With the advent and upgrade in smartphones, the world has become a mobile place. Statista reported that there are over 3.5 billion active users of smartphones as of 2020. Out of that number, over 2.5 billion people are Android users with over 2.8 million downloadable Android apps from Google Play Store.
This implies that programmers are doing a whole lot of work in Android app development. A look at the most commonly used and best programming languages for Android app development will bring enlightenment to mind.
Here are the best languages for Android app development;
Java
Java is the official and the most common programming language for developing Android apps. Most of the apps in the Play Store are built with Java, which means it’s the most supported Android app programming language by Google. Java is the third most active language in GitHub, which means that there are lots of tutorials for learning and a vast online community for support.
Java is quite old, and that makes it one of the most straightforward programming languages for beginners to learn. App developers often use it because it can be used to code a full program.
Kotlin
Officially declared as a secondary Java, Kotlin has proven to be a more straightforward route for beginners to learn a programming language for Android app development. Kotlin picked the best parts of Java and made it more smooth and modern. Therefore, it allows the creation of a safer code to develop a quality and improved app.
Kotlin provides many other programming languages that will enable its users to avoid many programming mistakes. These modern features mean that one can easily express several ideas on coding.
React Native
React Native is a cross-platform and open-source mobile application framework designed by Facebook. It was created in such a way that it could be used to develop both Android and iOS apps using Javascript. Due to its cross-platform features, it allows the same code for developing an app to work on both Android OS and iOS without changing anything. Hence, it’s an effective way of making two things with a singular effort. This makes it cost-effective and takes a lesser duration to develop. All that is needed is a skilled Javascript developer who is vast with native UI elements and APIs.
React Native is an open-source, meaning it’s accessible by many developers, and one can easily take full benefit of the technology.
Python
Python is a high-level and general-purpose programming language. It’s critical to note that Android does not support native Python development. However, there are tools in Python that allow the creation of apps and then convert them to APKs that will effectively run on Android.
Kivy is the most common tool for making this achievable, as it is an open-source library. It was designed in such a way that it enables rapid app development.
C#
C# is a general-purpose, yet, simple programming language developed by Microsoft. It is widely used for developing web applications. However, it has proven efficient in developing Android apps because of its similarities to Java. Although it appears to be more improved than Java as many complexities have been well-taken care of.
If you want to avoid the complications of C/C++, then C# is the go-to programming language for Android app development. The adoption of Xamarin has solved the seeming drawback it used to face some years back. With Xamarin, native mobile apps can now be created for Android users.
BASIC
BASIC is the acronym for Beginners All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. Just as the name signifies, BASIC is one of the oldest and easy-to-use programming languages. Android Studio does not officially support BASIC. However, there is an option for developing Android apps called B4A (BASIC 4 Android). B4A is one of the easiest to use, especially when developing a cost-effective Android app.
Conclusion
Android app development is quite an exciting task. Whether it’s music player, chat messengers, or game apps you want to develop, you can use any of the programming languages mentioned above. However, it’s advisable to start from known or the easiest to the more complicated ones. When it seems you need to increase your creative prowess for Android app development, you can go ahead to learn more programming languages.
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