Android Continues to Rule the OS Market

We’re already well into 2024 and Android continues to be the most popular operating software with a 70% market share. This means, that out of the 8.08 billion global population, more than 3.9 billion own Android phones. 

While all this data might not sound shocking to you, the point we want to make is that – now more than ever, mobile app development companies need to pay close attention to what’s trending with Android apps. Look at the chart below that shows how Android users have grown over the last decade.  It also shows how it’s expected to touch 4.2 billion users by 2025.

Information Source: Bankmycell.com

The competition is fierce, every business is getting itself an Android app trying to buy into even a portion of this constantly growing market. And if you don’t want your app to drown in the sea of look-alike applications, you need to include future-proof app features and architecture. 

But before diving into the future app features of the future, let’s understand why Android overshadows iOS. After all, the Apple ecosystem has a strong fanbase of its own and many benefits to its name. 

Android vs iOS User Growth: What You Need to Know

The iOS vs Android supremacy debate has been going on for quite many years now without a clear winner. iOS dominates in terms of better updates and support, brand loyalty, eco-system lock-ins, and security. However, the volume game belongs to Android. 

It’s not just because Android phones can cater to a more diverse market with a wider affordability range. Its open ecosystem, customization, and flexibility options also make them a great choice for app developers and businesses.

Let’s not forget how Android phones are popular in the emerging markets that are just beginning to adopt smartphones. Add seamless integration with Google services to that, and Android hits the jackpot of value-added convenience to a very large user base. These users also need access to Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Maps on a daily basis.

Information Source: Twinr.dev

All in all, things are looking pretty good for Android for the foreseeable future. This is another reason for mobile app development companies to invest and build Android apps with the latest trends.

There are a lot of exciting new trends in store for app developers in 2024. Here are the top 5 trends that we feel are particularly impactful for Android app development companies. So let’s take a look.

Top Android App Development Trends in 2024

A little into Q4 of 2023, the mobile app development industry is witnessing innovations like AI-powered chatbots, predictive analytics for personalization, AR/VR Oriented UX designs, app functionalities for foldable devices, etc. These are promising enough to make impact on the mobile applications development industry in 2024. In this article, we’ve decided to focus more on  Android-specific trends and technologies that are likely to have a direct impact in this segment. Our research points to these five

• Instant Apps
• Rise of Kotlin
• Jetpack Compose Integration
• Android App Modularization 
• 5G Integration

Instant Apps

Google first introduced the concept of Instant Apps during the annual developer conference of 2016. The idea was to offer developers and users an innovative way to experience and interact with mobile apps without downloading or installing the entire application. In 2024, instant apps have become a tangible, real solution, that offers a lightweight and on-demand experience. This enables users to quickly access app content without consuming storage space on their device.

These native applications are encapsulated inside native containers with access to the device’s hardware. However, they won’t take up the device storage space as they won’t be installed on the device. 

Android users can utilize Android’s ‘instant app’ feature by enabling the instant app option in Settings -> Google -> Google Play Instant -> On.

Android developers can create instant applications with the help of Android app bundles. Using Google Play’s instant development SDK with Android v.6.0 or higher along with an Android emulator, the codebase of an application can be minimized by adding it to the feature module of the bundle. 

Once this is done, you can choose the features to be made available in the instant version. This can be then added to create a crisp module of the instant app. With the selected features, build an APK instance and link it to a URL. Users will now be able to access the feature offered by the application with the help of an instant version.  

So why focus on instant applications in 2024? These app versions help Android developers gain a generic boost and marketing edge to their products. With easy discoverability and quick access to key features of an app, a user can choose to install the application to use its full feature set.

The Rise of Kotlin

Kotlin is rising in popularity, slowly but surely, winning over developers and Java enthusiasts. It is being touted as the most preferred language for Android app development by experts and is being used by 60% of professional Android developers, according to JetBrains. Google ranks it as a first-class language for Android apps. So what’s making Kotlin so popular?

To begin with, Kotlin offers a simple and concise syntax that developers can leverage better to create intuitive, readable, and maintainable code. When compared to Java, which was the traditional language for Android apps, Kotlin allowed developers to be more expressive, making room for innovation, and reducing boilerplate and verbosity.

Today Kotlin shares a bittersweet relationship with Java, acting both as its biggest competitor and also offering space for joint venture. Being interoperable with Java, Kotlin allows app development companies to leverage existing Java libraries and frameworks while gradually migrating their codebase to Kotlin.

Furthermore, Kotlin offers a range of modern language features and tools that enhance developer efficiency and enable the creation of more robust and maintainable code. Features such as null safety, extension functions, data classes, and coroutines empower developers to write safer, more expressive, and asynchronous code.

Android developers who have switched to Kotlin have reported significant productivity improvements and shorter development cycles. Considering that Android applications are competing with iOS apps to offer faster update roll-outs and higher volume downloads, Kotlin has all that it takes to become the biggest game-changer for Android apps in 2024.

Jetpack Compose Integration

With the entry of Jetpack Compose into the world of Android app development, UI design has become a breeze. This declarative UI framework typically utilizes Kotlin code to develop UI components of an application. With Jetpack Compose, the need for adding step-by-step instructions to achieve a specific design output is omitted. Instead, the developers can simply declare how an output should look depending on the current state of the application.

Button(

    onClick = { /* Handle button click */ },

    colors = ButtonDefaults.buttonColors(

        backgroundColor = Color.Blue,

        contentColor = Color.White

    )

) {

    Text(text = “Submit”)

}

The above Kotlin code is an example of the declarative nature of Jetpack Compose. Rather than explicitly instructing the button’s appearance in the code, it is declared by defining certain properties along with the onClick action. This declarative environment of Jetpack Compose simplifies the UI development, taking away the low-level details of UI manipulation, and making it a productive and time-efficient process for the developers. Jetpack Compose integration also enhances code maintainability and readability. 

Android App Modularization

The concept of app modularization is not new but is now gaining more traction than ever. This transformative approach to breakdown an application into smaller, independent modules or bundles of features, offers more flexibility, scalability, and agility to mobile app development companies. Multi-module Android apps come with benefits such as faster delivery of new features and improved overall stability and performance.

As mobile applications are growing in complexity and features every day, a modular architecture is the best way to make sure that the app has enough flexibility to make quick changes and push out faster updates. 

Considering that businesses are always under pressure to release new features and updates quickly, app modularization accelerates time-to-market by allowing developers to divide work on individual modules and fast-track the development process with rapid iterations and releases. This architecture also offers higher code reusability, encapsulation, and separation of concerns. 

Investing in modular app development might be particularly useful for Android app development teams in 2024 as they are going to have to find faster ways to integrate with emerging technologies like augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI). Furthermore, modular development enables teams to work in parallel and release features independently, leading to greater collaboration and efficiency within development teams.

5G Integration

Mobile networks have always played an important role in mobile app development. This has paved the way for faster and better user experience and adoption of internet-based app features. The arrival of 5G is no different and represents a significant milestone for both mobile connectivity and Android application development. The global 5G services market size was valued at $84.31 billion in 2023. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 59.4% from 2023 to 2030.

With faster speeds of up to 20 GBPS (download) and 10 GBPS (uploads) and ultra-low latency, 5G is expected to revamp the smartphone experience. From high-definition video streaming without the slightest glitch or delay to real-time multiplayer gaming experiences, 5G demands Android applications that are more dynamic, and feature-rich. 

The good news for app developers is that by making their Android apps compatible with 5G, they can offer their users a lot of advantages. These include, faster file transfers, improved performance of mapping and tracking systems, seamless IoT connectivity and functions, and enhanced cloud compatibility.

On the flipside, mobile app development companies will also need to optimize their Android apps. This can minimize data consumption using techniques like data compression and intelligent caching. 

Android App Development with Expeed

When it comes to mobile app development, especially Android app, businesses that embrace new technologies often outperform their competitors. Early adopters enjoy the benefits of a new market. When the time comes to upgrade their application, they stay one step ahead. Ultimately innovation is key for improving user experience, which is a key indicator for customer retention.

At Expeed, we believe in leveraging the latest technologies to improve app performance.  Parallelly, we also streamline our development processes and increase productivity. We build mobile applications that are future-proof and remain relevant and adaptable to future changes in the industry. If you’re looking for a reliable mobile app development company that you can partner with for long-term technology support, capable of designing, launching, and maintaining your brand product, then get in touch with our team today!