JUST TAKE A LOOK ABOUT ANDROID APPLICATIONS…

Android is the Linux-based mobile operating system. It manages multiple applications in touch screen mobile devices including smartphones and tablets. Ten years back, on September 2008, Google, a tech giant, gave birth to its first commercial Android device. And, since after the inception, it has always been in the latest words. However, it has experienced many folds throughout its journey.

The first Android version 1.0 came into existence in 2008 with some basic features and with each passing day, Google put efforts to develop it. Now, the latest version 9.0 ‘pie’ is ruling in the market with many incredible features. 

Features:

•    Interface

•    Applications

•    Memory

Interface:

By default, Android’s interface includes touch inputs (swiping, taping) and a virtual keyboard. You can write, search, play, click and do many other actions either by touch or using the keyboard. However, along with advanced versions, Google never forgets to bring new internal hardware like proximity sensors to respond the additional user action.  

Applications:   

Mobile phones are nothing without its applications as they primarily enhance their functionality. The network of android applications has scattered so far that it becomes impossible to live a single day without them. Till date, more than 3 million Android applications got launched to support our daily routine jobs and needs. The official programming language for Android application is Java, however in the recent announcement, made by Google; now Kotlin also begins to support in the android app development.

Memory:

Android devices are battery-powered so, it manages the applications itself to minimize the consumption. In the case of memory low, it automatically stops or suspends the inactive operations. 

Android app components:

Activity:

Let’s start with the most important android component or better say, the only UI component of Android applications, Activity.

Have you ever noticed when you open an android application, a screen welcomes you?

That screen user interface and your actions which you performed there, constitute a part of an activity. It is similar to working on a website.

Like, whenever you open a website, you come across its web pages. The pages over there are taken as an activity. Also, with some clicks or taps, you can move from the current activity zone or page to other.

Without you even realizing, there is a complete life cycle of android activity is going on with the help of several callbacks like OnCreate ( ), OnStart ( ), OnStop ( ) and more. Remember, every android activity is taken into account inside the AndroidManifest.xml.

Service:   

Now, you have an idea that your action on the user interface screen is an activity. However, have you noticed that while playing a song on any music app, it will automatically stop on receiving a call? This action or task has done without any UI and known as service. It can run indefinitely in the background, until or unless it explicitly gets stopped.

Content Provider:

Do you have Truecaller and Picsart in your smartphone? They both ask the access to your contacts and gallery respectively. However, have you wondered how your single click on ‘yes’ transforms the information from one app to another? Content provider, an android application component is a real hand behind it.

Broadcast receiver:

As per its name implies, it deals in broadcast messages. You can program any android app to send and receive the broadcast messages. For instance, if you want a ‘battery low message’ for any of your apps, just add a broadcast receiver in itself, and whenever that particular event happens, your app gets notified.

Most popular Android apps:

Based on broad categorization, the android apps in the Google play store are mainly of education, lifestyle, books, tour and travel, business, entertainment, and business. Among them, there are some apps which get downloaded from the play store thousands of billions of times. 

Facebook:

It’s not surprising that Facebook is one of the most popular Android apps in the Google play store. Irrespective of gender and age, everyone is fond of using it.

WhatsApp:

Can you imagine a smartphone user without WhatsApp account? Yes, if and only if, he is dealing with something worse or has an exam tomorrow, else it’s quite hard to believe. Since its launch, this android app has been ruling as one of the most popular messaging too. Here you can share text, images, videos and more with your friends.

Instagram:

Are you addicted to add stories or to follow your favorite celebrity on Instagram? As per the number of downloads, it comes next to Facebook and WhatsApp. It is also one of the free android apps and can be easily installed from play store.

Subway surfer:

This gaming app has more than 1000 billion downloads. Here you can enjoy an amazing endless journey, in which you need to run and protect yourself from a police officer and his dog.

SHAREit:

SHAREit successfully replaces Bluetooth and transfers the large files within seconds. The key benefits of using it are offline availability and free of cost service. These amazing features place it in the most popular android app list.

Google translate:

Undoubtedly, mobile applications fill the gaps for language diversity. Now you can get the solution for your queries within seconds and in your own language. With more than 500 million downloads, it also proves as an important android app for users.

So, this is the small ecosystem of Android, where several android applications live altogether. After having command over java and android development tools, it’s not so tough to develop an android app. For better learning of technical and non-technical concepts of Android, you may take help from tutorials or guides.