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...

  Discover how Android Studio Otter’s latest release transforms Jetpack Compose development through AI-powered tools that eliminate boilerplate and speed up UI iteration. In this post, learn about Compose Preview Generation and Transform UI — the features that let you generate live UI previews with mock data automatically and modify your layouts using natural language commands in the IDE. Whether you’re a beginner or seasoned Android developer, these tools will streamline your workflow and unleash your creative potential. What is Compose Preview Generation? This feature automatically generates Compose preview functions and mock data for your composables. Instead of manually writing boilerplate preview code, Android Studio Otter’s AI creates it for you — saving time and allowing you to focus on crafting great UI. Practical Demonstration I created a screen recording showing these features in action inside Android Studio Otter — generating previews for a user profile card and updating...

  Using Jenkins to automate your Android app’s build and release process can save a lot of time and effort. By integrating Fastlane into your Jenkins pipeline, you can automate tasks like versioning, building, testing, and uploading your app to the Google Play Store. In this section, we’ll walk through the steps to integrate Fastlane into Jenkins. Step 1: Install Fastlane on Your Jenkins Server First, you need to ensure that Fastlane is installed on your Jenkins server. You can install Fastlane using the following steps: Install Ruby : Since Fastlane is built with Ruby, you’ll need to install Ruby on your Jenkins server. On a Linux-based server, you can install Ruby by running: sudo apt update sudo apt install ruby-full Install Fastlane : Once Ruby is installed, you can install Fastlane using the following command: sudo gem install fastlane -NV Alternatively, you can add Fastlane to your project’s Gemfile and install it using Bundler (recommended for managing dependenc...

 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...

  If you’ve ever uploaded an app to the Google Play Store, you know that taking screenshots for all device types and screen sizes can be a tedious and repetitive task. Thankfully, Screengrab  — a Fastlane tool — automates this process, making it easy to capture screenshots directly from your app, without the need for manual intervention. In this section, we’ll show you how to set up Screengrab to automatically generate your app’s screenshots for the Play Store and save a lot of time in the process. Step 1: Install Screengrab Before we start, you need to install Screengrab as part of your Fastlane setup. If you’ve already installed Fastlane, then you’re good to go. If not, here’s how you can install it: fastlane add_plugin screengrab This will add Screengrab to your project and install the required dependencies. Once it’s installed, you’ll be able to use Screengrab to capture screenshots directly from your app. Step 2: Set Up Screengrab in Your Fastfile The next step is to ...