:
 Activity Manager - that manages the lifecycle
email, website or an app marketplace such as Google Play.
of apps.
 Content Provider - that enable apps to access Android users download billions of apps and games from the
data from other apps. Google Play store each month.
 All framework APIs - that Android system apps
use. Google Play is a digital distribution service, operated and
 Libraries and Android Runtime: Each app runs in its developed by Google that serves as the official app store for
own process and with its own instance of the Android Android, allowing consumers to browse and download apps
Runtime, which enables multiple virtual machines on developed with the Android SDK and published through Google.
low-memory devices. Many core Android system -----------------------------
components and services are built from native code
that require native libraries written in C and C++. Building for a multi-screen world
 Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL): This layer provides
Android runs on billions of handheld devices around the world,
standard interfaces that expose device hardware
and supports various form factors including wearable devices and
capabilities to the higher-level Java API framework.
televisions.
The HAL consists of multiple library modules, each of
which implements an interface for a specific type of Devices can come in different sizes and shapes that affect the
hardware component, such as the camera or screen designs for UI elements in your apps.
Bluetooth module.
 Linux Kernel: The foundation of the Android platform In addition, device manufacturers may add their own UI elements,
is the Linux kernel. Using a Linux kernel enables styles, and colors to differentiate their products.
Android to take advantage of key security features The challenge for many developers is to design UI elements that
and allows device manufacturers to develop hardware can work on all devices. It is also the developer's responsibility to
drivers for a well-known kernel. provide an app's resources such as icons, logos, other graphics,
The challenges of Android app development and text styles to maintain uniformity of appearance across
different devices.
While the Android platform provide rich functionality for app
development, there are still a number of challenges you need to Maximizing app performance
address, such as: An app's performance-how fast it runs, how easily it connects to
Building for a multi-screen world o Getting performance right the network, and how well it manages battery and memory
usage-is affected by factors such as battery life, multimedia
00 Keeping your code and your users secure o Remaining content, and Internet access.
compatible with older platform versions o0 Understanding the
market and the user. You must be aware of these limitations and write code in such a
way that the resource utilization is balanced and distributed
---------------------------- optimally.
For example, you will have to balance the background services by
enabling them only when necessary; this will save battery life of
the user's device.
Keeping your code and your users secure
You need to take precautions to secure your code and the user's
experience when using your app.
Use tools such as ProGuard (provided in Android Studio), which
detects and removes unused classes, fields, methods, and
attributes, and encrypt all of your app's code and resources while
packaging the app.
To protect your user's critical information such as logins and
passwords, you must secure the communication channel to
protect data in
transit (across the Internet) as well as data at rest (on the device)

Remaining compatible with older platform versions

Consider how to add new Android platform version features to an
app, while ensuring that the app can still run on devices with
older platform versions.
It is impractical to focus only on the most recent Android version,
as not all users may have upgraded or may be able to upgrade
their devices.