You're a seasoned software developer eyeing mobile apps. How can you smoothly make the switch?

For Android, the official website has several guides on how Android core works, and tutorials to get a hand on those core principles.

Google's official documentation for Android and Flutter is very clear. Most important while switching to Mobile Development is not to stay on learning language or Android System only. Starting a sample project while learning time is crucial. It will not be perfect but this practical knowledge that you gain while research and development consists. In short do not stuck on research, do research and development together.

Understanding mobile operating systems is crucial for app development, ensuring you design apps consistent with the platform's UI. Knowing how devices manage resources like memory and battery life is essential for creating efficient apps. Don’t get discouraged by resource limitations; keep pushing forward, and you’ll improve. Grasping the basics and lifecycle of mobile apps, including how they launch, run, and terminate, helps your app handle interruptions smoothly. My advice is to start building your ideas as soon as you’re comfortable with the IDE and language; don’t just copy from videos. Dive in and create—hands-on experience is key to mastering app development.

React native is the way to go especially when you want to build for iOS and Android at the same time. It’s good to have an understanding of React before jumping into React Native

UI and UX are as important in mobile dev as in any software with a graphical part. One thing also very important on mobile dev is performance, and it is as important as UI/UX, if not even more. If you have the perfect UI/UX while having it suck all the phone's energy, the OS will kick your app out all the same.

UI/UX are as important in mobile development as in any field. However, performance is equally, if not more, critical. An app with excellent UI and UX that drains a phone's battery or consumes excessive resources will be shut down by the OS. To balance this, focus on optimizing resource usage—choose your battles wisely, as over-optimization can bite you. Use efficient functions, minimize background processes, and leverage hardware acceleration for smooth animations. Use lazy loading to load only necessary data and components. Test your app on various devices to ensure it performs well under different conditions. A great user experience goes hand-in-hand with an app that runs efficiently and conserves battery.

APIs are crucial for enabling your app to interact with other services and devices. They help fetch data, integrate with hardware, and handle push notifications etc. Mastering APIs, including RESTful services and JSON for data exchange, is essential for creating functional and interactive apps. Think of APIs as the bridges connecting your app to outside world. For Swift developers, learning about Combine and Async APIs will further enhance your ability to manage asynchronous tasks and data streams efficiently

the most important part is to ask yourself: "do I really need this data? why?" because the answers to these questions are the answers you will give to your customers when they'll ask the same questions. when you have convinced your users of the importance of collecting their data, securing them shouldn't be a problem.

Usually, you can test virtually your app directly using the tools for development. In Android Studio for instance, you can create virtual devices with any screen size, pixel density and Android version you want.