After 2020, people are not just transitioning into tech but tech is permeating a variety of diverse fields. Even today Android operating systems form a large chunk of the market system and the Android ecosystem is widely used. With the rise in users of Android devices, Android development is a skill that has a huge and ever-increasing demand.

Android is an operating system that was created by Google to be used on touch operated systems like cell phones and tablets. It is a mobile operating system.

What is AndroidX?

Android originally came into the market as a mobile operating system. However, with its growing reach amongst developers and the ever-increasing progress in code libraries, Android has now made its presence in smart televisions, tablets, notebooks as well as wearables.

The Android support library is that tool which helps Android developers build codes and applications for Android. AndroidX is the newest major improvement to the support library.

The Android Extension Library or AndroidX is a major improvement to the original Android Support Library, which is no longer maintained. AndroidX packages fully replace the Support Library by providing uniformity in features across diverse platforms and systems and new libraries. It is used in developing, testing and releasing libraries as a part of Jetpack. Jetpack is a collection of Android libraries that helps implement growth, security and other best practices in your Android applications.

Changes in the Android Native Development landscape over the past few years

When you create an application in the native development landscape, you also create a program that will run on a specified platform, say Android or iOS. Thus, the application will be compatible with that particular platform.

Over the last few years, there has been a change in the android native development using Kotlin/Java landscape. Java has been the traditional language for coding in Android, but is now starting to be replaced by Kotlin. Ever since AndroidX has been rolled out, many components of Android legacy code (legacy code is obsolete source code that is no longer supported by the system) are being migrated to AndroidX, with the latest release (as of Feb 2022) marking the inclusion of Activity (the platform where the app creates its UI) in AndroidX.

Why is it a relevant skill?

The Android operating system has a substantial share in the market worldwide, especially on mobile devices. With the rise in consumers of Android smartphones, there is an abundance of demand and opportunities for both entry level and experienced Android developers.

Android app development is critical in expanding the customer base by reaching out to a wider audience, improving its sales, branding and creating a long-term consumer base. It thus operates at the interface of people and technology and can contribute hugely to the success of a business.

Therefore, for Android apps the journey from here is onwards and upwards given the wide ranging demand. Consequently, the demand for developers and the job opportunities are also growing exponentially.

How can you start learning?

To acquire this skill you can follow an Android Development course. You might need to reference more than one course to be able to cover all aspects of Android Development. In case you are looking forward to following a tutorial, our suggestion is to follow a course by developer.android.com or YouTube or Udemy (whatever works best for you). Google the topic, read the official documentation to understand the theory and the needs of the same and, have a look at the sample code. If you can’t understand the working while looking at the sample, have a look at the tutorial which uses the same. No matter which of the above methods you follow, make sure to implement all the topics in an application that are mentioned.

Roadmap

In the first phase you’ll be learning about the basic concepts of Android and by the end of this phase, you’ll be equipped with the knowledge of how to make a basic Android application. In the second phase you should be learning about the best practices that are widely followed in Android Development. In the third or final phase, you’ll be learning about the advanced concepts of Android. Without these no Android application is complete.

In closing,

A lot of times we find that a relevant degree to your name is important to be categorised as an Android Developer. But, today we increasingly find that Android Development is a skill that can be easily adopted on the journey and transferred to a bunch of professions and career trajectories. Next, on the AppDesk blog, we provide guidance on the step by step process of acquiring this skill through three main phases.