Android software development

Android software development is the process by which new applications are created for the Android operating system. Applications are usually developed in Java programming language using the Android software development kit (SDK), but other development environments are also available.

As of July 2013, more than one million applications have been developed for Android, with over 25 billion downloads. A June 2011 research indicated that over 67% of mobile developers used the platform, at the time of publication. In Q2 2012, around 105 million units of Android smartphones were shipped which acquires a total share of 68% in overall smartphones sale till Q2 2012.

Official development tools

Android SDK

The Android software development kit (SDK) includes a comprehensive set of development tools. These include a debugger, libraries, a handset emulator based on QEMU, documentation, sample code, and tutorials. Currently supported development platforms include computers running Linux (any modern desktop Linux distribution), Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later, and Windows XP or later. As of March 2015, the SDK is not available on Android itself, but the software development is possible by using specialized Android applications.

Android Studio

Android Studio is the officialintegrated development environment (IDE) for developing for the Android platform. It was announced on May 16, 2013 at the Google I/O conference. Android Studio is freely available under the Apache License 2.0.

Android Studio was in early access preview stage starting from version 0.1 in May 2013, then entered beta stage starting from version 0.8 which was released in June 2014. The first stable build was released in December 2014, starting from version 1.0.

Based on JetBrains' IntelliJ IDEA software, Android Studio is designed specifically for Android development. It is available for download on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, and replaced Eclipse Android Development Tools (ADT) as Google's primary IDE for native Android application development.

Features

New features are expected to be rolled out with each release of Android Studio. The following features are provided in the current version:

Android

Android commonly refers to:

Android may also refer to:

See also

SDK

SDK may refer to:

Android (operating system)

Android (from its former owner Android, Inc.) is a mobile operating system (OS) currently developed by Google, based on the Linux kernel and designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Android's user interface is mainly based on direct manipulation, using touch gestures that loosely correspond to real-world actions, such as swiping, tapping and pinching, to manipulate on-screen objects, along with a virtual keyboard for text input. In addition to touchscreen devices, Google has further developed Android TV for televisions, Android Auto for cars, and Android Wear for wrist watches, each with a specialized user interface. Variants of Android are also used on notebooks, game consoles, digital cameras, and other electronics.

Since 2013, Android is the best selling on tablets; and on smartphones the OS is dominant, thereby giving it the largest installed base of all operating systems of any kind.

Initially developed by Android, Inc., which Google bought in 2005, Android was unveiled in 2007, along with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance – a consortium of hardware, software, and telecommunication companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile devices.As of July 2013, the Google Play store has had over one million Android applications ("apps") published, and over 50 billion applications downloaded. An April–May 2013 survey of mobile application developers found that 71% of developers create applications for Android, and a 2015 survey found that 40% of full-time professional developers see Android as their priority target platform, which is comparable to Apple's iOS on 37% with both platforms far above others. At Google I/O 2014, the company revealed that there were over one billion active monthly Android users, up from 538 million in June 2013.