Do you know, in the year 2021 when COVID was arguably heading towards dominance, the number of mobile app downloads skyrocketed to 230 Billion [1] worldwide? Of those downloads, a burgeoning majority were for the Android platform. Choosing and using Android app builder software to safely ride that tidal wave to create user-centric apps and capitalize on that demand.
With pandemic upending people’s usual way of working and socializing the mobile market sky-rocketed towards a faster growth because of users’ demands for apps to interact, work, and divert. With COVID still very much around but with society coming to terms with how to mitigate the worst effects the growth in mobile devices still seems to be maintained; in fact, the research forecasts Google Play Store app installs to reach a whopping 613 billion alone by 2025.
So, mobile is definitely a growth market which, as developers, we can’t really afford to ignore – and Android is very much the dominant player. But what should be the characteristic of the best Android app builder software? Let’s have a look!
Table of Contents
What are the characteristics of the best Android App Builder Software?
- Is it free to download so you can get started instantly? Explore the features using different ways like drag and drop an element, defining a button, etc.
- Does it make coding and app development quicker, improves efficiency, and works as a comprehensive app that performs a variety of functions thus eliminating the need for multiple apps?
- By building your own custom business app through Android app builder software, you get overall control and don’t have to depend on stuff for anything, therefore, minimizing the licensing and maintenance expenses.
- Does the Android App Builder software come with ample support channels meaning it’s possible that it will work well with your existing software? Ensuring any new apps you develop will work together with any existing apps is important.
- Apps are designed to handle a finite number of resources and operations. These apps might not be able to handle the strain as your requirements expand. With the best Android app builder software, you can easily scale up the app when the need arises which makes scaling and consolidating easier.
Here you have the characteristics to look out for let’s get to the most interesting part – the secrets!
What are the top secrets you need to know about the best Android app builder software – Delphi?
1. Use the Alcinoe component library for Delphi to make your Android apps have even more epic user interfaces
Because of all of the varied formats (across devices), doing a video with Delphi FireMonkey can be intimidating, and constructing a high-quality video player is difficult for the faint of heart. The Alcinoe component library is an open-source package that has already done a lot of the legwork for you in order to get the video to operate in FireMonkey on Android and iOS. It also has” Android/iOS Facebook SDK login, native iOS/Android TEdit, Firebase cloud messaging, better FireMonkey controls, ImageMagick wrapper, WebRTC Delphi wrapper, Json Parser, MongoDb client, and much more” in addition to the video player capabilities. It also has a high GitHub Stars count, indicating that it is extensively used.
2. The TFDMemTable design time edit dataset allows you to visualize what your Android app will look like running live
With TFDMemTable you can edit/update the data inside a TFDMemTable at design time. Because you can change and bake data directly into a TFDMemTable while developing, this functionality can significantly speed up development. If you’re utilizing any of the other design time features, such as Executing a TRESTRequest during design time, you may simply study the contents of a TFDMemTable. You may also use the capability to create data during the design process and LiveBind it to controls.
One example can be, instead of writing a bunch of state change code to toggle the button in both Android and iOS, you can have a state as the main feature in the design time. Have a look at the Delphi design page which has a quick run-down of some great features of RAD Studio Delphi.
3. Use the REST Debugger tool to take the pain out of dealing with REST queries to cloud services
The REST Debugger is a graphical user interface (GUI) software that comes with RAD Studio Delphi and lets you simply create REST queries. You can enter various login details and settings, and the results will be displayed in a grid depending on the JSON returned. Even better, the JSON can be flattened (using the Nested setting) so that all of the JSON fields are visible in the grid columns. This is fantastic, but now comes the real magic. The REST Debugger creates the code and components automatically that you will need for your app to work with the REST service. In Delphi, you simply copy components from the REST Debugger and paste them right onto your form or data module (this also works with C++Builder). It’s the ultimate tricky for low code Android app builder software – but this black magic trickery works for all apps whether they be for iOS, Android, Windows, macOS or even Linux. Click, click, paste and you’re done!
4. Use MonkeyBuilder for smooth and easy automated deployment of your apps to the app stores such as the Google Play store and Apple App Store
MonkeyBuilder can save you a lot of time if you’re using Delphi to publish to the app stores (rather than ad hoc corporate deployment). It includes “Single-click build/deployment of iOS and Android apps,” generates Android *.aab 32bit/64bit app bundles, and automatically uploads *.ipa files to AppStoreConnect. MonkeyBuilder can also automatically generate the required icons for the iOS, Android and Windows app store from a single 10241024 *.png file with the Icon Generator feature. If you’ve ever had to manually create the icons for the various app stores, you’ll understand how much of a massive time-suck it can be. MonkeyBuilder turns this process into an almost non-event.
5. Do you know about the Delphi Javascript Bridge for TWebBrowser?
If you want to construct apps in a similar way to how Electron apps are built, there’s an open-source toolkit called ScriptGate that can be quite useful. Basically, instead of using Electron’s Chromium, you can use the device’s native WebView control and have the Javascript engine call out to Delphi for file system access, notifications, and high-performance code. ScriptGate makes it simple to create and deploy such an app in Delphi. Electron apps are notorious for consuming a lot of memory inefficiently, but Delphi has a remedy in the form of ScriptGate. Delphi FireMonkey, like Electron, can compile for macOS, Windows, and Linux. Delphi also works with Android and iOS devices.
Why do I think Delphi is the best Android app builder software?
RAD Studio Delphi has a whole raft of features which are designed to harness the full native power of the devices and operating systems you target. You can take control of application permissions to handle permission results, permission requests, and messages to show to the user – as well as directly interface with the device’s hardware such as the internal gyroscope, cameras, GPS location device, messages and phone features; in fact anything you could ever want to do on the device you can make Delphi do it. It is single code-based – one set of programming code which works on all the devices – with a single project to keep the various targets in one place and provides faster coding with all the modern professional features you’d expect like auto code completion. How can you build a future with Delphi? Well, have a look here.
Try it now and explore yourself.
References:
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/271644/worldwide-free-and-paid-mobile-app-store-downloads/
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