Android Unplugged

  Inter-process communication (IPC) in Android is how different apps and system components talk to each other safely, even though each runs in its own isolated Linux process. Android achieves this with a kernel driver called Binder, wrapped in familiar APIs like Intents, Services, ContentProviders, AIDL, and Messenger.​ 1. Story first: apartments and the intercom Imagine every Android app as a separate apartment in a high-security building. Each apartment (process) has: Its own space (memory). Its own keys (UID/permissions). No direct access to other apartments. Yet, apps need to talk: Food-delivery app → asks Google Maps for routes. Camera app → sends photos to the gallery. Music app → asks the system if it can play over an ongoing call. Whenever this conversation crosses apartment boundaries (processes), you are doing IPC. Binder is the building’s intercom system that connects apartments and the building’s control room (system services).​ You already use IPC whenever you: St...

  Undoubtedly, if we all strive everyday to build a robust app which support any Android Device in the world. There’s multiple aspects in Android Development lifecycle which is overlooked; i.e. Auto Backup Machenism . I’ll be talking in detail about this in this article, it has been very popular these days, since the popularity of Offline-first applications drastically increased. Precisely this is governed by android:allowBackup and backup_rules.xml configuration. Whether you’re optimizing a production release or debugging persistent reinstall issues, mastering app backups is really important skill. Highlighting the importance of android:allowBackup By default, android:allowBackup is true , which commands the application to back up the data to Google Drive , which consist of Databases , SharedPreferences , and Files . The purpose of this setting is to protect the user’s Data in case of App Uninstall or Device Migration . Anyways, we should be very cautious while playing with ...