What Are The Challenges Faced By The Android Developers

There are numerous things to consider when it comes to Android. From its global users to its free availability and to its extensive use in all devices — from phones to tablets to smartwatches is indicative of its popularity.

The latest version of Google’s mobile operating system is Android Oreo and is available for particular devices. Speed and accuracy are what Oreo focuses on. One of the primary benefits that Google’s phones have got by updating to Android 8.0 is the reduction of boot time to half. Boot time saving solves annoying background activity responsible for draining your battery and data plan. It has raised expectations of users and has resulted in the availability of phones in varying screen sizes, hardware configurations, software versions, and chip architectures.

In spite of enormous segmentation, significant bugs are visible because of logical errors. Bugs are preventable with the implementation of the right Android basics.

Inexperienced and experienced Android developers face significant challenges in their quest of developing a user-friendly app. The Android app development course maps out the basics and the advanced levels of Android development that helps you become an efficient developer.

There are certain do’s and don’ts that must be followed for easy app development. However, despite following these principles, there are challenges that Android developers regularly come across. Let’s take a look at some of those challenges.

High Software Fragmentation

Various devices run on different versions of the Android operating system, which makes it tough for developers to keep abreast of the changes. While most developers keep up with the latest Android versions, this approach is not right as a small fraction of Android users uses the latest version of Android. The mismatch of Android versions results in missing out on a significant part of target audience at the client’s end.

Another problem is that Android allows OS customization to the major smartphone manufacturers such as Samsung, LG, and Sony. This often results in varying standards for each device. While some devices carry exceptionally unique features, others have only basic ones.

Read: Flutter Vs. React Native: Which Is The Best?

Long lasting battery

Despite the fact that Facebook and Spotify have high competence in the mobile app world, their apps suddenly consume the battery. Most avid smartphone users often complain about the battery life of their phones. Using Lithium-ion batteries is a good idea but app developers still face the challenge of developing an application that consumes minimal juice.

To leave a good impression while providing optimal user experience, a developer should design an app endowed with the latest features, high-quality visuals, multiple interactions to ensure the app goes easy on the battery.

Patent problems

According to recent lawsuits, features of your app might be declared null, thanks to the patent law. Due to lawsuit issues, paying of licensing fees at manufacturer’s end is also a possibility. Predicting whether the app will get patented or not is not easy, but this litigation often makes developers uneasy while building an app.

Workaround: Mobile app companies take into consideration this litigation and give instructions to developers accordingly. Google has made a strong stance against patent litigation to ensure it gets followed properly. According to Google, there are certain standards that every developer needs to follow while developing an app to get the patent without any hassle.

App Marketing

Apart from designing and developing an app, what is even more important is its promotion. The marketing phase, sometimes, proves to be highly challenging for Android developers if they are not aware of the latest marketing tactics. With our discussion with app developers, we came to know of the following significant marketing challenges that they face.

• Organic App Discovery — How to ensure that the app would-be discoverable
• User Acquisition — How to attract users to install the app
• Retention — How to increase users’ retention rate
• Monetization — This includes one-time purchase, freemium model or in-app purchase or in-app advertising

Someone may develop a quality app with great UI, graphics, and functionality, but if they can’t get it in front of the right users, their app is not going to get the returns.

App developers often resort to ASO (app store optimization) or turn to ad networks that further drive app installs and traffic, all the while dealing with the concern of whether the expenditure to acquire users is exceeding the money flowing in the business.

Hardware Compatibility

Android is a big platform. With so many devices available for this platform, building a compatible app with varied sizes becomes a challenge for an untrained professional. The availability of so many devices may even waste a lot of time in dealing with various keyboard format, different features, different screen sizes, and the separate camera.

Read: Android Vs. iOS: Which Platform Is The Best?

Software Compatibility

Along with the availability of a variety of hardware in the market that creates hardware fragmentation, an array of OS version is also available out there. Due to the presence of numerous OS versions, it becomes difficult for Android developers to keep pace with all the versions of the Android. Many devices have not yet upgraded to the latest OS version, and this leads to malfunction of an app, or it might not even seem functional on an older version.

Conclusion

Android is a robust platform that is scaling new heights with every new version. You can not expect users to like your app unless it has everything that attracts them.

Android is now everywhere and hence crops up the need for the right projection in Android development before building an app to provide the best user experience.

Originally published at www.mobileappdaily.com.