How I got into App Development

As an up and coming developer with over 7 years development experience in general, I have never been happier that I decided to take the route of developing mobile apps for a living.

My decision to get into the App Dev world originated from my love for the Java language; I was pretty much sure that I would end up being a Back-end developer, until I looked at the Software Development market for freelancers.

If I was going to make any money, without a full-time employment, I had to be a full-stack developer. By that time I was into creating websites, but my design skills were not good enough to get me noticed; and worst of all, I did not like the Web Dev languages, this is when I had to make a plan.

I started getting into App development when BlackBerry was still relevant. With the vast number of mobile platforms, it looked like a viable option to go cross-platform. So I just took my Web Dev skills, applied some Phonegap and had an App for all platforms; Walla!

Java was still missing from this whole equation. The fact that I was creating Apps was not enough, I still did not enjoy using Jquery and CSS; besides the fact that the Apps I made had a different feel on all platforms and they were not 100% user friendly.

I had to make a decision to start developing for one single platform in native. With the Android market on the rise, I had to go for Android; Maybe if I had access to a Mac-book, I would have gone iOS. I got myself some tutorials and built my first Android native app using Java called "Notifications"; the Back-end developed using some PHP.

Fast forward to 2019; I am still doing Android development! With a lot of lessons along the way and some new skills, languages and frameworks added to my portfolio.

Today I use Kotlin to develop all my Apps; I do still use Java to build Back-end services using Spring Boot. Recently I have started learning Flutter for some Cross-Platform development, it is a great language to write.