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Deep Learning for Android Apps

Structure of Android Apps

Explore the architecture and essential components of Android apps. Understand the roles of activities, services, broadcast receivers, and content providers, plus the operating system layers that support app functionality.

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The Android operating system (OS) is a modified Linux kernel mainly used for touchscreen mobile devices. It’s a leading mobile OS with more than 70% of smartphone usage. Each Android app consists of components that are the building blocks of an app. Knowing these components helps us understand the structure of Android apps.

Layered architecture

The Android OS has four main layers and five major software components given in the following diagram.

Android layered architecture
Android layered architecture

Application layer

Android apps reside on the top application layer. Apps such as Voice Dial, Media Player, Email, and Contacts are part of this layer.

Java application framework

The Java application framework layer provides services to Android apps as Java classes. App developers make frequent use of these services in their apps. Some of these services include:

  • Activity Manager: This controls all facets of the activity life cycles in an app.

  • Notification Manager: This allows apps to show notifications and alerts to the users.

  • Content Providers: These permit apps to share data with other apps.

  • View System: This is a set of views to create the user interfaces (UIs) of apps. ...