Earlier May, Google I/O conference was held where the biggest announcement was made new product and services developed by Google developers. What captured the wide attention of Android developers’ community was the announcement about the Alpha release of latest app development tool Android JetPack.
Last wordWith a range of innovations enriching the horizon for Android mobile developers, the tool is set to surprise the mobile app development companies by a great extent. One of the major advantages Android JetPack brings is its ability to accelerate and streamline the entire app development process to make things work in favour of Android developers.
This article is going to explain what exactly Android JetPack is and discuss the significant impact of Android JetPack in the life of developers.
Android JetPack is a set of components and tools released by Google along with guidance in order to help Android developers accelerate the app development process. Android JetPack has incredible potential and much expected power to transform the status quo of application writing methods.
The tool is designed with the central idea of updating the ways developers write application for Android platform and provides advanced next generation form of the Android Support Library.
The outstanding trait of Android JetPack is that it combines the existing Android support libraries and Architecture components to shape a new set of components.
These components aim to make things better for developers by helping with the management of background tasks, paging, navigation, life-cycle, UI features and layout controls across different platforms including Android Wear and TV.
With JetPack, developers can not only deploy the apps to the Play Store within 24 hours, but they can even offer new features to users in a matter of one day if they are deft enough.
Android JetPack components are considered backward compatible. Hence, Android developers can use them on any Android platform to achieve utmost consistency and seamless results.
The tool reflects modern design practices such as independent functionality, testability, and is highly compatible with Kotlin integration language to ensure increased productivity.
Android Jetpack comprises of five new major components:
WorkManager is a handy Android library that helps queue up work that is expected to execute, provided that all its conditions and constraints are met. Developers can leverage WorkManager to effortlessly monitor ongoing work status and streamline and create chains of tasks and work graphs.
The component is still in its Alpha version which enables you to share your feedback and experience on its official online web page. WorkManager supports two types of work:
WorkRequest can accept inputs regarding constraints and related criteria. WorkRequest can be tagged with readable Strings and you can also give unique names to work chains.
WorkManager also comes with simple and updated API so that developers can work on relative devices without depending much on Google Play Services.
The alpha release of Navigation API simplifies the implementation of navigation in Android apps. You are allowed to submit feedback on its dedicated online page. Developers often struggle with creating a frictionless and consistent in-app navigation structure due to unpleasant experience with data transition and sharing.
Smart Navigation component helps developers form in-app UI with a single-activity app structure. API makes navigation back stack management easier and helps deplete boilerplate of apps, removing the need for Fragment transaction.
Developers can implement Deeplinking easily and experience consistency in automatic Up and Back behaviour through navigation. Navigation Editor in Android Studio 3.2 is a unique feature that helps modify the navigation graph as you desire. It also enables developers to manage navigation properties easily.
In combination with RecyclerView, the Paging component makes it possible for you to enable fast, infinite scrolling mechanism to your app. it focuses on making page data management simplified. For instance, it pulls wide array of data quickly and return results to users.
Due to Paging API, the use of network bandwidth and system resources for data requests gets economical. Paging mainly loads page data from the network and local storage to quickly update the content in app. it offers fast respoAndroid JetPack is and discuss the significant impact of Android JetPack inses to users even at the time of live updates and refreshes.
Slices is an interesting new component of Android JetPack that simplifies the implementation of Slices API of Android P. This API lets you surface your app’s UI inside of the Google App search results. The major advantage Slices gives users is that the search results are interactive. You will be able to use it soon for app development.
Android KTX is a basically a set of Kotlin extensions used to optimize APIs for Android platforms so that it can conform to Kotlin language usage standards. The component helps developers develop apps written in code that looAndroAndroid JetPack is and discuss the significant impact of Android JetPack iid JetPack brings is its ability to accelerate and streamline the entire app development process to make things work in favour of Android developers.ks concise, short and appealing.
Android KTX especially works for BoilerPlate code, making it briefer and more reduced. Though Android KTX does not add new features to the APIs, it helps developers eliminate big lines while writing apps to define a specific functionality.
Developers will realize how the component surprisingly brings value to the development process and makes the most out of Kotlin language, enhancing their productivity. It can minimize 6 lines of code into merely one line.
Since Google is constantly adding to Kotlin libraries, runtime and documentation, the number of developers using it is increasing.
From above nitty-gritty about Android JetPack, it is clear that JetPack components have ability to simplify and lighten the app development process. It works compatible with older Android devices and impacts the size of BoilerPlate of the app. JetPack is still in Alpha release and Google is likely to implement changes in future. To know everything you need about Android JetPack, you can visit its official page.
If you would like to consult with an Android app development company about any ongoing project or need more insight, feel free to contact Spaculus anytime. Drop us an email with your technical queries and project-specific ideas and we will offer you a comprehensive assistance.