The Android app development platform is a great choice, if you are not going for cross-platform app development. They have many advantages that other platforms can’t offer. This platform allows you to develop feature-rich applications with great functionality and usability.

Android, as an open source operating system is used by the majority of mobile phone manufacturers to power their devices. This creates tremendous business opportunities and augments growth.

Most of the off-the-shelf applications available today are highly customizable products. Yet, custom android app development is gaining so much importance.

Let’s see some of the advantages that are characteristic of custom apps alone.

Android Apps Offer Perfect Solution for your Distinctive Needs:

Every business is different, and therefore needs a different solution for their unique business requirements. Packaged products often come with excellent quality and reliability, but they can ultimately be an impediment to your business goals.

Readymade products are designed to meet the requirements of a wide range of businesses. It may include many functions and services that you may not find to be useful. As a result of these unnecessary feature assortments, more system resources are used which will eventually slow down the entire process.

Most of the time, packaged app users may find it necessary to adjust and alter their business operations to accommodate the application. A custom application could always prove to be a better solution than standard solutions, no matter how much customizable it is.

Tailor-made, innovative and individualized processes gives custom apps the flexibility to suite your businesses’ in-house operations. Also, custom apps can be localized to maximize use and increase productivity.

Custom Apps can Save your Time and Money

App development costs can be highly deceptive. The cost of developing custom android app may or may not be lower than purchasing out-of-the-box solutions. But, it helps to stay on time and on budget during the development period.

Readymade apps will not include the costs for installation, customization, data import, training the workforce, and additional support. The long-term benefits of custom made business applications are far better than that of the readymade ones.

Another advantage of custom android app development is that you will have to invest only for those specific set of features that you ask for. You can also exclude recurring licensing costs that come with off-the-shelf products, since you own your custom app.

Very Few Complications and Compatibility Issues

As your application is customized and designed from the very beginning in accordance with the end user requirements, it will be quick and easy to use. Very little training will be required as the application is less likely to include elaborate and irrelevant operations.

There will be very few complications when you operate it with the business software and applications that you already use. With licensing business applications, it is usual to encounter continuous errors while working with it.

Increased Business Security

Custom applications always give you enhanced security. Your product is exclusively built for your business alone. Other application vendors and users outside your enterprise will not have any clue about the architecture of your application.

Hackers often attack the known vulnerabilities in the applications. So business security risks are very high for third party applications

Efficient and Reliable Technical Support

One of the major benefits that come with custom apps is the unparalleled technical support plan that the Android app development companies offer. You will get reliable, dedicated support from the team that was directly involved with your product development. The users are promised with quicker and efficient solutions to all the encountered problems.

BYOD Preference for Android Apps

From the market share of Android apps, it’s quite evident that it has a prominent role when compared to other platforms. Companies who wish to bring in their own policy (BYOD), it’s feasible to opt for custom Android app development as it is available for a wide variety of devices and has high popularity with users from all economic groups.

Easy Customization

Android provides the opportunity for developers to create versatile apps through their easy customisation feature. Be it a complex custom app or a web app integration, this platform provides ample space for easy customizations. This platform is designed in such a way that it can accommodate any requirements of a business and also offers flexibility to integrate multimedia tools, data management functions, and with regular updates.

Open Source and High ROI

Android’s SDK is available at free of cost, thereby minimizing the cost for software licensing. As it is a free open source framework, it enables development of apps without any extensive development costs.

Use of Wearable Devices

Among business, the use of wearable devices is flooding due to its quick communication functionality. As the market for wearable devices is considered to grow more than 45% in the coming years, Android is contributing a lot to bring in the best devices in the digital market for the sake of the users.

Conclusion:

If you have a strategy for developing a custom app and wish to choose a single and stable platform, then Android app development is the feasible option. It’s the most recommended platform because of its market perpetuation, ease of development, integration, and short span of development.

Thousands of apps are being released to major app stores every day. Yet, most of them wither before they even have a chance to bloom.

The effort, money, and time that is put into developing apps are enormous. Once you’ve got a lot of negative feedback from the users, there will be hardly any second chance given to prove the worth of your app. So ensuring security should be a major step taken by app development companies.

Security check is implanted into all the latest releases of Android app development to bring in a number of features for its users.

As security has become more of a concerning element for Android users, Google has launched a new security-focused page on Android developers site. This site provides tips for app creators to make their apps free from issues.

Some of the most common security vulnerabilities of android apps include the following:

1. Inadequate Transport Layer protection
2. Client side injection
3. Poor authorization & authentication
4. Security decisions through untrusted inputs
5. Broken cryptography
6. Lack of binary protections
7. Improper session handling
8. Unintended data leakage
9. Insecure data storage
10. Weak server side controls

Android operating system has several built in security features which makes attacks less frequent. These features allow enabling security easier during android app development. The main in-built security features include the ones given below.

•  Android Application Sandbox can be used to isolate the app data and code execution from other apps.
•  Data can be protected using an encrypted file system in case of device loss or theft.
•  Application data can be controlled by enabling application-defined permissions.
•  It enables user granted permissions. This will restrict access to the user data and system features.
•  Includes technologies to reduce memory management errors which include ASLR, ProPolice etc.

Since ensuring the safety of user data is a very crucial step in confirming your app’s success following the given below security check-list is important for every app developer:

1. Apps should use permissions that are necessary for integrated features. Developers should pay more attention to the permission factors that are used by the app’s libraries

2. The registration and activation process should be well made.

3. Never store sensitive information on external storage, since the data will become very easy to exploit.

4. Network transactions should be adequately protected as it involves transmission of private data.

5. Strong input validation is very important for app security.

6. When using native code, attacks that can be induced from data coming over a network or IPC should be controlled by carefully handling the pointers and managing buffers.

7. Use parametrized queries to submit to SQL database in order to stay safe from SQL injection.

8. JavaScript injection is a common web security issue when using the WebView as it makes use of website content that will include HTML and Javascript.

9. Use authorization token instead of frequently asking for user credentials so as to reduce fishing attacks.

10. Android offers a lot of methods to protect data, such as data isolation, entire file system encryption, cryptography, and secure communication channels.

11. Its better to use Android based Intent, Binder, or Messenger than Linux based network sockets and shared files to execute IPC.

12. In Android, Intent is preferably used towards an application component for asynchronous IPC.

13. For RPC related IPC, using Binder or Messenger is preferred, which can ensure mutual authentication of endpoints.

14. Loading code from outside of your application APK, can increase the risk of code injection.

15. Use of sensitive APIs and data from external storage should be verified as safe enough before using it in an app

16. Properly configured SSL should be in place to secure communication between clients and servers.

17. A new building block is introduced for anti-abuse- SafetyNet attestation(it’s an API for developers to vaguely evaluate whether the used Android device is genuine)

18. As several untrusted contents are handled in web view improvements are made in Android Lollipop. Now the Web View is showcased as an independent APK with regular updates

19. Mandatory use of application sandbox (a security mechanism to separate running programs to execute untrusted programs/codes)

20. Enhance security with Device Management Solutions

21. Methods to defend users against PHAs (Potentially Harmful Applications)using Verify Apps, which potentially enables steps to validate threats targeting the system

22. Verified boot is a protection layer that help to improve security checks using cryptographic integrity to detect changes in the operating system

23. Android O has now introduced “seccomp” (a security measure used in Linux kernal) which stops the exploitation by potentially harmful apps.

These are the few best practices that needs to be considered to maintain security while Android app development. Whether you are an Android developer or an entrepreneur, knowledge on a few caveats is important to set the right place in app market.

“Where to start android app development?” This is a question that every budding developer has faced in the beginning of their journey. App development is not just about learning the code syntax. There are a whole lot of tools and Android app development software that you need to get familiar with.

This article will help you to get started.

The Android Software Development Kit

The SDK comprises of a collection of tools that helps you in android app development.

The IDE is a part of the SDK, and is the main program that lets you write code, organize and edit various files, call libraries, perform testing etc. There are two important IDE for Android, viz., Eclipse and Android Studio.

Eclipse: It is the default IDE for Android, which allows you to work with Java and XML files.

Android Studio: Android Studio is a good alternative to Eclipse, though it can’t be used for every need that you may have, currently. The IDE is directly developed by Google at present, and is in the prolonged beta.

Here are some great resources for you to start learning the basics.

Android Developer Hub

Android developer hub is Android’s official developer website. You can get access to awesome tools & downloads, a never ending list of library items, code samples, training and everything related to Android here.

Codementor

You can get a lot of tips, tutorials, and expert advice from experienced Android developers in Codementor. The site will also allow you to sign up and receive email updates.

Android Weekly

This is your ultimate source to get free subscription to weekly newsletters and content rich articles, tutorials, videos, and more.

Udacity

This is an 8-week online class to learn android app development. The course is taught by Google engineers, which helps you to learn some of the core concepts better.

Android Debug Bridge

The ADB is a command line tool that allows you to communicate with a plugged-in Android device. The client-server program will let you make changes to the device. Here are some helpful resources.

Vogella: This will start right from the basics and takes you through the working of the ADB and the different scopes of using it.

ADB User Guide: This resource comes as Google’s official documentation and gives you a detailed idea about using the tool.

Android Developer Guidelines

Google gives you a great number of tutorials and guides, so that you can understand how to program your apps. Some sections are:
Google services, where you get features like map & locations, sign-in services etc.
API Guides, where you can read about adding tons of functionalities, such as basic animation and connecting to the web.
Sample Codes, for adding various functions.

Android Design Guidelines

Just like Apple’s User Interface guidelines, Google has it’s own set of design guidelines for it’s developers. Here, you can read the instructions and tips related to different topics on creating application interfaces such as animation, usability, layout, style etc. For e.g., the guideline details how you can design an interface that adapts not only to the mobile phone interface, but also tablets, TVs, and even watches.

Google has also come up with a new design metaphor, Material Design, which will add innovation and the possibilities of technology & science into it.

Git

Git is a version control system that can be directly integrated into the Android IDE. You can manage old and new project versions with the help of Git, and use it as a backup tool. Two of the most popular Git repository services are GitHub and BitBucket.

Vogella, Bitbucket Tutorials, and GitHub Guides contain a lot of guides and tutorials for people who want to get trained in the area.

developer.android.com: This is one of the best place to find Android related resources. This site contains a vast supply of information with detailed contents for the beginner level in addition to some of the more experienced developer content.

Know the basics of Java : To be successful in Android app development, every developer needs to have a good grasp of Java language, Android app architecture and Android API. Java is a language used in Android and once you learn it, connect your concepts with XML designs to apply with Android principles.

Envatotuts+ : It’s a free resource with written tutorials. There is a huge selection of tutorials and courses which range from a general view to more specific tasks. It also contains general Java tutorials, geared up specifically towards Android app development.

Udemy : This is a free solution for learning Android development. It contains different courses of varying lengths, where the contents are taught by talented and experienced instructors.

While you are certainly heading towards Android development, a look through the materials illustrated above will definitely help you to collect a little background knowledge.

The 4th and final developer preview of the next version of Android, named Android N has been released. Devices which has been enrolled to the Android beta program will be notified of an update to the Developer Preview Version.

You can download the final SDK from the SDK Manager in Android Studio. With this, you will be able to test your app against the official Android N APIs. You can test for new features such as Multi-window, direct reply and more.

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