Developing for Android is a great way to reach a global audience of billions of people. It is an open-source operating system that runs on a variety of devices with different hardware and software requirements. For this reason, there are multiple frameworks available to developers for building mobile app development frameworks for IOS or android apps. In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the most popular ones and what you need to know about them.
Mobile development frameworks also allow you to avoid common issues. Some of these are related to copying and pasting code, an issue that can occur when you work with different code bases. Once you have your app built and validated, you can reuse its codebase by simply importing and exporting it. However, when you are using a different framework, you will have to rely on more complicated tools.
What is Android app development?
Android app development is the process of creating mobile apps for devices using the Android operating system. The Android Software Development Kit allows developers to create apps in languages such as Java, Kotlin, and C++ (SDK). Android was first introduced in 2009 and is based on the Java programming language. In today’s world, Android controls the whole mobile app sector, with the bulk of the market share and a global clientele.
What are the frameworks?
Ionic Framework
Ionic is an open-source cross-platform UI framework built for mobile devices, developed for Angular, Angular CLI, TypeScript, and Cordova. In 2017, it became part of Microsoft’s Visual Studio App Maker and offers extensive templates for Android app development and native UIs. Ionic is the de facto default UI framework for creating hybrid apps that are fast and efficient on devices. Its powerful, reusable components make it easy to build cross-platform apps.
The framework is known for its commitment to help developers by minimizing dependencies and hence improving build times and performance. The project is growing and new features are being added every month. You can download Ionic’s source code from GitHub or clone the Ionic developer site to get started with the framework.
Features Include:
- MIT License was released in 2013.
- Written in JavaScript, it makes use of HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript.
- Among the deployment options are: Standard and Rich UI Elements for Mobile, Web, Desktop, and PWA
- Architecture of AngularJS MVC
- CLI is a command line development interface that is used by over 5 million android app developers worldwide.
- There are several help forums available, including the Ionic forum, Stack Overflow, and Slack.
Kotlin – The best choice for Android app Development
Kotlin is an object-oriented programming language that is designed to increase developer productivity and encourage the use of modern and robust programming paradigms. While Android is open source, it’s important to remember that Android apps aren’t open source. Instead, they are open source in theory; that is if you build them on the Android app development framework and your app supports all of the OS functionality it should be able to run on any Android device.
Android app developers often choose to develop on a closed source platform when a superior open-source option isn’t available. But in our research for The State of JavaScript on Android report, we found that 68 percent of Android developers have developed their apps on Android because of the large user base. Kotlin is an open-source programming language that addresses many of the concerns that currently exist around the use of Java on Android.
Features Include:
- Efficiency
- Extension Functions
- Massive Interoperability
- Reducing Crashes at Runtime
- Smart Cast Function
- Safe and Reliable
- Low Cost of Adoption
SDK for Corona
Corona, which is ideal for novices and is free to use, is widely regarded as one of the greatest 2D and 3D mobile development cross-platform tools for developing applications and games on a single code base throughout the world. It makes use of Lua, a powerful and lightweight scripting language. In addition, the platform has a plethora of built-in APIs, plugins, and Corona Native extensions to help with app creation. The SDK also includes a simulator, which allows you to see your work as well as any modifications you make.
Corona SDK is widely used by businesses for Android app development. The framework is also at the heart of famous games such as Warcraft, Angry Birds, The Lost City, and others.
Features Include:
- It was released in December 2009.
- It is free to use.
- Written in Lua
- Used in the deployment of mobile and online applications.
- Corona APIs, REST UI Designer, UI frameworks, and plugins are all implemented.
- MVVM architecture with game controllers
- More than 500 developers use it.
- Corona Discussion Forums
Flutter – A great choice for Android app developers targeting a higher-end market
Flutter is an open-source framework for Android app development projects. Flutter app development offers an elegant interface, integration with 3rd-party libraries, and seamless feature sets. In 2017, Flutter entered the Google Platform accelerator program. This accelerated the development of Flutter and the adoption of the framework by developers. Google has also released an SDK that can be used to build apps in Flutter. You can use the Flutter SDK to build mobile apps for Android and iOS or to port an existing Flutter app to other platforms like Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Flutter, which is written in Dart, works with existing code to assist teams in mobile app development and is an excellent alternative for developers looking to thrive in hybrid app development. It employs a single codebase, and its apps properly compile to native code by utilizing Google’s 2D rendering engine, Skia, to provide graphics that match the Material Design and Cupertino styles.
Features Include:
- Release date is in May of this year,
- BSD License Update
- Dart, C, and C++ were used to create this project.
- Mobile, Web, PWA, and desktop deployment options are available.
- Widgets for Material Design and Cupertino Skia MVC Architecture, as well as rich UI rendering components
- Used by 30% of developers
- Support forums include Slack, Github
React Native
React Native is widely considered one of the most effective Android app development frameworks. It’s so popular among developers that it’s one of the fastest-growing and most-wanted open-source platforms. Its origins may be traced back to a Facebook hackathon in 2013, which resulted in its release in 2015. Given that it was created by Facebook, React Native has a large number of users, an army of engineers, and is a popular Android development tool for companies such as Facebook, Tesla, Instagram, Walmart, Intuit, Uber, and others.ct Native – A popular alternative to native development
React Native is a popular open-source UI framework for creating mobile apps that look and feel like native applications. It takes advantage of modern browser technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and makes them work on the platform. React Native currently runs on many popular platforms, including iOS, Android, and desktop. It is great for building hybrid mobile apps that are also great for desktop and Windows.
React Native’s primary features are modules, which let you define a component in JavaScript that you can reuse in multiple apps. You can simply create and reuse a React Native module with a single line in the file (in the root directory of your project).
Features Include:
- The MIT License was released in 2015.
- Deployment choices include JavaScript and React. UWP, mobile, and web
- Access to native APIs — JavaScript and third-party libraries
- Flux and Redux MVC Architecture for Native Widget UI Element
- Used by roughly 42 percent of developers
- Support forums include GitHub, Stack Overflow, Dev Community, and others.
Native Script
Native Script is a platform to explore for Android app development teams who wish to create for various platforms in a short period of time. It, like the others, is a free platform that gives app developers everything they need to build native apps in JavaScript, TypeScript, Angular, or Vue.js. However, it differs from the others in that it focuses on native UX, which is quite handy when combined with cross-platform code sharing. You may also utilize free templates, plugins, and app examples.
Fans of Native Script will be pleased to know that it is utilized by Symantec, Dell, Microsoft, and other companies, as well as millions of developers.
Features include:
- Apache 2 License was released in March 2015.
- Deployment choices include JavaScript, CSS, Angular Mobile, Web, Desktop, and PWA.
- Native Script UI Elements may be accessed using the JavaScript API.
- MVVM Architecture with Composable Components
- CLI, Sidekicks, VS Code, and Plugins are examples of development interfaces.
- Stack Overflow, Slack, Github, and other help forums are used by over 2.1 million engineers.
Angular – For mobile apps
Angular is a popular JavaScript front-end framework developed by Google. It was originally introduced in 2013. The premise behind Angular is that every developer using the framework should be able to develop apps that are incredibly fast, easy to update, and simple to understand.
Features Include:
- Model View Controller (MVC) Framework
- User interface with HTML
- POJO Model
- Active community on Google
- Routing
- Two-way binding
Other Frameworks worth a mention
Xamarin – For apps that need to run on iOS and Android
Xamarin allows developers to develop apps that can be executed on any device with the Android, iOS, and Windows platforms. It is one of the most popular cross-platform frameworks today. There are other cross-platform frameworks, such as Ionic and JQuery, but Xamarin is the most popular, and one of the first. The benefits of Xamarin include the ability to build apps that are mobile-ready, cross-platform, and have a consistent development workflow.
Features Include:
- Native platform integration for Android and iOS
- Various code signing
- PCL
- Diagnostic tools
- Application loader
- Google emulator manager
- Android SDK manager
- Storyboard files
Mozilla FireFox 4.0
Firefox is the market leader in the web browser space, and it is also open-source software that is developed and maintained by Mozilla. It is one of the most popular open-source mobile browsers, and it supports nearly all of the important mobile platforms available in the market.
According to market research firm Gartner, Firefox’s global market share will increase to 17.9% in 2017 from 14.7% in 2016. Mozilla also offers a mobile development framework called Gecko, which is based on Blink and has its own toolkit called GeckoBase.
Android Lint
Android Lint is a black and white code editor that helps you detect common errors found in your app’s code. It is available in the Google Play Store for free. It allows you to check for syntax errors as well as style errors, which is handy because most developers make a ton of these mistakes. There are a lot of these errors that can easily be missed if they aren’t pointed out.
Basic Differences Between Android and IOS
In today’s world, smartphones are popular, and Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS are the two most popular smartphone operating systems. Neither operating system was designed to be as user-friendly as they are now.
Android’s features
Android does not accept as many significant upgrades as iOS does, instead opting for smaller increments that bring fewer changes each time. The majority of the updates come in the form of “.X” updates, which are essential additions rather than system changes.
iOS’s features
Since 2007, Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS, has controlled a variety of features built across numerous editions and modifications. Many of these features were hailed as remarkable, even revolutionary when they were originally created and introduced by Apple.
Conclusion
IOS app and Android app development can be a difficult task, but with the right framework, you can get more out of your apps. When you get a better understanding of the options available to you, you can begin to create apps that are feature-rich and will not fall short. The platform is also improving, and as more devices become available, the learning curve will become less steep.
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