Rediscovering Android App Development after six years

After a hiatus of about six years, I recently delved back into #Android App development, and the experience has been truly remarkable.

TL;DR;

After a six-year break, I reignited my passion for Android development, embracing Kotlin, JetpackCompose , 谷歌 Material Design and relearning #MVVM architecture. A cozy Christmas vacation provided the perfect setting for ideation and planning. Excited for the future ! I invite you to explore my Play Store Developer Page for a collection of Android productivity and fun apps!

Weekend apps, made for fun, not profit. Pure pixels & passion, no monetization / ads ever !!

Somewhere around 2016 - 2017, I was exploring Mobile App development and things became interesting super quick. I wanted to cover larger ground and kicked off my journey with cross platform development frameworks like #Ionic and #Cordova. I had then published couple of articles over LinkedIn, if anyone wants to check them out here it goes:

• My Journey of Building Cross Platform Mobile Application with Ionic Framework and Apache Cordova Part - 1
• My Journey of Building Cross Platform Mobile Application with Ionic Framework and Apache Cordova Part - 2

There should have been a Third installment, but life happened and I could not follow through :)

Christmas 2023

Christmas 2023 was a turning point. While enjoying a skiing vacation, I found myself nestled in a cozy log cabin with some free time. Amidst sipping coffee and Skiing, was casually looking through Android documentations. Android's new UI framework Compose caught my attention. Surprise! Surprise! .. Things have changed a lot from the older Xml Activity based approach to Declarative UI components with Kotlin.

Throughout my career, I've primarily focused on server-side development. Crafting a comprehensive UI experience hasn't always been my forte. The new declarative approach of JetpackCompose reignited my interest once more aligning seamlessly with #Google's Material Design principles!

Rediscovering the Android Ecosystem:

Returning to the ecosystem, I was pleasantly surprised by the evolution it has been through. Specially the tooling a.k.a Android Studio has gone through leaps and bounds. Android is running on more types of devices than it was 6 years ago. More devices => More types of screens to worry about, more chances of the UI to look bad. Grhhhhhhrrrr ....

Relearning the basics and trying my hands on basic apps

A lot has changed over years, the choice of language is now #Kotlin rather than #Java. I have a weakness for strongly typed programming languages and Kotlin does not disappoint. The #JetpackCompose UI framework is easy to grasp. It makes designing for different screens easier.

The more things change, the more they stay the same

As the name implies, the core principles remain unchanged. Architectures like MVVM are still upheld at their core. Dependency injections etc. have been much easier now using HiltDagger but again the architectural patters are common just as any programming paradigm.

Ideating, Building and Publishing Apps... Again!

After the initial few days of reading through the documentations, architectural best practices and Wire framing, I decided it will be best to learn by doing.

On weekdays, my schedule is usually packed, leaving weekends for experimentation. Without proper planning, the weekend slips away in the blink of an eye. So, my first step was to create a roadmap! I aimed to be cautiously ambitious, considering it's been a while since I've published.

It took some effort to setup necessary development environments in my personal computer. I had to create space and tidy up—akin to clearing out the cobwebs, haha!

For the next several weekends I conceptualized, wireframed, built, and published several apps over Google Play Store. Generally, after submitting an App for review, it took up to 7 days for approval. Google has strict guidelines on what goes through!

Among the recent apps I've published, Mathastic holds a special place as one of my favorites!

"Mathastic is an addictive new math puzzle game that will challenge your brain, improve your mental agility, and keep you entertained for hours!"

"There are plenty more where that came from!" - Unknown

Do check out my Google Playstore Developer Page

Looking Ahead

I'm brimming with excitement for what lies ahead! I've laid out a self-imposed roadmap and approach the future with cautious enthusiasm.

I'd be delighted to hear about any similar experiences where you've brushed off the dust and rekindled your passion for creating small projects! Please feel free to share your stories and insights in the comments below.

I'm passionate about contributing to free, open-source projects that enrich our community! Would love to collaborate!

Feel free to explore my Google Play Store Developer Page and reach out with any questions or thoughts. Together, let's embark on this exciting journey of discovery and creation!