Top 5 Trends in Android development -2018

Most of the people are tech-conscious than ever before, Android is evolving constantly and various mobile platforms have merged in the IT industry, all these factors will make an impact to hold the eye on the mobile app development companies. Even Though there are a lot of changes in the methodology of mobile app development companies in the past few years, here we come up with new android development trends in 2018.

In this article we will go through the top five Android development trends in 2018:

1. Kotlin
2. AI & Machine learning
3. Android JetPack
4. Internet of Things (IOT)
5. Cloud-based android apps

Let’s get into details

Kotlin

Kotlin has a statically typed programming language that runs on Java Virtual Machine(JVM). It supported by Android studio 3.0 and higher. We can create new project easily with Kotlin files, just by adding files to the existing project and then convert java code to Kotlin. It consists of features for nullability and immutability, by that we can make our apps more safe and secure with the best quality and performance.

Know interesting about Java vs Kotlin and which you should prefer for your next Android app development.

Kotlin code uses all the existing tools of Android studio like autocomplete, lint checking, refactoring, debugging etc. By using Kotlin we can save time and money on QA and debug.

4 major features to consider for Kotlin:

1. Compatibility: Kotlin is adaptable with JDK 6, we can confirm that Kotlin even runs on older devices without any issues.
2. Performance: Kotlin Application can perform equivalent to java application.
3. Interoperability: Kotlin is interoperable with Java. It allows using all the files of android to Kotlin application.
4. Compile Time: Compile time for Kotlin is faster than Java.

AI & Machine Learning

The term AI tells that machines can do many tasks in a way that are INTELLIGENT. The machine is not just programmed to do a particular single or repetitive task, they can perform many different tasks or different situations.
Machine Learning is a part of AI with more specific terms, Which includes data process in a machine and learn on their own, without our guidance. Learning Machine language is a bit difficult, it requires a lot of research and knowledge. In order to overcome, there is a new firebase MLKit, which consists of Google cloud vision API, tensorflow Lite, Neural Network API. All these features are wrapped in one single SDK.
Using this MLKit, mobile developers implemented ML features, such as

5 top features of Machine learning

1. Text Recognition: Text Recognition is available free for mobile developers. These recognize only latin alphabets on mobile devices. In on-device recognition, it will return photographed structure document with full text which consists of blocks, paragraphs, words, and symbols.
2. Landmark Recognition: This is now one of the best features in use. Using this we can recognize the well-known places. It basically works on the cloud and returns the result in SDK.
3. Face Recognition: Detects the image of the face and returns the boundaries and also used for photo verification.
4. Image Labeling: Image labeling has a multitude of uses. For example, if we upload a photo that suggests the user for a TAG this one type of labeling and another one is to give a topic name to the group of photos in the gallery.
5. Barcode Scanning: Using MLKit there are 13 different formats of the barcode. It just not only handle custom data but also handles some predefined events like sending text, wifi connection Detection and adding calendar events.

Android JetPack

This is a pack of components, tools, and guidance to develop the best Android apps and thus runs faster. Android Jetpack components put all the existing support libraries, architectures and arrange them in order to overcome major issues like backward compatibility, app management. Google arranges all these in a single pack with four categories i.e Foundation, Architecture, Behaviour, and UI. Android jetpack components are available as unbundled libraries which are not part of the underlying Android platform which means that we can adopt each component at any speed and time. If any new Android Jetpack functionality is available, then you can add it to your app. Later you can deploy your app to play store by providing users with all features in a single day.

In addition to this, we can run the app in various versions of the platform because Android Jetpack components are built by providing backward compatibility. Android Jetpack is produced with separation of interest, testability and also with Kotlin Integration. These make much easier to develop the high-quality app with less code.

5 top features of Android JetPack

1. Navigation:  Using this we can handle in-app navigation. It represents all in-app destinations as graphs. App screen navigation is done using XML attributes. It includes the deep-linking to destination for handling notifications.
2. Architecture components: The architectures are used to separate the UI from application logic for easy maintenance and increase testability. In order to overcome these issues google made it easier with architecture components. There are two types of concepts in architecture components.
3. Live Data: If any changes in the data source, it notifies the view.
4. View Model:  It holds all the live data objects and doesn’t disturb even after the device changes its orientation.
5. Slice: In Android, the concept of the slice is very useful and more effective one. Slice is used to build custom layouts in the search app. Using these the user can use the application from google provider application which is inbuilt.

IOT(Internet Of Things)

The Internet Of Things is the very advanced concept that came to know to the world. Through this concept, our routine work has been done more easy and convenient just by connecting the electronic devices with our smartphones. Now, most of the home automation companies are working to come up with enhanced smart home technology that can be handled by smartphones or apps.

Top 4 features  of IOT

1. Connectivity: Connectivity in IOT is more than the slap on wifi. Connectivity will enable the network accessibility and compatibility. Accessibility is getting to network while compatibility is having the common ability to consume and thus produce data.
2. Sensing: Sensing technology will give us the means to create an experience that will reflect an awareness of the physical world. In simple words Analog input from the physical world, but it gives the better understanding to the complex world.
3. Energy: Energy is one of the key features of IOT. Power efficiency energy harvesting, charging infrastructure are very important intelligent factors to consider in the ecosystem.
4. Safety: Safety is another one to consider. Both Creators and receipts will take this feature as a key fact to point. The automation company will implement the electronics with all the required safety measures. This includes the data and the smartphone that we are using for operating the device.

Cloud-based mobile apps

Cloud Application is a software program that is designed to access the internet. As Cloud technology is driving up, so the Android experts are focusing on Cloud-based applications. Cloud technology reduces the burden to access data by many types of portable computing devices.

Top 3 features od Cloud-based mobile apps

1. Flexibility: More flexible for Data streaming like Audio, video, online gaming, etc.
2. More Data Space: Providing more data space for online cloud app like Google Drive, Dropbox, etc
3. Security: Data security for commercial business

The above mentioned are the latest trending technologies in android development in 2018. Android development is becoming more easier and flourishing more powerfully. Are you still waiting to build the  Android application? We have the best suggestions to come up with for your business. Get in touch with us – we are always happy to talk!

Krify is a leading Android app development company having clients globally. We have dedicated Android App Developers who are pro in delivering quality outputs satisfying our valued customers. Do share your Android App idea and we will work on it targeting recent trends and versions.