Google is making it easier for people to learn to code for Android without having to quit their day jobs. Through a partnership with the education platform Udacity, Google is offering everyone the opportunity to get their Android Basics Nanodegree.
It's meant to teach Android app building to those with little or no coding experience, though more advanced developers are welcome to go back to school with Google and its partner Udacity for a quick refresher of the basics.
The course, which individuals can complete at their own pace, covers building basic user interfaces for apps, developing user interactions, saving data in databases and leveraging data from the internet. It also covers localizing apps for various languages along with spotting and fixing bugs and bizarre behavior in their apps.
There are more than a billion Android devices in pockets and purses, on desks and nightstands and attached to stereo and laptops, but despite being the most popular mobile platform on the planet, many people still find it intimidating to develop for Android.
Google wants more people to know that if they have an app idea, they can create it themselves, says Katherine Kuan, developer advocate for Google.
"It's a learning path that takes someone with no coding experience to building a whole portfolio of basic Android apps," Kuan says.
For Brandon Spence, Android Basics Nanodegree student, developing Android apps always appeared to be "such a daunting task." But after learning to build his own apps, he now wishes he'd gotten into app development a decade or so earlier.
"I think everyone comes across that moment when they're fiddling around with an app, and they're like, 'Ah man, I wish it did this.' The difference is kinda acting on it," Spence says. This "was my opportunity to no longer have to wish an app existed. I can just make it myself."
Those interested in enrolling in the Android Basics Nanodegree program can do so. The course takes about 165 hours on average to complete.
For those who are exploring career ideas and need a bit of incentive to go down this path, well, the base salary for an Android developer ranges from about $52.4k to $136k annually.
Already a developer? Refresh your skills by getting back to basics with Android Basics Nanodegree: https://t.co/rlTBjMP9Wq #androidforall
— Android Developers (@AndroidDev) June 22, 2016
