We are living in a mobile-centric world. Nowadays, mobile phones are not acknowledged only as a communication tool. They have a wide range of features to ease up our day-to-day lives. According to Statista, by 2023, there will be 4.3 billion smartphone users across the globe. Due to the increasing number of mobile phone users, the mobile app development industry’s popularity is rising. Building a mobile application has become essential for businesses. Thus, the requirement of app developers has suddenly risen.
Android is dominating the global market by 71.93% shares in the operating system market. Therefore, android has become the most preferred app Android App development sector. However, developers require programming technologies, tools, and skills to become the perfect android developer.
The role of an android developer is to design and build the application for android based devices. Android developers work to fix bugs and improve app performance. They are accountable for determining, estimate, and implement the latest technologies to maximize development efficiency.
Over 3k apps are launched on the google play store every day by android developers worldwide. Thus, mastering the android development skills has a considerable scope shortly. Here are a few essential android developer skills required to become a successful android developer. Let’s dive in and learn more about the android developer community.
6 Essential Android Developer Skills for 2021
To become a successful android app developer, you must have some basic skills and work hard to develop excellent additional skills to work in a diverse arena of android app development projects. Although, one needs different android developer skills according to the requirements of the project. Android developers required skills, such as programming, designing, testing, publishing, etc.
Let’s dive into the detailed android developer skill set that is required to become a perfect android developer.
#1 Programming Skills
Building mobile applications requires a thorough knowledge of designing and programming. A good programming skill helps to break down the new technology step by step. As mobile phones have smaller screens and simpler processors, android app developers need to code flexibly for various user interface situations. App developers frequently use the following programming techniques and tools.
Programming Technologies
Java and Kotlin are two major android development languages you can use for app development. You need to understand better both programming languages, including syntaxes, framework, generic and functional programming.
To design layouts in android, developers use XML, a mark-up language that stands for extensible mark-up language. These XML layouts are linked to java files, where business logic is written. XML shares many features similar to HTML, such as angular brackets, opening, closing tag types, and deep nesting elements.
Mobile devices are thin; thus memory allocation, processing power, and battery draining are common issues developers face. Therefore, developers must learn the code that is sophisticated and accurate to bring high performance and intractabilit
Programming tools
IDE, integrated Development Environment plays an important into big scale coding and project management. IDE offers required tools, services, and code templates so that developers can start their work instantly. IntelliJ IDE is the base for android studio and supports many android SDKs (software development kit).
Android studio has many features such as code completion, auto-suggestion, code-debugging, memory and CPU monitors, etc., making it easier for Android developers. For successful integration, mastery in Android studio is necessary.
Android SDK is a pre-packaged code in Java, which provides easy access to mobile device-specific hardware and functionality, such as camera and accelerometer, to provide a native device experience to the end-users. The Gradle is an android SDK library that piece together external/third-party SDK and deliver a smooth application experience.
With the Application Programming Interface (API), the external services can access the services and use them in data exchange. Thus, an android developer must have the skills to work on different APIs used in the latest app functions. Also, a database is a core part of the android development process, as running applications require SQL databases. Therefore, android developers must have a thorough knowledge and skills for database management software and database.
#2 Designing Skills
Android apps have a front-end interface for end-users. The user interface (UI) involves components, such as graphics, layouts, controls, and animation. Usually, in big projects teams hire designers, but if there is a limited budget, some projects require developers with essential android UI designing skills and expertise on various designing tools. Even though the application has full functionality, it won’t run in the market for long if it fails to match the latest UI guidelines.
Here are a few examples of designing tools that ease the work for the android app developer.
Designing tools
Android app development requires designing tools such as Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Sketch or other prototyping and wireframe development tools, mobile animation development tools, and more to provide design components during the app development process.
Google has launched a set of advanced interface guidelines and standards called Material Design rolled out across all of their products. Android platform has direct access to material design templates and libraries for an exceptional user experience and elegant look in android app development.
The material design comes with detailed guidelines and documentation so that beginners and experienced android developers can learn from them.
#3 Testing skills
Android app testing must remove bugs, errors, crashes, and glitches before the final development of the app in google play or other platforms. Testing the app before the launch will highlight some critical issues such as payment errors, security malfunctions, etc. thus, android developers must have sufficient testing skills.
Testing methodology and strategies
Testing is a part of quality assurance in android app development. However, Android app development requires various testing strategies and methods before starting the project. Here are some of the testing strategies developers should implement in the development process.
- OS testing
- Device testing
- Network connectivity testing
- Battery testing
- Security testing
- Automated testing
- Testing tools
Usually, software testing can be conducted manually or using an automated tool, or both. Thus, android developers must learn testing methods and tools to carry effective QA processes when tested in a different scenario.
Mainly, android faces issues with hardware, devices, and fragmentation issues. It requires special skills to test emulators or stimulators and various techniques to run tests on android devices with different operating systems.
#5 Publishing skills
Publishing skills are as necessary as technical skills. No matter how good your android app is, if you do not have sufficient and adequate marketing, you won’t be able to get enough audiences. Thus, android developers need to have excellent publishing skills.
Marketplace skills
To publish an android app for customers or internal staff, the android application must publish at the end of the app designing and development process. For google play submission, developers should know about the programming guidelines, submission, and designing. They also must have enough successful practical experiences.
If you don’t have enough practical experience, people might have doubts regarding your work.
Documentation skills
Android developers deal with technical products, development processes, and customers. Non-technical skills, such as writing all the documents, articles, and blogs, are required from the developers. Writing project proposals, guidelines, reports, analysis, and tutorials are required for experienced and newcomer developers.
#6 Project management skills
Irrespective of the working field, the android developer is a part of the app development team. It is because android app development is not possible by a single person and requires a team of differently skilled members who can handle their respected fields. Thus, an android developer should be acquainted with the essential project management skillsets.
Research and Analysis Skills
The concept of app development is to visualize and develop the app from the idea. Thus, it is essential to do thorough research about the topic and its convenience for the market.
Before developing an app, the developer should focus on their targeted audience, requirements, preferences, etc. Developers can gather all this information by conducting surveys and research. This data helps businesses to get to know their customers. It requires business analytic skills to conduct the perfect survey to gather as much information about the customers as you can.
Internal communication skills
The Android development team has various team members, from designers to developers. To keep the whole team on the same page requires efficient communication. Thus, the developer requires to master communication skills and use tools to establish internal communication.
Use various data transfer tools to provide smooth communication, data and file exchange, video conference, etc. With proper communication, team members can easily be connected and find instant solutions if required.
External communication skills
Working as an outsourcing Android app development company requires a lot of external communication. External communication requires additional skills in English and clients’ culture and business practices in a regional sense. It provides a compatible application that focuses on the target audiences.
Good communication skills will make the work easy for both developers and customers, speeding up the project process.
Reporting
Customers demand various reports throughout the process. They need to know the current state of their project. Even though you have finished a certain level, if you cannot provide an accurate report, customers might not be satisfied with your work.
Thus, learning excellent reporting skills is a must for developers.
Surveying and feedback gathering skills
The simplest way to know your customers is to ask them about their requirements directly. By conducting the surveys, you can quickly gather information about your customers and use that data to provide a personalized experience for them.
Feedback helps to identify any application glitches. Always pay attention to negative feedback and modify features if needed.
Conducting a survey is a vital step for the android development process. Therefore, the developer requires all the surveying and feedback collecting skills to carry all in technical ways and present incomplete documents.
Collaborative skills
Collaboration is one of the vital aspects of the android development project among the stakeholders. Usually, it requires cloud-based storage and web servers to store all the files. Dropbox and GitHub are some of the data storing tools. Developers must learn how to use these tools to share code and data.
Git is a free, open-source software used as a version controller. It lets you experiment with new features and coding techniques. With Git, you can work on new ideas while your previous work is stored someplace safe. You can quickly restore your previous work if something goes wrong with your new idea.
Conclusion
As the number of mobile rises, the requirement for new applications increases, marking the android development industry for the long run. As we know, being an android developer requires a lot of skills, from technical to non-tech. Some of the android developer skill set includes a technically sound, vital sense of the UX/UI, skills in cross-platform solutions, critical thinking, the proper understanding of business, being an ardent researcher, and quickly adapting to new changes.
This article highlights various android developer skills to become an avid Android developer in the competitive market. However, android developer skills are required to change with time and the rise of new technologies and tools for development.
If you want more insights, the android development team at Sysbunny is eager to guide you and share the knowledge and experience with you. Feel free to contact us and start the communication.
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