Top Programming Languages to Develop Android Apps

Android is one of the most popular operating systems for mobile devices with 3.48 million apps on Google Play making it the largest number of apps available on any store. So to keep up with the appetite of Android users, there’s a great demand for Android app developers.

If you are planning to take up Android app development, this post lists down some of the most popular programming languages you can consider. There is basic information about each language so you can make an informed decision about which language you want to invest your time in learning.

Java

Java is undoubtedly the leader in this area and can be safely called the primary language of Android development. The fact that almost all official courses and educational documentation on Android programming are based on this language vouches for its popularity.

For Java, you can find a vast amount of source code on GitHub, and the developers themselves note that this language is very convenient for writing mobile applications.

Java has spread widely across dozens of programming industries, so for aspiring Android developers a good point to start would be to learn about Java in the context of the Android ecosystem.

Kotlin

Kotlin allows you to use all the best aspects of Java in a software product without its disadvantages. The syntax and other features of Kotlin programming are modern and easy to understand and fast with a straightforward development environment.

In 2019, Google designated Kotlin as the preferred language for the Android platform making it one of the official programming languages for Android development. Plus, it is seamlessly compatible with Java; having more syntactic sugar.

C#

C# took over the best from Java and added some of its own cool features. Android programming with C# implies the use of Xamarin. It can be used to create one application logic in C# for Android and iOS.

As for Android development, we can highlight the availability of access to the most functional development environments: Visual and Xamarin Studio. C# is also useful when you need to use Unity – a cross-platform game engine for creating 2D or 3D mobile games.

C++

C++ is a cross-platform programming language that can be used to create high-performance mobile and desktop apps. This high-level universal language was introduced as an extended version of the C programming language.

It gives developers complete control over memory and system resources. To develop Android applications, you can use an abundance of libraries available for this language.

For code written in C ++ to work in AndroidStudio, you need your own set of software known as the NDK. The NDK allows you to improve performance, which is especially necessary for a good implementation of an application on Android.

Dart

Dart offers a unified development approach for both iOS and Android using Flutter. Flutter allows you to develop cross-platform applications; therefore, it is effective in developing Android applications with a common code base in the Dart language.

Dart is positioned as an alternative to JavaScript. It is compiled into binary code, due to which a high speed of operations is achieved. It is a technology from Google, a complete SDK released in 2018. For several parameters, it is considered a better solution than React Native.

Python

Python has no native support on Android, but there are some tools that allow you to develop Python applications and then convert them to APKs. The most popular tool (framework) for converting Python code to APK is the Kivy project.

Kivy has been developed to speed up application development. However, in the absence of native support for Python, it will not be possible to take advantage of the Android environment. Applications that use Kivy are compiled into larger APKs, which can decrease their performance.

Lua

Lua is used for developing cross-platform mobile apps running on Android. In conjunction with Lua, there is a special development environment in Corona that offers users a much easier way to develop Android apps than Android Studio, and provides complete control over the process.

Corona is coded in the Lua programming language, which has a much simpler syntax than Java.

Basic (with B4A)

This language is the best choice for a beginner. You will be able to use it in the B4A development environment. The Basic4Android syntax itself is very similar to the popular Visual Basic. When developing applications on it, you can use many additional libraries with different functionalities, and you will not need special runtime tools to run programs.

Basic4Android has a powerful visual designer that supports different orientations and screen sizes. You can learn many new things without too much effort and create basic applications, but for creating advanced apps, you’ll need to learn one of the aforementioned languages.

JavaScript

JavaScript is a very popular front-end and back-end language that allows web developers to do everything from improving the user interface of their websites to building complete web applications.

Several JavaScript frameworks are specifically targeted at mobile development platforms such as Ionic and React Native. It is easy to develop cross-platform mobile apps with these frameworks and libraries. It means that you only need to write one version of the application, and it will work on iOS or Android.