Android is one of the most popular mobile operating systems. It not only dominates the smartphone market but also has its eyes set on tablets, PCs, set-top boxes, smartwatches, home appliances, and more. Most of the developers prefer Android for app development as it is highly customizable and has a vast global community. Android app development growth has led to new tools and more resources for engineers to make the development process easy and fast. Application frameworks are designed to simplify the app development process and make it easy to manage, modify and fix bugs. Android app developers often find themselves in a difficult situation when they want to choose the right Android platform.
To help them, we have compiled a comprehensive list of the best frameworks that you can consider for Android app development.
1. Native Android ( Android Studio+Kotlin)
According to Gaurav Gain, Android app developer at Simpalm “Android Studio help to develop Android apps as easy as possible. Android Studio allows you to test your applications on either an emulator or directly on your device. Android Studio includes the Android Software Development Kit, which is an essential part of development. It contains files and libraries to create Android apps, as well as tools such as the ADB bridge and virtual device manager.”
There are several languages used for Android development. Kotlin is one of them. Kotlin is a statically typed, cross-platform programming language that supports type inference. It is designed to solve the problem of Java wordiness and is compatible with all Java SDKs and fully interoperable with Java.
2. React Native
React Native was created by Facebook and is now used for building many popular mobile apps available in the store. React Native uses the same UI building blocks as you use to create Android apps. It is almost impossible for you to distinguish between a React Native app from one that was developed using Java or Objective-C.
React Native is used by many developers around the world, and reported to build custom apps easier and more efficiently. React Native uses native platform-specific interface components and APIs to give mobile apps a natural appearance and great performance.
React Native solves many of the critical issues developers face, such as the Iteration Period, Codebase differences, and Imperative programming. It also simplifies custom code reusability, and community-driven technology and allows developers to freely contribute to the existing framework.
3. Flutter
Flutter is a free, open-source mobile UI SDK framework that Google developed to help developers build apps in a unique way. According to Ella Wilson, Tech Consultant at Suntecindia “It makes easy to create excellent native interfaces for Android and iOS on multiple platforms. Flutter is written using Dart and can be used with existing code to aid developers in developing mobile apps.”
It is a great tool for developers around the world who are interested in developing hybrid apps. Many developers and organizations around the world have already adopted it, citing it as their best option for hybrid app development. It has a single codebase, and apps compile to native code. Skia is Google’s 2D rendering engine that allows visuals to be created like Material Design or Cupertino.
Flutter simplifies cross-platform development by allowing developers the ability to perform UI, functionality, and unit tests without identifying any errors. Flutter’s top-rated hot-reload feature allows continuous testing without the need to restart applications. Flutter is known for its many benefits, including a screen-reader and fast development. It also supports themes for Android and iOS.
4. Xamarin
Owned by Microsoft, Xamarin is considered one of the best Android frameworks. Xamarin is an advanced tool that allows developers to create native apps for mobile platforms based on a common C# codebase.
Additionally, the code-sharing feature makes it a developer’s preferred choice since it cuts down on code time and the number of bugs while developing software. In comparison to other Android Frameworks, Xamarin ranks among the most popular cross-platform frameworks. Xamarin has been around for some time however, it has seen a rise in the number of programmers who utilize it in the past few years compared to the other Android frameworks.
Read More: Android App vs iOS: Which One Is a Better Choice and Why?
5. Ionic
Ionic is an open-source and free-of-cost Android framework certified by MIT (Massachusetts Institute for Technology). It allows developers to create progressive hybrid applications with the help using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Ionic is now one of the more renowned tools for Android development because of its cross-platform functionality and capability to incorporate with AngularJS.
The Android framework comes with a simple CLI (Command-line interface) that allows features like emulators live reload and recording. Since it is Cordova and Angular-based, Ionic has already garnered vast support from the community. It also integrates with numerous services, such as Google Play, Instagram, and other platforms.
6. jQuery
The framework jQuery designed for Android development is among the HTML5-based cross-platform frameworks referred to as the simplest tool to launch applications for mobile and the web. The primary feature of the jQuery framework is that it lets you “write code once” and then run it across different platforms, such as Android, iOS, and Windows.
Another feature developers love about the Android framework is that the entire interface for apps can be created in HTML using a minimum effort or even no JavaScript code. It also comes with an integrated theme system, which allows developers to modify the appearance of their application for every project to be suited to the desired colors, tastes, and preferences. In comparison with other Android Frameworks, jQuery size is extremely light, making it one of the most popular frameworks available.