Posted by Luli Perkins, Developer Relations Program Manager
We kicked off the #AndroidDevJourney to give members of our community the opportunity to share their stories through our social platforms. Each Saturday from January through June we’ll feature a new developer on our Twitter account. We have received an overwhelming number of inspirational stories and hope you enjoy reading through the ones we’ve selected below.
For a chance to be featured in our February spotlight series, tweet us your story using #AndroidDevJourney.
Niharika Arora
Tell me about your journey in becoming an Android Developer and how you got started.
My journey started in the field of Android when I was in my 4th year of undergrad studies. I got an internship in a startup named GreenAppleSolutions. There I got a chance to work on an Android project from scratch and luckily my first project went live on the Play Store. During this whole internship, I found Android so interesting because everything you code, you can see the results live in front of you on your device. I started loving Android and decided to take Android as my career path.
What’s one shortcut, tip, or hack you can’t live without?
I am a big fan of Android Lint, which has saved me many times from manually finding deprecated calls/APIs. It has also helped me in following the best practices and making my code more optimized, secure, and highly performant.
What’s the one piece of advice you wish someone would have given you when you started on your journey?
Actually, there are two,
- Clearing a small doubt is equally as important even if you think that is a stupid one. Ask as many queries as you can till the time you are satisfied with the answer.
- Reading tutorials is good, but start exploring the documentations in depth. Initially, it might look too much to start with, but it will build you up to be a good developer in the long run.
Walmyr Carvalho
Tell me about your journey in becoming an Android Developer and how you got started.
Funny thing! I started working with mobile on iOS, in 2010, but then in 2011 my college final project was an app for civil construction and nobody on the team had a Mac, so we did it for Android (We got a 10, btw!)! At that time I was teaching technology to some government people and wasn’t into coding that much, but then after project in 2011 I got my first job as Junior Android Developer and it got me so hooked on the platform that I couldn’t leave!
I was able to work with Java on Eclipse + ADT, Holo, ActionBarSherlock, the beginnings of Material Design and was attending Google I/O ’13 when Google announced Android Studio, which was a very humbling but insightful experience to me, not only because of the learning but also the people I met that helped me a lot as well!
Since then, I’ve been working with mobile and, mostly, with Android for more than 10 years now, helping a lot of Brazilian tech companies and unicorns with their Android projects and since 2016 I’m one of the Google Developer Experts for Android around here.
Also, I love development and design communities, so I try to be involved with that as much as I can. I’m a former organizer of GDG São Paulo and the creator and organizer of Kotlin Meetup São Paulo and Android Dev BR – the biggest brazilian/lusophone Android community in the world, with more than 7.500 members!
Lastly, I’m also involved with the national startup community, as a mentor for ACE Startups and Google For Startups Accelerator programs in Brazil.
What’s one Android development shortcut, tip, or hack you can’t live without?
There’s a simple but powerful shortcut on Android Studio that I use a lot, which is the multi-cursor occurrence selection, which can be achieved using Ctrl + G (macOS) / Alt + J (Windows + Linux) for incremental occurrences selection and/or Ctrl + Cmd + G / Shift + Ctrl + Alt + J to select all occurrences once. Seems silly, but this shortcut helps me so much to get going on my code, especially when it comes to refactoring. I use it everyday!
What’s the one piece of advice you wish someone would have given you when you started on your journey?
I think I would resume my advice in two words: learn and share.
Learn as much as you can, not only with the amazing content available on official documentation, and from the community, but also learn from your own mistakes through consistent practice. There’s a lot of content available for free on the internet, and also both Google and GDEs (Google Developer Experts) like me can get you going, so keep practicing and get your knowledge online!
And once you learn, share with other people! If I’m where I am today is because I was able to share what I couldn’t find when I was learning, so please, share your knowledge! The Android community is amazing and super helpful, you can reach literally the creators of the APIs and libraries you use on Twitter, Reddit and many other places. Write an article, record a podcast or a video, there are many formats that you could use.
The internet is such a powerful tool for learning and sharing and I really recommend you to do that there, and I’m definitely here to help if needed! 🙂
Nate Washington
Tell me about your journey in becoming an Android Developer and how you got started.
I became an Android developer in 2015, while working on my first business idea. I couldn’t afford to go back to school, so I decided to try my hand at starting a business instead. I launched a web application, but my customers insisted on having a native app for their needs as well. I originally looked for someone with more experience, but ultimately decided to just teach myself how to build an Android app. Fast forward to 2017, and my cofounder Christian and I launched the Android app for our company, Qoins, on the Google Play Store. Since then, we’ve served tens of thousands of Android customers and raised a few rounds of funding.
What’s one Android development shortcut, tip, or hack you can’t live without?
Being able to test my Android builds on virtual devices is a lifesaver. There are a lot of different scenarios to account for when building Android apps for thousands of different devices. Tools such as Firebase Test Labs, as well as other virtual device services allow me to create specific scenarios for hands-on testing that I can’t achieve with the physical Android devices that I own.
What’s the one piece of advice you wish someone would have given you when you started on your journey?
Making mistakes is OK; it’s all part of the process.
Yuki Anzai
Tell me about your journey in becoming an Android Developer and how you got started.
My journey began when I got my very first Android device, the HTC Magic, at Google Developer Day 2009. At that time, I was a college student and writing my personal application with JavaFX, so I had experience and familiarity with Java. Then I soon started to port my app to Android. After graduation I worked at a software company and wanted to develop Android apps as my job. But there seemed no opportunity at that company. So I created my own small company that is the agency to develop Android apps.
What’s one Android development shortcut, tip, or hack you can’t live without?
There are many. If I had to pick one, it would be Android Studio. I always appreciate the awesomeness of Android Studio because I started Android app development with Eclipse. (Also I can’t live without Kotlin, RecyclerView, ConstraintLayout …)
The shortcut of Android Studio that I can’t live without is Command + B （Declaration or Usages. This allows us to jump between the declaration and usages. It’s very useful to read source codes including Android platform and libraries codes.
What’s the one piece of advice you wish someone would have given you when you started on your journey?
Read official documents. Read source codes of platform, libraries that you use. One of the ways to accelerate learning is to create an app through first to end (until release to the market).
Don’t rely on libraries too much especially that affect the whole structure of your app. Your app might live longer than libraries.
Madona Syombua
Tell me about your journey in becoming an Android Developer and how you got started.
My Android Journey started back in early 2014; before that, I worked as a junior Java developer for a small firm building inventory systems. However, that did not interest me, and I kept looking for something great to do with my Java knowledge. I bought my first phone, a Nokia, and saw apps in the phone and wondered how they made those apps. I researched and learned that apps were actually written in Java, and that’s how my journey began.
I recall building my first application, Simple Math, with only activities since fragments were not there; what an improvement we’ve had over the years. Simple Math had 500 downloads with a 4.5 rating, and this really motivated me to build more applications. I later won the Grow With Google Scholarship (2018), which boosted my career. During this one-year scholarship, I launched my second application, Budgeting Buddy, on the Google Play Store and has a 4.5 rating with over five thousand downloads. I currently work for Streem as an Android Engineer, and I indeed love how far Android has come and how the technology and maintenance have improved over the years. Especially the Emulator.
What’s one Android development shortcut, tip, or hack you can’t live without.
A shortcut I can’t live without is [options + Command + L ] and [Options + Command + O]; this really helps me during my pull request process. An amazing hack that I have learned to appreciate is the git local history option, WOW lifesaver. Sometimes you might forget what you had changed, but this hack always saves my life.
What’s the one piece of advice you wish someone would have given you when you started on your journey?
Actually, when I transitioned into mobile completely, I felt the learning curve was something I would have to accommodate In my life, which has really helped me a lot. Always staying in front of the game by always learning what is new, what is being recommended, and why it is needed. For instance, having Room was an amazing advancement, now dagger Hilt, and many more. So if I can turn this around and advise new developers, be ready to learn and you will enjoy Android Development.
The Android Developer community prides itself in its inclusivity and welcomes developers from all backgrounds and stages of life. If you’re feeling inspired and want to learn more about how to become a part of our community, here are a few resources to help get you started.
Dive into developer.android.com
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The Google Developer Groups program gives developers the opportunity to meet local developers with similar interests in technology. A GDG meetup event includes talks on a wide range of technical topics where you can learn new skills through hands-on workshops.
Join a chapter near you here.
Founded in 2014, Google’s Women Techmakers is dedicated to helping all women thrive in tech through community, visibility and resources. With a member base of over 100,000 women developers, we’re working with communities across the globe to build a world where all women can thrive in tech.
Become a member here.
The Google Developers Experts program is a global network of highly experienced technology experts, influencers and thought leaders who actively support developers, companies and tech communities by speaking at events, publishing content, and building innovative apps. Experts actively contribute to and support the developer and startup ecosystems around the world, helping them build and launch highly innovative apps.
Learn more about the program here.
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