5 Most Common Mistakes That Android Developers Make and How to Avoid Them

There are five most common mistakes that android developers make, and avoiding them is a good start. These mistakes include not using beta testing, failing to fulfill user expectations, and not securing your application.

Let’s take a closer look at each one. Learn how to avoid these mistakes and make your apps more effective. Don’t waste time reading this article – it contains several tips and tricks for building better Android apps.

Avoiding beta testing

The first tip for avoiding beta testing for Android developers is to plan ahead. Beta testing for Android apps takes time. If your release deadline is two weeks, you might need to shorten your beta program.

You can make up the time by enlisting more testers or by optimizing your beta program. Beta testing for Android apps can take anywhere from two to 12 weeks, although most last four to eight weeks.

If you have a rapid release cycle, you may consider ongoing beta programs and continuous integration and deployment.

In the early stages of development, the app must perform to industry standards and meet user expectations.

Android Beta Testing provides the opportunity to find bugs that might not have been caught in earlier phases of testing.

The more beta testers you have, the more likely you are to find bugs that may have escaped detection in the early phases. Beta testers also give your app an edge in the Play store review process because they are an authentic audience of users.

Building a secure application

If you are building an Android app, one of the most important aspects of app security is encryption. Encrypting data between your app and the server is the first line of defense, and encryption is even more important when your app is offline.

Another aspect of Android app security is eliminating storage of sensitive data. Typical data stored in an application includes contact lists, messages, and usage history. You should also test your application for memory leaks.

Network transactions can be dangerous, especially when sensitive data is involved. HTTPS should be used for all network communications between apps and servers.

HTTPS is generally the preferred protocol over HTTP. Android users often connect to Wi-Fi hotspots, which are unsecure.

Malicious hotspots can alter HTTP traffic to inject ad code or an exploit into your app. To avoid these issues, use HTTPS for all network traffic.

Using SSLSocket for network communication is another essential component of developing a secure Android application.

Using SSLSocket will protect you from attacks based on weak authentication. And remember that you should use a keystore for storing encryption keys.

Additionally, you can use online features to check access to apps and features. You can also use Android’s in-built authentication mechanism to ensure that your application is safe from malicious users.

If your application contains third-party libraries, you should check the sites of these libraries to ensure they have the latest security patches.

The security of these third-party libraries is crucial to the integrity of your application. This is especially true when the libraries are used for data and information that are not fully trusted.

Using third-party libraries for code can be problematic, so use a controlled internal repository instead. If you have to use a third-party library, make sure you exercise policies before downloading it.

Not fulfilling user expectations

Despite the fact that Android users prefer apps that are designed to do one specific thing, the platform is not the same as iOS.

Many programs are made for iOS but are unusable for Android users. Therefore, it is important to follow the Android guidelines when creating an icon. A four-sided square icon does not make sense for Android users. Use an icon that is square in shape.

Using LinearLayout

LinearLayout supports assigning a weight to individual child views. The value of this attribute is the percentage of the available space for a view group.

The more weight a view has, the larger its empty space will be. The child views in the view group are then allocated the rest of the space in proportion to the weight value they declared. To use the linear layout, you must make sure that your view group is API Level 11 or higher.

You can use the linear layout with six children. It will display the child controls one after another, vertically.

By default, it is set to vertical, but you can also set it to horizontal. LinearLayout allows you to specify the number of child controls and the spacing between them.

To change the layout, simply set the orientation attribute to a different value. The child controls will be arranged vertically, with their parent control in the top-left corner.

You can also use nested layouts to display child views. LinearLayout is best used for single-screen applications, as it aligns child views in a row.

LinearLayout is free to use, and it is also easy to learn. By following the steps above, you will be well on your way to building your first Android application. It only takes a few minutes and doesn’t cost anything.

LinearLayout is the most basic and common layout. It allows you to implement list and grid views. You can find the use for this layout in almost any application.

Vertical layouts stack up components vertically while horizontal layouts stack them horizontally. In addition to these, you can also place widgets and buttons in vertical positions.

You can even place nested layouts relative to each other. So, you don’t have to be worried about creating a cluttered view, as you can still use nested views in Android apps.

Using Deep View Hierarchy

When developing Android apps, you should know how to use the deep view hierarchy. Android measures and renders views in three steps: drawing, layout, and measurements.

If you have a complex tree structure, you need to create subtrees and children. The nested views are related to each other, and each subtree is responsible for determining the child view’s size and position. This technique can help you achieve a cleaner app layout.

The advantages of using deep view hierarchy are numerous. First, you can reduce the number of views you’re using, which will decrease the amount of time your app takes to draw.

Secondly, you can decrease the amount of overpainting you do. You’ll be able to save XML files in Photoshop, and you can even change the background color. After all, no one wants to paint two layers!

Another benefit of the deep view hierarchy is the ability to optimize your app’s performance. If your app contains many feature-rich components, a huge hierarchy of views will likely result in slow performance.

The best way to solve this is to rearrange your views in a manner that optimizes performance. For example, if your app is built with a nested LinearLayout, you should delete it. This will improve the performance of your app and make it easier to maintain.

When you use a high-level view, you can see many gaps and frames in the display. This is a problem caused by a large number of connections in the view hierarchy.

By restructuring the view hierarchy, you can reduce the overdraw time in your application. By restructuring your view hierarchy, you can ensure that every view is rendered in its entirety. You should also use a GPU profiler when developing your Android app.