While Windows 8.1 and iOS 8 have hogged the limelight for the last couple of months, Android remains one of the best development platforms out there. Android has dominated and continues to dominate the industry thanks to the wide reach it facilitates. Over 70 % of the smartphones sold use the Android platform. The absolute ease with which you can enter the development community and put your app out there definitely helps too. In this column, let us look at what Android offers application developers, and the changes 2014 has brought to Android’s Kitkat.
Fragmentation was always an issue with Android. Android app developers have gotten weary of keeping track of all the compatibility issues that come with the number of phones they are made available for. However 2014 brought a promise of unification. Hopefully soon you will no longer need to worry about making your app compatible with outdated versions of Android.
Android is extremely memory efficient. A new API of Kitkat allows Android app developers to optimize apps for the minimal RAM available. Android now also has a lot to offer its app developers when it comes to design. Kitkat guides you on how to incorporate your branding in your UI to give a consistent and professional feel. It also brings a new Touch ID and a full screen mode.
Phone users today are all about multitasking. With Android you can now have two apps running simultaneously and working together on a split screen. This gives it a huge edge over iOS application development. The notification system of Android is also far superior than that of its competitors.
One of the most exciting new features of Android is the screen recording. You can now make high quality videos of your app from your Android device itself. Creating a promotional videos of your application has never been easier.
Another feature developers can look forward to is the cool new screen transitions. You now have the freedom to design and animate transitions between pages/slides of your app and also while entering/exiting your app.
Android is one of the most consistent development platforms. It has so much to offer its developers and is an ideal platform to build an app to cater to the masses.
