When Android was first introduced, app development was a walk in the park for developers as all you had to do was define the user interface (UI) in an XML file and connect your activity. Developers found it easy to write apps because the devices at that time were only a handful. Fast forward to a few years ago and UI development had become complex, especially since there are thousands of devices with varying screen sizes, pixel densities and form factors. To solve this problem, Google introduced its Jetpack Compose for Android in 2021.
Jetpack Compose is Android’s modern toolkit for building native UI using Kotlin code. Designed to simplify and accelerate the creation of UIs Android, this declarative programming model allows you to build a rich and responsive UI. All you have to do is to call some sets of functions that will transform your data into a UI hierarchy.
One of the biggest attractions of Compose is that it lets you create powerful UIs very quickly compared to the old tool set. Although Jetpack Compose was primarily introduced for use in Android, it also supports other platforms like in Web and Desktop – multi platform apps.
- Composable: It is represented in code using the annotation @Composable. This function lets you define the UI of your application.
- Preview: As its name suggests, the Preview() function provides the preview of the composable function you have written in the studio so you don’t have to install the app to the device.
- Row: The Row() function helps you arrange your UI elements in a horizontal order.
- Column: The Column() function helps you arrange your UI elements in a vertical order.
- Box: The Box() function is a widget that lets you arrange your UI elements one above another in the order that they are specified.
Wondering why you should include this library in your current or future projects? Here are a few reasons.
Before now, developers had to work on the XML file and Kotlin file but with Jetpack Compose, you only need to write code in one app. This makes development both easier and faster since you only have to work on the Kotlin files.
Jetpack Compose lets you manipulate the UI of your app using a series of functions. You don’t have to worry about the previous state of the UI as all you need to do is to describe your UI components by calling some predefined functions.
Using material design, jetpack Compose gives you a lot of flexibility including the addition of animations, which can be implemented with ease. This allows developers to build beautiful apps.
A Compose UI is written in 100% Kotlin programming language, making it easier for new developers. All it takes to get started with UI creation is to learn a single language.
The Jetpack Compose has soared in popularity to become the preferred way of developing UI for Android. By leveraging it, developers can now build more with less code and bring their app to life faster than ever before.