I’m thrilled to take you on an adventure through the key aspects of mobile app performance improvement. So sit back, relax, and get ready to discover how we combine cutting-edge tools, clever tricks, and a touch of humor to deliver exceptional apps that leave a lasting impression.

1. Performance Profiling: Unleashing App Potential Imagine you’re a detective solving a performance mystery! With our trusty profiling tools, we dive deep into your app’s performance metrics, uncovering hidden bottlenecks and areas in need of improvement. It’s like shining a bright spotlight on any sluggishness or hiccups, giving us the power to optimize every nook and cranny of your app.

2. Elevating Efficiency: The Resource Management Magic Let’s play a game called “Optimize or Be Swamped!” Our developers are masters of resource management, juggling memory, CPU, and battery consumption like seasoned magicians. They’ll make those image files disappear (in size, not visually) and wave their wands to conjure efficient data caching, resulting in lightning-fast responsiveness and happier battery life.

3. Minimizing Network Latency: Speeding Past Slow Connections Ever felt like you’re waiting for a sloth to finish a marathon? We’ve got a need for speed! Through clever data compression and caching techniques, we minimize network delays, ensuring your app loads faster than a cheetah chasing its morning coffee. It’s like having the Flash on your side, making your users’ experience smooth and delightful.

4. Aesthetics and Experience: Where Beauty Meets Functionality They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but we believe it’s also in the hands of the UX/UI designers. Our talented team will create an interface that’s as visually stunning as a sunset over a tropical paradise, while still optimizing UI rendering for blazing-fast performance. Your app will be a joy to use, with an intuitive flow that even your grandma could navigate with ease.

5. Code Optimization: The Art of Digital Wizardry Picture our developers as the Gandalfs of code optimization, wielding their staffs (read: keyboards) to conjure spells that make your app run smoother than butter on a hot pancake. They’ll fine-tune algorithms, eliminate redundant computations, and master the art of asynchronous programming to ensure your app’s main thread is as swift as an Olympic sprinter.

6. Performance Testing and Monitoring: Superheroes in Action Let’s put on our superhero capes and dive into the world of performance testing! Our automated testing tools simulate real-life scenarios, stress-testing your app to ensure it remains unshakable, even under the weight of a thousand users. And with our vigilant monitoring systems, we’re like the Batman of performance, catching any issues before they can wreak havoc.

7. Battery Efficiency: Saving the World, One Charge at a Time We’ve all experienced the dreaded low-battery panic. But fear not, for we’re here to save the day! Our developers are experts in conserving energy, using power-saving techniques that would impress even the most eco-conscious superheroes. Your app will run smoothly without draining your users’ batteries faster than a superpower-draining villain.

8. Optimal Data Storage: The Treasure Chest of Performance Imagine your app’s data storage as a treasure chest, and we hold the key to unlocking its full potential. We’ll select the perfect data storage mechanisms for your app, optimizing database queries, implementing data caching, and indexing like a seasoned pirate searching for the hidden loot. Your app’s response times will be faster than Jack Sparrow on a treasure hunt.

9. Realizing Your Vision: Ever-Evolving Excellence Remember, we’re on this journey together! Regular updates and continuous improvement are in our DNA. We value your feedback, embrace user input, and constantly seek ways to enhance your app’s performance. We’re like the Iron Man of app development, always upgrading and refining to keep your users delighted and engaged.

10. The Power of Collaboration: Building a Super Team Even superheroes need sidekicks! We carefully select and integrate third-party libraries and tools, ensuring they seamlessly complement our in-house expertise. It’s like assembling the Avengers of app development, combining the strengths of various tools and libraries to create a harmonious and high-performing app.

Conclusion: At Rockwolf, we don’t just build mobile apps; we create experiences that leave users in awe. With a blend of cutting-edge tools, clever tricks, and our commitment to excellence, we craft apps that perform flawlessly, making your users smile from ear to ear. Join us on this adventure, and let’s bring your app dreams to life!

A large part of the Android apps and the Android itself are based on Java. Java has been always known as the native Android language. But time did not stand still, so Kotlin as a modern language has came into sight and became the second official language for Android.

Kotlin is …

Open-source statically typed programming language. It is inspired by Java (fully compatible and interoperable with Java), but it has some significant improvements and additional features. In July 2011, JetBrains unveiled Project Kotlin, a new language for the JVM. The first version of Kotlin was released on February 15, 2016. In May 2019, Google announced Kotlin as the preferred language for Android development. Enterprise leaders who are making their Android apps with Kotlin: Uber, Netflix, Pinterest, Trello, Twitter, Evernote, Kickstarter, Gradle, Basecamp.

Pros of Kotlin

• Kotlin provides built-in null safety support which is much needed, especially on Android, which is full of old Java-style APIs
• Thanks to Java bytecode, you can use Java libraries and frameworks and be sure they will work with Kotlin modules.
• Code in Kotlin is much smaller than the same functionality code written in Java, which means less room for error.
• Kotlin has modern programming concepts such as delegates, extension functions, higher-order functions, and more to help developers build clean APIs;
• Kotlin incorporates coroutines, as well as interoperability with Javascript for web development.
• Kotlin app deployment is quicker to assemble and prevent applications from expanding the size
• Kotlin script helps to configure projects in Android Studio for auto-completion aids, and it helps to reduce compile-time error detection.
• Developers can benefit from a rapidly growing collection of open source projects on GitHub, many books, learning resources, and online courses;

Cons of Kotlin

• Kotlin has a steep learning curve when switching the entire team to Kotlin.
• Kotlin is slower than Java regarding compilation speed and some features of Android Studio like auto-complete.
• Kotlin developer community is still smaller than Java (for example, at Stack Overflow)
• There are few Kotlin developers available in the market for now. So, finding an experienced person is quite tricky.
• Kotlin matches weak patterns, and code readability.
• Small support community compared with Java and fewer libraries.

What Kotlin offers that Java Doesn’t

• Coroutines A coroutine is a concurrency design pattern that you can use on Android to simplify code that executes asynchronously. Coroutines help to manage long-running tasks that might otherwise block the main thread and cause your app to become unresponsive.
• Singletons A singleton is a design pattern in which a given class has only one single instance inside the entire app.
• Extension functions It allows importing a reference to a View into the activity file, allows working with that view as if a part of the activity.
• First-class delegation Effective alternative to inheritance implementation.
• Null-Safety Kotlin solves the NullPointerExceptions problem by making all types non-nullable by default.
• String Templates Developers can assign dynamic values directly to their strings and print statements in Kotlin using templates.
• Primary Constructors Are used to initialize the class. It can be declared at the class header level allowing to automatically initialize the variables.
• Lambda expressions and higher-order functions – specialized language constructs
• Type inference for variable and property types You don’t need to define the data type of a variable explicitly as the Kotlin compiler will do it for you automatically.
• Smart Casts Automatic handling of redundant casts without having to check type or having to cast inside a statement.
• Declaration site variance and type projections Kotlin doesn’t have wildcard types. Instead, it has two other things: declaration-site variance and type projections.
• Operator Overloading Kotlin allows you to provide custom implementations for the predefined set of operators on types. These operators have predefined symbolic representation (like + or *) and precedence.
• Companion Objects In Kotlin, if you want to write a function or any member of the class that can be called without having the instance of the class then you can write the same as a member of a companion object inside the class. So, by declaring the companion object, you can access the members of the class by class name only without explicitly creating the instance of the class.
• Separate interfaces for read-only and mutable collections Unlike Java, Kotlin has two different interfaces for working with collections. The plain Collection interface handles accessing data and then the MutableCollection interface handles modifying the data.
• Data Classes The concept of Data Classes represents simple classes used as data containers and does not encapsulate any additional logic. It enables us to avoid writing a lot of boilerplate code.
• Range Expressions In Kotlin we can create ranges using the rangeTo() and downTo() functions or the .. operator.

Pros of Java

• Java is easy to learn and understand.
• Works well for native as well as cross-platform apps, can work on any device, server, or operating system.
• There are many useful and tested Java libraries, open-source ecosystems available for programmers.
• This programming language is simple to use, compiling, and making debugging.
• Assembling large projects is a simple process, thanks to the accelerated assembly with Gradle.
• The build process is faster.
• Creating modular applications and reusing the parts is easier.

Cons of Java

• Java has limitations that cause problems with Android API design due to inherent limitations.
• Java is slower compared with other programming languages.
• Java requires more memory and so tends to be slower.
• Java requires writing more code, which causes a higher risk of errors and bugs.
• It is difficult to access some content that may be inappropriate for the devices you are using.

What Java offers that Kotlin Doesn’t

• Ternary operator Java has a ternary operator that works like a basic if statement that evaluates whether a condition is true or false.
• Primitive types that are not classes Char, double, float, and byte are primitive types that serve the sole purpose of containing pure, simple values of a specific type. They come with several predefined operations, they are not objects created from a class or structure in Java.
• Static members Java creates a single static member instance that is common to all instances of the class. The static keyword reflects that the particular member with which the keyword was used belongs to the type itself, not an instance.
• Wildcard types Wildcard types have several uses, including the type of a field, local variable, or parameter. Java allows developers to use this type system for advanced functionality.
• Checked exceptions In general, checked exceptions represent errors outside the control of the program. Java checked exceptions are a feature that is still in great demand of developers. Kotlin gets rid of them to keep the code more concise, but many developers still prefer it.

Summary

Many companies are adopting Kotlin as the official Android programming language. The future of Kotlin as a new Android language is certainly encouraging. Although Java will remain a popular language for a long time to come and is unlikely to be completely replaced. Both Java and Kotlin can be used to create efficient and useful applications. But Google encourages developers to start building Android apps with Kotlin and is taking an increasingly Kotlin-centric approach to modern Android development. Many Android Jetpack libraries are either written entirely in Kotlin or support Kotlin language features such as coroutines. Finally, the main “Why use Kotlin for Android” argument might be the fact that Kotlin is designed to solve Java problems. A younger and more modern programming language has pushed Java out of this area. If you need to develop a mobile app for Android, you need to look for Kotlin developers. But remember that It can be a shock to switch an entire team to Kotlin at a time, so it’s important to make this transition slowly, one person at a time.

Every day many people use mobile phones. Some of them have even more than one phone. With the growing number of smartphones and tablets, mobile applications became more and more popular. Users expect that installed applications are simple, intuitive, and work stable. So mobile application development and its testing (as a part development lifecycle) are very important nowadays. With monitoring and testing software from such suppliers as Apica Systems, they can help these applications reach their full potential as they identify any performance issues that could hinder the expansion of the app. This type of testing also helps in protecting the application from potential data breaches. Businesses often employ services, to ensure the safety of their mobile applications.
Nonetheless, at times, mobile application testing tends to be more complex than testing traditional desktop and web applications. There are specific factors that need to be considered in the testing process:

• screen orientation (landscape, portrait);

• screen resolution;

• different OS versions;

• different devices’ manufacturers;

• turning on/off GPS (in Android 6 and iOS GPS and can be enabled/disabled for each app).

Functional testing is testing performed to ensure the mobile application developed according to requirements. Basic Functional test scenarios are:

• check work-ability of all functions;

• check the correct work of all form fields;

• check the correct work of the user registration and authorization process;

• check that the page scrolling scenarios are being enabled in the application as necessary;

• check correct buttons working (tapping on the buttons should be displayed and after tapping on the buttons the correct actions should be done);

• check search field working (if it is implemented in app);

• check the app navigation menu working;

• check app reaction while tap navigation buttons (Home, Back; Resent App List);

• check the correct app work when it is launched and when quit from it;

• check app interaction with database;

• check that the application allows necessary social network options such as sharing, posting and navigation etc.;

• check the correct working with payment system (if it is implemented in app);

• check that the user receives an appropriate error message in case of possible exceptions(for example: “No Internet connection” if Internet is turned off);

• check that the installed app does not interfere with the normal work of other applications;

• check that the app saves all settings on exit;

• check that the app works correctly with all appropriate languages (if the app is multilanguage);

• check if app can return to initial condition after system crash or hard device reboot;

It is important to conduct Usability testing. This kind of testing is a non-functional testing technique that is a measure of how easily the app can be used by end users. The main goal is to answer the question “Can people use this app design conveniently?”. For usability testing is necessary to:

• check if the design ensure visual focus on the most important elements of each screen;

• ensure that the buttons have the required size and be suitable to big fingers;

• ensure that the buttons are placed in the same section of the screen to avoid confusion to the end users;

• ensure that the buttons, which have the same function type also have the same color;

• ensure that minimal keyboard input was provided;

• ensure that user can return or cancel the action if press the wrong button;

• ensure that the text is simple, clear and visible for user;

• ensure that the app is free of technical text display issues such as: Text cut off / Text overlapping;

• ensure that the optimal font size was found;

• ensure that the app can be terminated from any state and that it resumes it’s working at the same state;

• ensure that the contextual menus are not overloaded because it has to be used quickly;

• check visual indication of the function execution progress (for example if user moves between screens);

• check correct work of zoom-in and zoom-out functions;

• check availability the user’s guide to help to understand the app and use it effectively;

It is necessary to check app stable working after external interrupts:

• incoming and outgoing SMS;

• incoming and outgoing calls;

• removing tho phone battery;

• disconnect and connection USB cable;

• insertion and removal memory card;

• connection and disconnection the wall charger;

• receiving a file/picture via Bluetooth from another device;

• receiving incoming email to device;

• alarm clock alarm;

• low battery notification;

• connection and disconnection a wired headset;

• connection to wifi and then 3G and on the contrary;

• notifications from another apps;

• device going into sleep mode;

The app must not crash or freeze at any time while running on the device. Of course it must be free of spelling errors.

These are only the most obvious cases for the testing. Of course, each app has it’s own specific users, technical complexities, domains. It must be considered during the testing process to get bug-free and useful applications.