Thousands of android apps coming out every month is a testament to the immense popularity of Google’s operating system. The demand for android applications by enterprises is at an all-time high in the mobile app development Dubai sector. However, the trend of android development also led to an increasing number of badly coded applications or ones that just don’t impress users. 

Considering the many different handheld devices and Android OS versions out there with varying screen sizes, hardware configurations and whatnot, making a responsive, fully-functional android application is no easy feat. The average android developer may not always be able to test the app on all the devices it’s supposed to run on. Some things are just not practical for a developer. 

This is why it’s a good idea to focus more on common app development mistakes and make sure that the app works perfectly fine across a variety of devices. 

Here are some of the most common android development slipups you should look out for.

Developing applications for iOS/other platforms

Smartphone users are now more aware of the mobile technologies and platforms than they used to when the devices started to become popular. An Android user would generally be used to the material design of android apps, and can easily distinguish apps ported from other operating systems to Android. 

This is why it’s important for the developer to stick to the free guidelines recommended by Google while developing an android app. A few of the important ones include:

• Not using static tabs at the bottom, which is a signature design principle of iOS applications
  
• Not using colored system notifications for the app
  
• Avoiding carets within lists
  

Not developing for the latest Android version

Fragmentation is a major concern when it comes to the Android platform. Android’s latest version, Nougat, is available only for about 0.5% of the devices out there, while the much older Android Ice Cream Sandwich was made available only to about 1.2% of the devices. This brings up the question of why developers have to develop apps for the latest Android version. 

This is because with each new release of Android versions, Google releases new APIs that enhance already existing functions, and add new functionalities. A good developer would always go for the latest APIs in Android Support Library, and implement them when developing an application. The APIs in the support library are backwards compatible. 

Not creating applications for multiple screen sizes

There are more than thousands of Android devices out there sporting different screen sizes and display types. This requires even widgets to be scaled properly for various screen resolutions. A same version of the OS itself might appear different in different screens. 

But rookie developers often make the mistake of using only a single preview device while coding, believing that the app would look pretty much the same in other devices. A better way is to use dp (density independent pixels) when specifying borders and sizes for images and widgets. They can use sp (scalable pixels) for fonts. It’s also a good idea to test on multiple devices just to be sure that the app works like it’s meant to in various devices.

Out of memory while loading images

The size of the app is important, as it influences how fast it draws on the device’s screen. Many apps at present use a lot of images and bitmaps, which requires a significant amount of memory resources. This is one of the reasons why amateur developers often get a ‘out of memory’ error. 

The images that are to be drawn on screen are loaded on to the memory first. A high resolution image or an HD image would need a lot of physical memory (RAM). To overcome this challenge, they can make it so that the image only loads on specified screen resolutions or show only what the user needs to see. This drastically reduces the amount of RAM used.

Experienced developers use ‘Bitmap.createScaledBitmap()’ to allow the OS itself to scale images optimally and draw them on the screen.

Conclusion

Times have changed, and staying ahead in the android market is a lot more challenging. The developers need to constantly expand their knowledge and make use of creative and innovative development approaches to stay on top. Ignoring common development mistakes might do more harm than good in the long run.