Best Android Books in 2023 | Learn Mobile App Development in No Time

This is the inside story, told by the people who made it happen. Androids is the engaging tale of a motley group of coders with a passion to make insanely great products who banged out the operating system when that idea seemed nuts.

True to his geek genes, Chet Haase tells this remarkable tale of technical and business success from the trenches, an inspiring, massive collective effort of dozens of programmers who flipped their seemingly late timing to their advantage, and presaged a generation of platform builders. Read Androids to discover what it takes to create a hot tech team that shipped a product running today on more than 3 billion devices.

What you will learn

• Understand the fundamentals of coding in Java for Android
• Install and set up your Android development environment
• Build functional user interfaces with the Android Studio visual designer
• Add user interaction, data captures, sound, and animation to your apps
• Manage your apps' data using the built-in Android SQLite database
• Explore the design patterns used by professionals to build top-grade applications
• Build real-world Android applications that you can deploy to the Google Play marketplace

What you will learn

• Create maintainable and scalable apps using Kotlin
• Understand the Android development lifecycle
• Simplify app development with Google architecture components
• Use standard libraries for dependency injection and data parsing
• Apply the repository pattern to retrieve data from outside sources
• Publish your app on the Google Play store

What you will learn

• Set up your Vue.js projects with Vue CLI and explore the power of Vue components
• Discover steps to create functional components in Vue.js for faster rendering
• Become familiar with AWS Amplify and learn how to set up your environment
• Understand how to create your first GraphQL schema
• Use Quasar Framework to create simple and effective interfaces
• Discover effective techniques to create queries for interacting with data
• Explore Vuex for adding state management capabilities to your app
• Discover techniques to deploy your applications effectively to the web

Cutting through the jargon, bestselling tech author Dan Gookin puts you in touch with all the Android features you’ll need to know (and many more you’ll be pleased to discover!), from setup and configuration to the major features, such as text, email, internet, maps, navigation, camera, and video, as well as synching with your home computer. In addition to getting familiar with these and the latest Android 10 operating system (OS)—in both Google Pixel and Samsung versions—you’ll become an expert on the best ways to share your thoughts, videos, and pictures on social media, navigate with Android Auto when driving, and maintain your files so they’re orderly and easy to find.   

• Explore Android devices, from physical functions to software and online features 
• Communicate via email, social media, Google Duo video calls, and more 
• Tweak your privacy settings to keep your information secure 
• Use Android Auto when driving and see in the dark with Night Light and Dark Mode  

What you will learn

• Master the fundamentals of coding Java for Android Pie
• Install and set up your Android development environment
• Build functional user interfaces with the Android Studio visual designer
• Add user interaction, data captures, sound, and animation to your apps
• Manage your apps' data using the built-in Android SQLite database
• Find out about the design patterns used by professionals to make top-grade applications
• Build, deploy, and publish real Android applications to the Google Play marketplace

What will you learn from this book?

If you have an idea for a killer Android app, this fully revised and updated edition will help you build your first working application in a jiffy. You’ll learn hands-on how to structure your app, design flexible and interactive interfaces, run services in the background, make your app work on various smartphones and tablets, and much more. It’s like having an experienced Android developer sitting right next to you! 

Why does this book look so different?

Based on the latest research in cognitive science and learning theory, Head First Android Development uses a visually rich format to engage your mind, rather than a text-heavy approach that puts you to sleep. Why waste your time struggling with new concepts? This multi-sensory learning experience is designed for the way your brain really works.

• Welcome App
• Cannon Game
• Tip Calculator
• Weather Viewer
• Flag Quiz
• Twitter^® Searches
• Doodlz
• Address Book

The apps in this book were carefully designed to introduce you to key Android features and APIs. You’ll quickly learn everything you need to start building Android apps–beginning with a test-drive of the Tip Calculator app in Chapter 1, then building one new app in each of Chapters 2 through 9. By the time you reach Chapter 10, you’ll be ready to create your own apps for submission to Google Play and other app marketplaces. You’ll master the Google Play submission process, including uploading your apps. You’ll decide whether to sell your apps or offer them for free, and learn how to market them via social media and monetize them with in-app advertising, in-app billing, virtual goods and more.

Fully updated for Android 6, the goal of this book is to teach the skills necessary to develop Android based applications using the Android Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and the Android 6 Software Development Kit (SDK).

Beginning with the basics, this book provides an outline of the steps necessary to set up an Android development and testing environment. An overview of Android Studio is included covering areas such as tool windows, the code editor and the Designer tool. An introduction to the architecture of Android is followed by an in-depth look at the design of Android applications and user interfaces using the Android Studio environment. More advanced topics such as database management, content providers and intents are also covered, as are touch screen handling, gesture recognition, camera access and the playback and recording of both video and audio. This edition of the book also covers printing, transitions and cloud-based file storage.

The concepts of material design are also covered in detail, including the use of floating action buttons, Snackbars, tabbed interfaces, card views, navigation drawers and collapsing toolbars. In addition to covering general Android development techniques, the book also includes Google Play specific topics such as implementing maps using the Google Maps Android API, in-app billing and submitting apps to the Google Play Developer Console.

Chapters also cover advanced features of Android Studio such as Gradle build configuration and the implementation of build variants to target multiple Android device types from a single project code base.

Build feature-rich, reliable Android Pie apps with the help of more than 100 proven industry standard recipes and strategies.

Key Features

• Uncover the latest features in Android 9 Pie to make your applications stand out
• Develop Android Pie applications with the latest mobile technologies, from set up to security
• Get up-to-speed with Android Studio 3 and its impressive new features

Book Description

The Android OS has the largest installation base of any operating system in the world. There has never been a better time to learn Android development to write your own applications, or to make your own contributions to the open source community! With this extensively updated cookbook, you'll find solutions for working with the user interfaces, multitouch gestures, location awareness, web services, and device features such as the phone, camera, and accelerometer. You also get useful steps on packaging your app for the Android Market. Each recipe provides a clear solution and sample code you can use in your project from the outset. Whether you are writing your first app or your hundredth, this is a book that you will come back to time and time again, with its many tips and tricks on the rich features of Android Pie.

What you will learn

• Develop applications using the latest Android framework while maintaining backward-compatibility with the support library
• Create engaging applications using knowledge gained from recipes on graphics, animations, and multimedia
• Work through succinct steps on specifics that will help you complete your project faster
• Add location awareness to your own app with examples using the latest Google Play services API
• Utilize Google Speech Recognition APIs for your app

Who this book is for

If you are new to Android development and want to take a hands-on approach to learning the framework, or if you are an experienced developer in need of clear working code to solve the many challenges in Android development, you will benefit from this book. Either way, this is a resource you'll want to keep on your desk as a quick reference to help you solve new problems as you tackle more challenging projects.

Table of Contents

1. Activities
2. Layouts
3. Views, Widgets, and Styles
4. Menus and Action Mode
5. Fragments
6. Home Screen Widgets, Search, and the System UI
7. Data Storage
8. Alerts and Notifications
9. Using the Touchscreen and Sensors
10. Graphics and Animation
11. A First Look at OpenGL ES
12. Multimedia
13. Telephony, Networks, and the Web
14. Location and Using Geofencing
15. Getting your app ready for the Play Store
16. Getting started with Kotlin

In just 24 sessions of one hour or less, learn how to build powerful apps for the world’s most popular mobile platform: Android. Using this book’s straightforward, step-by-step approach, you’ll build complete Android 5 apps from the ground up with Android Studio. As you do, you’ll master key skills for designing, developing, and publishing meaningful apps of your own. Extensively updated for Android 5’s newest capabilities, every lesson builds on what you’ve already learned, giving you a rock-solid foundation for real-world success.