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Develop applications

If you are interested in developing applications for Android, visit the Android application developer site.

About Android

For general information, visit android.com.

Mailing lists

Contents

  1. 1 Available mailing lists
    1. 1.1 Open source mailing lists
    2. 1.2 Android application developer mailing lists
  2. 2 Using email with the mailing lists
  3. 3 Using IRC
Welcome to the Android community! We're glad you're here, and we invite you to participate in these discussions.

Available mailing lists

To get the most out of the mailing list discussions, please do the following before you post:
  1. Read the mailing list charter that covers the community guidelines.
  2. Search the mailing list archives to see whether your questions have already been discussed.
  3. Be very clear about your question in the subject -- it helps everyone, both those trying to answer your question as well as those who may be looking for information in the future.
  4. Give plenty of details in your post to help others understand your problem. Code or log snippets, as well as pointers to screenshots, may also be helpful. For a great guide to phrasing your questions, read How To Ask Questions The Smart Way .

Open source mailing lists

  • Android platform - You want to contribute code into the Android user-space projects. You want to improve the system libraries, the Android services, the public APIs, or the built-in applications. You've downloaded the source code, compiled it, read through it, and you're at the point where you're going to be making changes of your own to contribute into the Android source code. Coordinate your efforts with those of other contributors here, discuss architecture, design and implementation here. Go to android-kernel for discussions about contributing to the kernel, android-porting if you're porting Android to your own hardware or making changes that you're not going to contribute back, android-developers if you're writing applications with the SDK, or android-discuss for everything else.

  • Android framework - Deprecated - use android-platform instead.

  • Android porting - You want to port Android to your favorite device, or make any change to Android that you're not going to contribute back. You have downloaded the Android source code, now you're wondering how to combine it with your hardware to create the best Android device ever. Discuss here the specifics of porting Android to individual devices, from obtaining toolchains and merging kernel drivers all the way to configuring or modifying applications for your specific configuration.

  • Android kernel - You want to contribute to the Linux kernel that underpins Android. If you've downloaded the kernel code, if you know how to compile it, if you want to write kernel code to specifically support Android, this is your place. Don't discuss user-space here.
  • Repo and Gerrit discussion - Discuss here everything related to the process used to manage the Android source code with repo and gerrit: downloading the source code, submitting changes for review, commenting on code being reviewed, submitting changes for the world to enjoy.

Android application developer mailing lists

  • Android beginners - You're new to Android application development. You want to figure out how to get started with the Android SDK and the basic Android APIs? Start here. This list is open to any discussion around beginner-type questions for developers using the SDK; this is a great way to get up and running with your new application on the Android platform. Ask about getting your development environment set up, get help with the first steps of Android development (your first User Interface, your first permission, your first file on the Android filesystem, your first app on the Android Market...). Be sure to check the archives first before asking new questions. Please avoid advanced subjects, which belong on android-developers, and user questions, which will get a better reception on android-discuss.

  • Android developers - You're now an experienced Android application developer. You've grasped the basics of Android app development, you're comfortable using the SDK, now you want to move to advanced topics. Get help here with troubleshooting applications, advice on implementation, and strategies for improving your application's performance and user experience. This is the not the right place to discuss user issues (use android-discuss for that) or beginner questions with the Android SDK (use android-beginners for that).

  • Android discuss - The "water cooler" of Android discussion. You can discuss just about anything Android-related here, ideas for the Android platform, announcements about your applications, discussions about Android devices, community resources... As long as your discussion is related to Android, it's on-topic here. However, if you have a discussion here that could belong on another list, you are probably not reaching all of your target audience here and may want to consider shifting to a more targeted list.

  • Android security discuss - A place for open discussion on secure development, emerging security concerns, and best practices for and by android developers. Please don't disclose vulnerabilities directly on this list, you'd be putting all Android users at risk.

  • Android security announce - A low-volume group for security-related announcements by the Android Security Team.
  • Android Market Help Forum - A web-based discussion forum where you can ask questions or report issues relating to Android Market.

Using email with the mailing lists

Instead of using the Google Groups site, you can use your email client of choice to participate in the mailing lists.

To subscribe to a group without using the Google Groups site, use the link under "subscribe via email" in the lists above.

To set up how you receive mailing list postings by email:
  1. Sign into the group via the Google Groups site. For example, for the android-framework group you would visit http://groups.google.com/group/android-framework.
  2. Click "Edit my membership" on the right side.
  3. Under "How do you want to read this group?" select one of the email options.

Using IRC

The Android community is using the #android channel on the irc.freenode.net server.