I quit Android Development after 10 years and what I plan to do now
levelup.gitconnected.com
I quit Android Development after 10 years and what I plan to do now
1–10 of 39 posts
Re: I quit Android Development after 10 years and what I plan to do now
#2Such a nice post!! Since 2017-18, even I have had the desire to jump into Android Dev, I tried a couple of times, but it couldn't hold my attention for more than a couple of weeks. Also, I think doing Mobile/Desktop development in general is a pain in the ass, as the platforms are very fragmented and they would never arrive at a single platform due to corporate interests. Since working n the industry, I eventually found out that I had more inclination for Backend/Systems Engineering stuff and look forward to develop my skills in these domains.
Re: I quit Android Development after 10 years and what I plan to do now
#3>The sad truth is that the path of an architect or principal / staff engineer is closed for a pure android developer. The pure android dev simply won’t have the required skills to fulfill those positions.
Is this true?
Re: I quit Android Development after 10 years and what I plan to do now
#4This article really does bring up a valid point about the career path for mobile does seem undefined. How is one expected to advance into principal / staff as a mobile developer? While to do so as a backend dev, whose code affects all downstream, is much more clear.
Re: I quit Android Development after 10 years and what I plan to do now
#5>The sad truth is that the path of an architect or principal / staff engineer is closed for a pure android developer. The pure android dev simply won’t have the required skills to fulfill those positions. Is this true?
Not at all, I work at a well-known company that has Staff and Principal Engineers for iOS and Android as well as backend.
Re: I quit Android Development after 10 years and what I plan to do now
#6I am also an Android developer for over a decade. One thing I dislike about Android development is the fragmented way to do things. There was the support libraries v4, v7 and now the jetpack or androidx.* libraries. My UI is composed of different namespaces like androidx.drawerlayout.widget.DrawerLayout and com.google.android.material.appbar.MaterialToolbar. This is just confusing.
Also you need to choose MVC, MVP, Viper, MVVM, AAC, RxJava, and now Jetpack Compose which completely is different compared to other architectures.
But nonetheless I am excited with Jetpack Compose.
Re: I quit Android Development after 10 years and what I plan to do now
#7> “The sad truth is that the path of an architect or principal / staff engineer is closed for a pure android developer”
When I worked at Uber as an engineering manager, this was partially the case: at Uber’s scale, there was a path to grow to Staff-level just with pure mobile, but it was a crowded place and difficult to get to as a mobile-only engineer expert in one platform only.
I encouraged native engineers wanting to get to that next level to go broader - venture into areas like iOS or web or backend, to become a more well-rounded engineer and ultimately someone who can lead and influence wider groups.
If you don’t work at a company with large mobile platforms, switching stacks to eg backend typically has more path for growth.
I also wrote a book called Growing as a Mobile Engineer where my advice is basically the above: to grow beyond the senior level, either you’ll need opportunities to work at places with large enough mobile scale - typically ones with mobile platform teams -, or leave native mobile to further your career.
Re: I quit Android Development after 10 years and what I plan to do now
#8Such a nice post!! Since 2017-18, even I have had the desire to jump into Android Dev, I tried a couple of times, but it couldn't hold my attention for more than a couple of weeks. Also, I think doing Mobile/Desktop development in general is a pain in the ass, as the platforms are very fragmented and they would never arrive at a single platform due to corporate interests. Since working n the industry, I eventually fo…
Don't let this dissuade you too much from doing something you're interested in.
I've been a "sysadmin" for 20 years, and just recently released my first iOS and Android app using React Native. Highly recommend it for cross-platform and code sharing, and it was quite enjoyable to do.
Re: I quit Android Development after 10 years and what I plan to do now
#9I am also an Android developer for over a decade. One thing I dislike about Android development is the fragmented way to do things. There was the support libraries v4, v7 and now the jetpack or androidx.* libraries. My UI is composed of different namespaces like androidx.drawerlayout.widget.DrawerLayout and com.google.android.material.appbar.MaterialToolbar. This is just confusing. Also you need to choose MVC, MVP, V…
As a long time iOS dev who later took on Android, I share the frustrations of platform fragmentation and messy namespaces. I’ll also add that compared to iOS, on average on Android you’re reaching for third party libraries a lot more often which comes with its own set of frustrations. Not that iOS dev is perfect either, but as a whole I feel far more productive there than on Android.
Haven’t yet tried Compose but it seems promising.
Re: I quit Android Development after 10 years and what I plan to do now
#10I am also an Android developer for over a decade. One thing I dislike about Android development is the fragmented way to do things. There was the support libraries v4, v7 and now the jetpack or androidx.* libraries. My UI is composed of different namespaces like androidx.drawerlayout.widget.DrawerLayout and com.google.android.material.appbar.MaterialToolbar. This is just confusing. Also you need to choose MVC, MVP, V…
As a long time iOS dev who later took on Android, I share the frustrations of platform fragmentation and messy namespaces. I’ll also add that compared to iOS, on average on Android you’re reaching for third party libraries a lot more often which comes with its own set of frustrations. Not that iOS dev is perfect either, but as a whole I feel far more productive there than on Android. Haven’t yet tried Compose but it…
I also develop on iOS and I agree with your comment. Example of this is iOS built in URLSession compared to Android’s deprecation of Volley so we have to rely on a third party Retrofit. The thought of that is just insane to me.