Best tools for Android development

Android is a mobile operating system developed by Google, based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open source software and designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Android was first created in 2003 by Andy Rubin, who first started developing the OS for digital cameras. Now Android has become the best popular platform for the smartphones as well as tablets. Day by day, the Android quality is becoming more efficient due to the release of all new apps. One of the biggest reason for this success is beautifully development. Because of its openness, Android offers a ton of opportunities for developers. Android developers are able to churn out all these mobile apps much faster and more efficiently thanks to a profusion of sophisticated, integrated development environments (IDEs) as well as other time-saving tools and applications. There are plenty of Android tools available to improve development productivity and build better applications. The number of these tools is increasing all the time. This is a better time to create your own Android app! For this, in this article, we will arrange the best tools for Android development that can help you to become a more efficient Android developer.

So, let's check out the tools -

Gradle please

If you are using Gradle as your build system in Android Studio, then you can add any external library in your project with just a single line of code.

FlowUp

An amazing tool for Android which can help you to track the overall performance of your app and get in-depth insights on various key performance metrics like FPS, memory usage, CPU usage, disk usage and much more from your live production app.

Stetho

A powerful open-source debugging platform for Android that developed by Facebook, Stetho makes debugging native Android apps as simple as debugging web pages using Chrome’s DevTools. It allows you to check the complete View hierarchy, inspect your SQLite database, monitor network operations, and perform other actions with ease.

Android Asset Studio

An awesome (free) collection of easy-to-use tools that generate various types of icons (launcher, notification, generic, app shortcut icons) that you will need while designing and developing Android apps.

GameMaker: Studio

For Android game developers, one of the most popular development tools is GameMaker: Studio. GameMaker provides everything you need to create 2D games using very little code. It is an extremely user-friendly application with a simple drag-and-drop interface. GameMaker: Studio is targeted to beginner and novice gaming developers.

Genymotion

Genymotion helps developers test and preview an application on over 3,000 device scenarios. Genymotion is popular among gaming developers because it comes with pre-installed standard Android images and graphics that are quite useful in the testing process. It also provides greater speed than testing an app on an actual Android device. Genymotion is a cross-platform development tool and supports many different programming languages and environments.

BuildFire.js

BuildFire.js is a cross-platform library used to build custom functionality in BuildFire’s platform. It allows unlimited customization with nothing but JavaScript, making it one of the simplest to implement frameworks. Leveraging the existing functionality of the BuildFire platform BuildFire.js gives developers the ability to shortcut 80% of the app development process by leveraging any of the 45+ open source plugins that exist and simply focus on the custom functionality that is required.

Ionic

The Ionic Framework is based on the Sass CSS language. It’s also cross-platform, meaning it can run on multiple operating systems. It’s pretty easy to use and can also be integrated with AngularJS to build more advanced apps. Ionic also has a library of mobile-optimized HTML, CSS, and JS CSS components, tools and gestures, and works with predefined components. A command-line interface provides features like logging, emulators, and live to reload.

RxJava

RxJava is a ReactiveX library for Java that allows using Reactive Extensions for asynchronous programming on Android. It helps developers to orchestrate various actions that need to happen when certain events occur. With RxJava, you can forget about global state management and callbacks, and instead, express the necessary flow in one separate thread as a stream using a functional paradigm.

Corona SDK

Corona SDK promises up to 10-times faster game and mobile development. Because the Corona app backend framework relies entirely on Lua, a lightweight multi-paradigm programming language with a focus on speed, portability, extensibility, and ease-of-use.

PhoneGap

PhoneGap is a freeware, open-source program for creating apps for Android, Windows, and iOS mobile devices. It uses standard web development languages like CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. With this cross-platform app developer, you can work with device hardware features such as an accelerometer, GPS/location, camera, sound, and much more. PhoneGap additionally offers an Adobe AIR app and online training courses to help you access native APIs and build mobile apps on its own platform. You can build apps with PhoneGap on Windows and macOS, and there's an Android, iOS, and Windows Phone app that will run your custom app on your device to see how it looks before going live.

MonoCross

MonoCross supports the development of cross-platform apps with C#, Microsoft .NET and the Mono framework. Developers can retain the coding of application, controller, and model across different platforms while playing with the platform container and the view, that is, user-interface, to deliver a native experience across all key platforms. Also, it makes app porting easier than ever. Thus, businesses can cope with the rapid changes in platforms.

Kony

Kony's products sprawl across the entire software development lifecycle. The platform's services can be delivered through an on-premise solution, in a hosted private cloud, or in the public cloud. Cloud services are scalable and can be adjusted on demand. Testing tools and analytics are embedded in the platform. Offerings include Kony Visualizer, which integrates design capabilities into the development environment; Kony Studio, which has visual development tools and allows developers to add cross-platform JavaScript code and to connect to backend APIs; and Kony Management for deploying and administering mobile device apps.

Sencha Touch

Sencha Touch is a leading cross-platform mobile web app framework that can be used to build efficient applications making use of hardware acceleration techniques. On Sencha, top quality apps can be built with well-tested, tightly-integrated UI components and libraries. It’s even capable of building large business applications and maintaining them with ease.

Xamarin

Xamarin helps you build native apps for multiple platforms using a shared C# code base. With Xamarin, you can do anything in C# that you can do in Objective-C, Swift or Java unlike what is commonly believed. It lets you use the same IDE, language, and APIs everywhere. Moreover, Git integration is built directly into the Xamarin Studio.

Codename One

Codename One is a cross-device platform with goals of simple usability, rapid application development, deep integration with the native platform with possible native speeds. While you’re required to code in Java, your application can also be tested & verified with Codename One’s simulator devices and test automation tools.

Alpha

Alpha Anywhere focuses on the enterprise and can be used to produce cross-platform apps for major mobile operating systems, as well as for PCs and Macs. It uses JavaScript and HTML5. A recent addition to the platform allows developers to create apps that can be used offline.

RhoMobile

RhoMobile Suite is based on the Rhodes framework. It is a set of tools for developing data-centered, multi-platform, native mobile consumer and enterprise applications. Using RhoStudio, a free Eclipse plugin, developers can generate, develop, debug and test applications with no other hardware or emulator requirements.

Kendo UI

Kendo UI works in HTML5 or JavaScript and is available in open-source or commercial versions. The tool boasts tons of prebuilt themes with Material Design styling, as well as a theme builder for custom themes. It also offers a wide selection of UI widgets and plugins, Angular and Bootstrap UI integrations, and performance optimizations. The only downfall is the complexity of the tool - it’s not quite as easy to learn as some of the others mentioned here.

InstaBug

I have been using this tool for a while and find that it has significantly changed the way my users provide app feedback to me. They can now share screenshots, video and audio recordings, detailed logs, and so much more to help me identify and fix bugs easily. Pricing depends on a number of team members, apps, and months of data retention.

Source Tree

Source Tree is a clean, simple open-source tool to make Git more user-friendly. You can visualize all your changes, commits, and branches in a beautiful way and never have to write a single command in the command line again. It can also be highly useful for all the beginners out there who tend to get confused with the vastness of Git.

Drawable Optimizer

Using several image assets in an Android app tends to contribute a lot toward the size of the APK. But this nifty Gradle plugin can optimize these images and reduce the resultant APK size significantly for you.

Takt

A tiny library which you can use to check the FPS of every corner of your app while debugging it. It is always better to catch bugs and significant lags in the development phase and not letting your users have a chance of a bad experience while using the production app.

DevKnox

There are several security flaws hidden inside our apps that we are mostly not even aware of and it can take quite a lot of experience and effort to understand various critical aspects of security and make bulletproof apps. This awesome tool can help you detect security flaws as easy as using a spell checker in your IDE.

Android Studio

No list of Android development tools would be complete without Android Studio. This is the official IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for Android, making it the number one choice for the majority of developers looking to make basic apps in-keeping with Google’s Material Design and with access to all the advanced features of the platform. Android Studio supports Java, C++ and now Kotlin, though Java is the official language of Android, a compiler that can create APK files and a file system for arranging your project. It also includes an XML editor and ‘design view’ for arranging elements on the screen. Android Studio offers an entire suite of additional tools.

 

Every tool has its strengths and limitations. You can select as per the requirements of your project. A cross-platform app development company entrusted with any project must strike a balance between what is available and what is required, and go in the right direction. If you know about any extraordinary tools, don't hesitate to share with us in the comment section. Thank you!