Your First Kotlin Android App: An App From Scratch
Updated for 2023! Get started with Android by building your own game using Jetpack Compose and the Kotlin programming language. If you’re new to Android and development as a whole, then this course is for you. By Emmanuel Okiche.
Learning path
This is part of the Android & Kotlin for Beginners learning path. View path.
Who is this for?
Total beginners welcome! This course walks you through building an Android app in Kotlin from start to finish.
This course isn’t suited for advanced developers. If that’s you, check out our intermediate or advanced video courses for more ways to level-up your developer skills!
Covered concepts
- Kotlin Basics
- Build User Interfaces with Jetpack Compose
- Use Compose Modifiers
- State Management
- State Hoisting
- Working with Android Studio
- Code Refactoring & Debugging
Part 1: Get Started with Android Development
Getting started with Android development begins right here. Learn about what you’ll be making in this course - a simple game called Bull’s Eye.
This episode would introduce the students into the two main components of the course: Kotlin and Android. Get a general introduction to Kotlin and a brief overview of the Android OS.
Challenge yourself to come up with the steps required to build the Bull’s Eye app.
Download Android Studio and setup a simple project.
Build and run the app on the virtual device you just created to see the starter app in action.
Get introduced to Jetpack Compose which is the new way of building UIs in Android and see how it differs from its predecessor, XML.
Build the basic inteface of the BullsEye app using composables in Android.
Use modifiers to further decorate and add functionalities to composables.
Learn about the importance of using string resources for texts and how to add descriptive ids to views.
Get a summary of what has been covered so far and what to expect in the next part.
Part 2: Manage Data in Jetpack Compose
Get an overview of what we’ll be covering in this part and why it’s important.
Get introduced to some basic object-oriented programming concepts to better understand the Kotlin code you’ll be working with in the Android Activity.
Learn how to handle events triggered when users interact with your app and learn about the Logcat window.
Learn how to work with States in Jetpack Compose and display an AlertDialog.
Learn about State Hoisting in Jetpack Compose and how you can use it to create stateless composables to simplify your code.
Cover the process of working with the “string” data type which stores a sequence of characters and display the value of the Slider in the AlertDialog.
Create a custom GamePrompt composable that hold the instruction and target text labels.
Learn about common problems you might encounter while building your apps and see how to solve them.
Get a summary of what has been covered so far and what to expect in the next part.
Part 3: Coding in Kotlin
Get an overview of what we’ll be covering in this part and why it’s important.
Get introduced to the Kotlin Standard Library and how it assists with common operations so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
Learn about another type of function: one that returns some data.
Learn about algorithms and write one that calculates the positive difference between the player’s selection and the target value.
Become acquainted with conditional statements by calculating the positive difference.
Learn the ropes of code refactoring. Try to rewrite the method using another algorithm with less code.
Learn to use a math function provided by the Kotlin Standard Library to further simplify the code to calculate the difference.
Get a refresher of what was covered in this course and what to expect in the next course in your Android development journey.