This article is about how one can improve and learn to build better android apps. I’d like to share with you some of the learnings / resources that helped me along the way.

Improve your performance with Android Studio using shortcuts

Here is a collection of the best tips for Android studio https://plus.google.com/u/0/collection/wtO0PB

Use Live templates to save time : Write methods or loops from an abbreviation.

Eg.: fbc + Enter -> findViewById with cast

A amazing list of live templates to try out:

You can use your own custom templates. Here is a great article by Reto Meier. You can find more details at IntelliJ IDEA documentation.

Tools to use alongside Android studio while debugging your apps

Library methods count — Android libraries are great, but they come at a cost. Use this tool to avoid the dreaded 65K method limit of the DEX file format!

Stetho — With Stetho, you can easily inspect your application — most notably, its network traffic. It also allows you to easily inspect and edit SQLite databases and the shared preferences in your app.

Screenshot for chrome browser — debugging android app network requests.

LeakCanary — is a memory leak detection library for Android and Java.

LeakCanary activity

Gradle, Please — A amazing tool by Chris broadFoot , easily just type name of a library and results will appear below with a gradle compile syntax for the library with its latest version number. You shouldn’t miss this website in your bookmarks.

Gradle Please , oh yes!!!

Android Arsenal — who does not know this one , if you don’t — this is great webpage to find categorized directory of libraries , tools and projects for Android.

Android Tool for Mac — Free tool — Record Screencasts , take screenshots , sideload apks , bug reports all in one tool.

Butterknife Zelezny — Android Studio plug-in for generating ButterKnife injections from selected layout XML.

ADB Idea — A plugin for Android Studio and Intellij IDEA that speeds up your day to day android development.Uninstall App , Kill App, Start App, Restart App, Clear App Data, Clear App Data and Restart

Another Adb tool — https://github.com/ashishb/adb-enhanced

Get latest content — Google Developers India , Android Developers

Android Dev weekly — Get weekly newsletter of the latest on Android delivered to your email.

Learn from other developers

By using and examining open source apps, you can learn how to build better apps yourself.

Google I/O — Google I/O is a developer conference held each year with two days of deep technical. It features hundreds of demonstrations from developers showcasing their technologies.This project is the Android app for the conference. The app supports devices running Android 4.0+, and is optimized for phones and tablets of all shapes and sizes.

Android App MVP Architecture -This repository contains a detailed sample app that implements MVP architecture using Dagger2, GreenDao, RxJava, FastAndroidNetworking, PlaceHolderView and AndroidDebugDatabase

Google Android Architecture Blueprints — While building apps we can come across many issues which can make testing, maintaining and extending your apps difficult.The Android Architecture Blueprints project demonstrates strategies to help solve or avoid these common problems. This project implements the same app using different architectural concepts and tools.

Plaid — An Android app which provides design news and inspiration, as well as being a great implementation of material design.

Kickstarter — Kickstarter is a global community that helps bring creative projects to life. Explore thousands of projects in art, design, film, games, music, and more, and pledge to your favorites right from the app.

Other Stuff that you gotta know and use

Use Dependency Injector to make testing easier.Learn how to use dependency injector from here.

Fragmented Podcast — Fragmented is the Android developer podcast where Donn Felker and Kaushik Gopal talk about building good software and becoming better Android developers.

Finally, a list before you launch — Playbook for Developers

I’d love to hear your thoughts , if you’ve got any comments and/or suggestions then feel free to leave a response or drop me a tweet!