Android Unplugged

 When you release a new version of your Android app, there are a few important details that need to be updated: the version number, version code, and changelog. These are all critical for tracking releases and communicating new features or fixes to your users. Managing these elements manually can be time-consuming and error-prone, especially as your app evolves. But with Fastlane , you can automate versioning and changelog management, saving you time and avoiding mistakes. In this section, we’ll explore how to automate app versioning and changelog management using Fastlane . Step 1: Automating Versioning with increment_version_code Every time you upload a new version of your app to the Play Store, you need to increase the version code . This is required by Google Play to differentiate between different versions of your app. If you don’t increment the version code correctly, your app upload will fail. Fastlane makes this simple by automating the version code increment with the incre...

  Opening Note! Among numerous discussions and debates on the Internet these days about the suitable architecture to follow and adapt, Google recently published a detailed blog to follow best practices while we are articulating the Android App. App architecture defines the backbone of scalable, maintainable, and high-performance Android apps. In this article, I am trying to curate the key principles from Google’s official guide, ideal for an app architecture. The purpose of this article is to clarify architectural patterns and highlight universal best practices. Resources referenced: [Google’s Official Guide to App Architecture] [Phillipp Lackner’s YouTube Deep-dive]​ Common factors to design architecture 1. Tackle various config changes An Android App must run on a wide variety of available devices in the global market i.e., phones, tablets, foldables, and various orientations. Configuration changes like screen rotation, recreate activities. We must use ViewModels to preser...

                                        Setting Up Fastlane in an Android Project So, you’ve heard how Fastlane can make your life easier, but how do you actually set it up in your Android project? Don’t worry! The process is simple and straightforward, and in this section, we’ll walk you through it step by step. By the end, you’ll have Fastlane up and running, automating your app’s build and release process like a pro. Step 1: Install Fastlane First, you’ll need to install Fastlane on your machine. The good news? Fastlane is compatible with both macOS and Linux, and it’s easy to install with Homebrew (if you’re on macOS) or RubyGems (for other systems). For macOS (using Homebrew): If you’re on macOS, you can install Fastlane with the following commands in your terminal: brew install fastlane For Linux and other systems (using RubyGems): If you’re on Linux (or just prefer usin...

Introduction to Fastlane in Android Imagine this: You’ve just finished coding an amazing feature for your Android app. You’re excited to see it live, but before you can share it with the world, there’s a mountain of tasks to deal with. You need to build your app, sign the APK, run tests, and then upload it to the Play Store. Sounds like a lot of work, right? Now, picture this — what if you didn’t have to do all that manually anymore? What if there was a way to automate all those repetitive tasks with just a few commands? This is where  Fastlane  comes in to save the day. A Developer’s Struggle As an Android developer, you’ve probably been in this situation before: After every update, you spend hours preparing your app for release. First, you build the APK, check that it’s signed correctly, maybe run some tests, and finally upload it to the Play Store. But wait — did you forget something? Did you accidentally push the wrong version? Or maybe you missed an important test that co...

           D id you ever think, what happens when you install your app in your Android device, it shows INSTALLING for fraction of second and app get opens. What happens exactly behiend the scene? Found Interesting???? Cool !!! let’s clear all the doubt in this blog. You would have definetely read the buzz words JIT(Just-in-time) and AOT(Ahead of time) at many ocassions. We’ll dig it down in details in this article, stay tuned…. Android apps run on Android Runtime (ART) , which replaced Dalvik since Android 5.0 (Lollipop). ART supports both JIT (Just-In-Time) Compilation and AOT (Ahead-Of-Time) Compilation to improve performance and efficiency. JIT (Just-In-Time) Compilation How it Works: Compiles bytecode into native machine code at runtime (when the app is executed). Stores frequently used methods in memory to speed up subsequent executions. Advantages: Faster app installation because it doesn’t require full compilation beforehand. Reduces s...