When it comes to app development, Android has historically been more successful than iOS. With over 1 billion active devices in 2019, it’s no wonder that 80% of companies that develop apps also have an Android app in their portfolio. As the year 2023 approaches, more and more Android developers are preparing their apps for the future by incorporating best practices into their development strategies.
Of course, there’s no way to know exactly how Android development will change in the next six years, but we can be pretty sure that these 10 best practices will stay with us as we continue to innovate in the digital space. That’s why it’s so important to implement these best practices today!
Here Are the Top 12 Android Development Best Practices in 2023
1. SCRUM Principles are Quite Important to follow
SCRUM Principles are Quite Important to follow for creating and maintaining a successful app. The acronym SCRUM stands for:
- S - Set the sprint goal and measure results
- C - Create continuous flow of work
- R - Respect the team by giving them freedom to act on their own decisions but also guiding them when necessary
- U - Unified, shared understanding of what's being built and why it matters. Developing this understanding will help all members of the team stay aligned and on track with their tasks.
- M - Manage stakeholders' expectations around deadlines, plans, risks, etc. T - Take time off from regular duties to work on long-term projects
- E - Eliminate Waste which is anything that isn't helpful for achieving the goal set out in Step 1.
- A - Automate everything possible as soon as possible so that you're not wasting time doing manual tasks over and over again. Automation saves time and energy, while allowing you to focus your human resources where they're needed most.
- M - Meet regularly (daily or weekly) with the entire project team and/or any other stakeholder as needed to review progress or address issues/risks. You should also be using tools like JIRA Agile Scrum Toolkit to manage these meetings if needed so you can easily keep track of action items afterwards.
2. Maintain High Code Quality
This is one of the top best practices for developing apps for the future. The code quality will be vital and will help you keep your competitors at bay. Maintaining high code quality should be part of your development process, starting with when you write your first line of code. Remember that high-quality, well-tested and easy-to-read code is not an accident, but rather the result of deliberate actions taken by developers and engineers on a daily basis.
3. Always keep a consistent coding style and accurate Architecture
Always keep a consistent coding style and accurate Architecture. This will help prevent any unforeseen bugs or errors, and will make it easier for other developers to jump into your project if needed. You should also always have a well-defined project structure, so you can easily find files when you need them.
4 Embrace Fluid Layouts
Google introduced the concept of Fluid Layouts for Android, which offer developers more flexibility when designing their apps. Fluid layouts allow you to easily adapt your app’s layout to different screen sizes and resolutions by using elements such as Vector Drawables, Auto-Sizing TextViews and Scrolling Views. This means that you no longer need to create different layouts for tablets, phones and other devices. The following are some best practices for fluid layouts:
- Use Vector Drawables instead of PNG files so your images will automatically resize on different screens.
- Utilize Auto-Sizing TextViews so text will grow or shrink depending on the device resolution without having to worry about scaling it with code. For example, if you have an input field where users enter their name, but there is not enough space to display the entire name, don't use a scrolling view; rather set the maximum length of the TextView's content so only what can fit will be displayed at any given time. You can also use this approach if there is too much information in one view and you want to break up content into multiple columns.
- Consider adding a Recycler View because they are useful for providing scrollable lists with large data sets, providing fast performance with little memory usage.
- When implementing dynamic menus, provide animations that smoothly scroll through menu items while preserving context within each item.
5. Learn How To Use Android Documentation
One of the best ways to learn how to develop Android applications is by learning how it works. You can use Android documentation, like the JavaDocs, and you should also learn Android UI guidelines as well as many other things before starting development.
6. Test Localization
It's important to consider localization testing when creating an app. When done correctly, it'll make your app more accessible and usable by all types of people. Localization is the process of adapting your app for specific languages or regions. It should not be overlooked as it will help you reach new markets and gain more customers.
7. Avoid Deep Level in Layouts
One of the best practices for successful Android app development is avoiding deep levels in layouts. Deep levels are layouts nested in other layouts. Avoiding deep levels will make your app easier to create and maintain. Layout hierarchies should only have one level, making it easy to understand what is happening in your app and make changes with confidence.
8. Speeding up Android Gradle Builds
Speeding up Android Gradle Builds will help developers work faster and stay productive. Here are some tips:
- Use the Gradle daemon for builds that take more than 10 minutes to complete.
- Use multi-core CPUs for Gradle builds that take more than five minutes to complete.
- Prefer incremental builds over full rebuilds by turning off or reducing tests, code coverage, and lint checks during development.
- The Gradle build is one of the most common reasons for slowdowns in Android app development.
- With today's increased complexity of apps, they often include dozens of dependencies which each need their own source code checked out from Git repositories, compiled and merged together with various other tasks like running unit tests.
- As a result, the build process can take hours or days to complete on older hardware or unreliable WiFi connections; even on newer devices with powerful processors it can still easily run into double digit minutes!
9. Go for a selective layout and Re-using layouts with <include/> tag
A great way for an Android developer to create a successful app is by avoiding layouts with too many components and instead applying selective layouts. Some developers believe that using one layout for the whole app and just changing the appearance of views inside the layout is more appropriate.
But, this can be more difficult than it seems when dealing with different screen sizes because all views are involved with handling the layout, even if their content doesn't change (e.g. TextView). Selective layouts have only as much as they need, limiting possibilities for conflicts while also reusing as much code as possible.
A similar method would be embedding other layouts within one that allows you to use less view components on any given screen and avoid being locked into designing a certain layout until development is near completion.
10. Using Android Debug Bridge (ADB) for your project
If you're planning on building a new app or maintaining an old one, it's important that you remember Android Debug Bridge (ADB) and its importance. ADB is a tool for developers that allows them to access their device over USB and communicate with the Android operating system. It provides many tools which can be used for numerous purposes, including installing/uninstalling apps, running shell commands and more.
In order for your project to have longevity, it's important that you take full advantage of the tools ADB has to offer. A few good ways would be connecting your device over WiFi instead of USB or using adb install instead of adb push.
11. Handling the Configuration changes of your project/app
To handle the configuration changes of your project/app, you should use the android:configChanges attribute. This attribute lets you specify the configuration changes that are necessary for your app. You can use this attribute if any of the following conditions happen:
- The screen orientation has changed (landscape or portrait)
- The device is connected or disconnected from a wireless network
- The language of the device has changed
- The user's keyboard type has changed
- The app is running on an external display, like Chromecast or Miracast ;
- The device has just been plugged into power and restarted after being fully discharged;
- A hardware key like volume buttons or power button was pressed;
- An activity within the app started by some other event such as shaking the phone;
- The system timezone has changed.
12. Provide Top-most Security
Security is an important part of any application development process. Not only does it help ensure the integrity of user data, but it also helps with security testing, which can reveal vulnerabilities that may be present in the code. To provide top-most security for your app, there are many different methods you can use.
You should always make sure all passwords are stored securely. You should also encrypt all sensitive data and store it securely within your app by using AES256 encryption or above. For extra protection and to avoid vulnerabilities due to time-travel attacks or replay attacks, you should use nonce tokens as well.
Conclusion
Hopefully these tips will help you create an app that will be successful for years to come. Remember, the market is constantly changing and your app needs to keep up with it. If you're having trouble deciding which features are the most important for your app, try using the Pareto principle: focus on the top 20% of features that deliver 80% of the value. Now that you know the best practices to create an app, hire Android app developers in India and get started.
