It’s been 6 years since the last revision, 5 years since I agreed to write a new edition (in time for Android 5), and nearly four years since people started pre-ordering their copies on Amazon.

It’s also been 10 years since the first copy of Professional Android Application Development rolled off the presses, and — because numbers are fun — it also mainly* follows the existing pattern of:

Target Android OS Version = 2^(book edition-1)

(*Some stuff from Android 9.0 may have snuck in towards the end there.)

10 years is a long time; Android has come a long way since I guest blogged about building my first Android app using the 0.8 beta SDK on Google Blogoscoped and Chris Webb from @Wrox emailed me saying he,

“Would be interested in speaking with you about your thoughts on the [Android] SDK. We are considering it for a book.”

While I wrote that first book, the first Android handset hadn’t been released, and the Google Play Store (or the Android Market as it was originally named) didn’t have its first app. Today, Android runs on some 2 billion monthly active devices, and in 2017 the Google Play store delivered over 94 billion app downloads.

In between, there’s been 28 API releases, 14 Android dessert flavors, a new IDE, a new 1st-class programming language, and scores of new platform APIs — not to mention the introduction of material design, the Android Support Library, Google Play services, Android Architecture Components, and Jetpack.

As a result, Professional Android has grown too. The 4th edition is more than double the size of the first edition, with 500 additional pages. We’re up to our 3rd cover, and we’ve added a co-author — the amazing Ian Lake (Ed: Hi Ian!)

What’s new?

The Fourth Edition is fully revised and expanded. It includes detailed coverage of the fundamentals needed by novice developers, and explores advanced features and best practices essential to experienced Android developers creating compelling user experiences, it:

Covers the latest Android APIs, including the Job Scheduler, Android Architecture Components (including Live Data and Room), and Data Binding

Offers a detailed exploration of the Android Studio IDE and an introduction to Kotlin

Introduces material design principles and offers a detailed look at design guidelines, navigation patterns, and UI best practices

Demonstrates techniques to create compelling UIs for all Android form factors

Explores Firebase and Google Play services API libraries, including maps, location-based services, and the Awareness API

Support

You can download all the code snippets and sample projects used in the book from the Wrox site or from our GitHub repo.

If you’ve got any questions, you can get in touch with me over on Twitter (@retomeier). If you find a bug in the code, please raise an issue and we’ll get it fixed. For more help with Android development, I’d recommend using Stack Overflow; Ian Lake and I will keep an eye out and help where we can.

We’re also known to frequent some of the more popular Android Slack channels.

Where to buy

Professional Android 4E is currently available for purchase at these fine retailers:

If you prefer to travel light, there’s an electronic version to suit your tastes: