Most Common Mistakes That Android Developers Make

Android is a reliable, trusted, customizable, free, and widely used operating system. During the ongoing process of developing an android app, we make a lot of mistakes and most of them are very common. That’s not the only issue that we are making mistakes, but it is always a bigger issue than anything else if we are not learning something by doing or committing a mistake. Learning from the mistakes should be in our attitude as an android app developer.

Also, it is recommended and advisable by experts that we should not make the same mistake repeatedly. In doing so, we have to identify that mistake and after learning and comprehending from it, we should definitely try our best to not make that mistake repeatedly. This sort of approach will be an overall development approach for ourselves. The very first step is the identification that what we are doing wrong. In this blog post, we will know about the most common mistakes that android developers commit.

1. Fail to Use Data Binding Properly

Using the process of data binding will help to remove the boiler-plate code. With the help of Data Binding, we can implement and execute whatever we like. This shortens our efforts, in a lot fewer lines of the code; we can implement and execute more objects. It also provides us with features that will help and enable us in easy testing our UI. Moreover, Data binding is something that should not be used too much or too often, if you will try to do that so that then your app size will definitely increase and your building process will also become heavier in comparison. This problem comes when you use it way too much. Balancing everything is the key when you are using data binding.

2. Not Making the Proper use of Libraries

As android developers, we are not robots that we need to code for something like a hell without understanding that we can achieve this thing in a much simpler manner by just making the use of libraries provided by android or any other third party app. For instance, If we are making network calls to the server and we are not making use of any library then we have to code more, and it’s not making a point that we should waste our time or efforts by doing something which is already done by someone else and kept the use for the public. There are so many other useful libraries available in android. Following are some instances or examples of them:

• Picasso for Image Loading,
• Gson/Jackson for JSON Parsing,
• Volley/Retrofit for Network Calls,
• ASNE For Social Login, and more.

3. Poor Use Of Bit Maps

Under many circumstances and situations, we have to use an image in our app at different places and with different sizes. It’s going to be a very excruciatingly painful process for us as a developer to import different images for different sizes. We can make use of Bit Maps for this sort of problem. Bit Maps can be used for the resizing the images and it’s a great practice as an android developer to making use of it.

4. Not Meeting the User Expectation

A magnificent and huge amount of android applications are published on the play store, the idea on which you are making your application. It’s pretty obvious that someone has already implemented that idea. If you want to stand alone and distinct in the crowd then you should be focusing on fulfilling the expectation which your user has. For instance, Good navigation, Better color combination, and proper use of android material design can be implemented and executed.

5. Not Making the Use of Fragments or modules

New android developers and some old ones also are not making the proper use of modules or Fragments. They are using activity everywhere in the app. But the great and good practice is to use modules and fragments on the app where you can use it. Fragments help us to change our User Interface components quickly and reduce the response time of the application.

6. Giving More Attention Toward Older API Versions of Android

Yes, you read it right this is a Mistake. You know that android has introduced many new components now and it is increasing day by day. By making use of those components, your application development journey will be flexible and if you will try to stick to the older versions of the API then your developed app may be not good at any cost. You can make more scalable and better and more user-friendly apps by using the new components and methods which were introduced by android which are not available in the older API versions.

7. Blocking the Main Thread

The main and utmost thread is responsible for the speed and lightness of an application. We should at no cost put loads and block main threads in any circumstances. The main and utmost thread will be responsible for the User Interface and what is going on the screen. So, we should avoid blocking the main thread at all costs. In order to achieve so, Make network calls, bitmap processing, Database querying, and SD Reading writing on background/worker thread.

8. Security Flaws

Making a safe and secure application should be your prime responsibility. Don’t leave any data without using encryption on it and also keep an eye on the third-party libraries which you are using. Take your proper time for making the app secure and safe for the users. Removing and eliminating the security flaws and common vulnerability issues will lead you to create a more scalable android app.

9. Having a Fear From the MotionLayout

MotionLayout is a more advanced and complex layout introduced earlier by android. Motion Layout contains a myriad of Property Animation Framework, Transition Manager, and CordinatorLayout. It’s introduced with the capabilities as a complex transition and motion handling. Lots and lots of android developers have a fear in their mind from the MotionLayout. But it is not that complex you can learn more about the MotionLayout and can even easily implement it. Implementing the MotionLayout in your application will be a really great experience for your users.

That’s all for this blog, Instead of doing the regular practices that you are making you should be focusing and concentrating more on what you are not doing correctly or what can be improved. For doing so, you will most definitely get help from this blog post.