Do you have an interest in Android app development but don’t know where to begin?
What can be better than starting with man’s best friend i.e. books, undoubtedly, friendship with good books can help you to become a good developer. The best thing about books is you can learn at your own pace. Before going to talk about these books, the first thing you should know is the brief on Android. Android is a mobile OS based on the Linux kernel that gives you the power to develop apps for mobile platforms with the help of Java/Kotlin and XML.
Java and Kotlin are programming languages used as back-end and XML is a markup language for developing user interfaces in Android. Moreover, Kotlin is the official language for developing android apps. A proper understanding of Java/ Kotlin and XML will help you to develop better apps for all android devices.
Below we’ve listed the top 10 books for Android App development. These books cover basic as well as advanced topics so you don’t have to worry even if you know jack about app development.
1. Android Programming with Kotlin for Beginners by John Horton
Kotlin is a statically typed general-purpose programming language and it is widely used to develop Android applications. This book reveals the different concepts and introduces numerous shades of Kotlin. This book gives you a strong grasp of how Kotlin and Android work together before exploring the various APIs. It also has a great introduction to Kotlin. This is one of the best books for beginners to kick-start your Android journey.
This book covers:
- The project-based approach to learning Android app development.
- Build beautiful, practical layouts using Scroll View, Recycler View, Navigation View, View Pager, and Card View
- Build a simple database application that can sort and store the user’s data
- Add user interaction, data capture, sound & animation, etc. to your applications
- Implement dialog boxes to capture input from the user, etc.
By the time, you finish this book, you’ll have sound knowledge of Kotlin programming concepts and you’ll be able to turn your app vision into reality.
2. Head First Android Development: A Brain-Friendly Guide
If you have an impactful idea and want to turn it into reality, then this is the book for you. However, you should have a basic idea of Java. This book explains things with the help of diagrams and flowcharts. This book is perfect for those who are visual learners. This book helps you to build a strong foundation for new Android developers.
It’ll help you to understand the following:
- Concepts like activity, layout, intents, SQLite database, etc.
- Hands-on learning about how to structure your app, design flexibility, and interactive interfaces
- Understanding of running services in the background
- Make your app work on multiple android devices, etc.
3. Android App Development for Dummies
The best thing about this book is it doesn’t require any prerequisite knowledge of Android Application development from your side. This book consists of all the Android programming basics, and techniques required to develop better Android applications. This book also covers the latest programming techniques and features like scrollable widgets, enhanced UI tools, and much more. The series of dummies mainly focus on learning things from scratch to an advanced level.
What you’ll learn:
- Set up your IDE to create a functioning android app
- Familiarity with tools, frameworks, and SDK component
- Building an android application and publishing it to the Google Play Store, etc.
4. Android Programming for Beginners
This is another book that covers basic topics like building applications from scratch. This book will introduce you to all the fundamental concepts of Android programming. This book consists of three real-world apps and 40 mini-apps to learn android. It actually provides a project-based approach and is designed to teach you the concept of android by thoroughly describing the process of app development.
What you’ll learn:
- Install and set up your Android development environment
- Create an interactive user interface with XML
- Add UI, data capture, sound, and animation to your apps
- Build, deploy, and publish them to the Google Play Store.
By the time, you finish this book, you’ll have sound knowledge about android app development and start building your fully-featured Android app.
5. Android Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide
If you are fundamentally good at Kotlin then you should go for this book. This book covers all the best practices using Data Binding and MVVM architecture to unit test an application. The book starts with the fundamentals of Android projects, activities, fragments, layouts, and explicit intents.
What you’ll learn:
- How to write programs for Android
- Covers all the key concepts and APIs
- Practical techniques for developing apps compatible with all versions of Android
- Knowledge and experience you need to start in Android programming
6. Android Studio 3.0 Development Essentials
One of the books which cover basic as well as advanced features. It also covers things like map implementation and submitting apps to the Google Play Store. You’ll begin with Android basics – including how to work with Android Studio and its built-in interface builder. Then you’ll dive into more advanced topics such as solid Android development patterns and much more. You’ll also be able to tune and test the app for performance.
This book summarizes:
- Android studio, the code editor, and the Layout editor tool
- Testing environment, database management, content providers, and intents
- Concepts of material design
- Advanced features such as App Links, Instant Apps, the Android studio profiler, and Gradle build configuration
- Start with the basics and progresses to developing production-ready applications
This book is also available in the Kotlin edition and you can also go for a new edition of the book. The new edition, it covers more advanced topics such as jetpack, libraries, and android architecture.
7. Android Cookbook: Problems and Solutions for Android Developers
This is really a good book for android developers but not suitable for beginners. This book covers 200+ tested recipes. These recipes help you to work with user interfaces, multi-touch gestures, location awareness, and web service features such as a camera, accelerometer, etc. It also provides a clear solution and sample code that you can use in your project right away. This book will provide you with good answers to complex Android problems.
This book summarizes:
- How to design a successful android app
- How to use built-in Android SQLite database
- Debug your application and troubleshoot individual components and your entire application, etc.
8. Head-First Kotlin: A Brain-Friendly Guide
This book is best for people who want to learn Kotlin as it provides a complete introduction to coding in Kotlin. This reference book has many unique methods with how-to manuals and syntax that will teach you great methods to think like Kotlin developers. Head-first Kotlin will help you to learn lambdas, higher-order functions, language fundamentals to collections, and higher-order functions in order to create android applications.
This book summarizes:
- Introduction to coding
- How to build an Android application
9. Android Security Cookbook
This android security cookbook is best if you have to get clarity on security-related shortcomings and vulnerabilities in Android applications and operating systems. The book perfectly breaks down the process of correcting mistakes and vulnerabilities in a detailed structure and manner. This book is also good for students and teachers who the use Android Security Assessment Framework called Drozer.
This book summarizes:
- Reverse-engineer Android applications
- Provides a practical analysis of many areas of Android application and operating system security
- Helps in enhancing the required skill to analyze the security of their Android devices.
10. Android Programming: Pushing the Limits
For people who want to learn the advanced level of making android applications, then this book is for them. If you have complete knowledge of Android OS and you can build Android applications at a very fast pace then this book Android Programming will definitely help you to push your limits. Discover the method of building advanced, innovative, and intuitive apps that are amazing in very less time.
This book summarizes:
- Creating your own custom Views
- Usage Android cryptography APIs
- Finding and safely using hidden Android APIs
- Programming in Text-To-Speech and Speech Recognition
Conclusion
So, these are several most-recommended books that you can prefer to make your Android App Development journey more worthwhile and convenient. You can really learn and master android development with the help of these books, all you need to be is consistent, dedicated, and enthusiastic about the learning process.
