Why should you try android development?
📅 18 Jan 2020 🕑 3 min read
Photo by Rami Al-zayat on Unsplash
I know, I had to write this article several years ago, but nothing can be too late 😀
It is for you if you write java for backend and have never tried to do something. If you are already a mobile developer, I am not sure you will find something useful in the article, so you can surely skip it.
I try to describe why you should try to develop apps for Android. Currently, I am a backend developer, so I very often compare mobile development with backend development. The reason for it is an absence of any experience except working in the backend.
Ok, let’s go.
The first of the reasons are easy to do. It’s true, because, both have the same stack (JVM), the same languages (Java, Kotlin, Scala or any JVM-based language), even some libs, of course not at all. You will have to learn something specific to mobile development and Android API, but it’s not tough. Nowadays, there is a lot of documentation, articles, posts on the internet about questions, which you will face. You don’t have to spend much time on it, only basic concepts and common knowledge about the android platform. It will be enough to start and write a simple app, then, sure, you will be learning something new again and again 😏
The second thing, you will be isolated from the OS. You will not think about how the operating system launches your apps, how to close etc. Actually, it doesn’t matter. I agree that in every activity you can dig as deep as possible, and Android development isn’t an exception. Nevertheless, it’s not absolutely obligatory to know these details to create beautiful and amazing apps. In backend development, you have to know, for instance, how to install packages in Linux, how to set environment variables, how to run your applications, how to launch аn app as a service etc. Also, if you don’t have special people for it (they are called system admins or DevOps), it will be nice to know how you plan to update your application without downtime, to transfer data, how services interact with each other. You can trust me, you will have to know all these things. Maybe I am mistaken, but mobile development strikes me easier than backend development.
The third thing, you can share it with your friends, parents, and others. All these people don’t have to be programmers to understand and appreciate your work result. You just create an app, upload one to Google Play or just sent it to someone, install it, and it’s all. Everybody can see it, touch it, and use it. If you were a backend developer, you would create functions, modules, services. You couldn’t show your work, maybe, only to other programmers like you. These abstractions are not comprehensive for the average person. It’s happiness to create something and share one with somebody. Mobile development gives you this opportunity in extremely the easiest way.
The fourth thing, creating mobile apps is actually funny. Android OS provides an API for doing a lot of things. You can get access to a camera, GPS, gyroscopes, microphone etc. It gives you many opportunities, which are limited only by your imagination. Moreover, you can create an application, which you can install on your smartphone and use every day. To my mind, it’s a perfect experience and good basics to continue improving.
I hope I have persuaded you to try it. Thanks for reading, take care and good luck.