News

Introducing: Making Money With Android Wiki

Over the past few years, the blog and forums have facilitated some great discussions about Android development, monetization and marketing. Today I’m excited to announce a brand new addition to this website – the Making Money With Android Wiki.

The purpose of the Wiki is to collate the information people are discussing on the forums, and make it easily accessible and useful. Are you looking for a database of indie-friendly multimedia resources? Or clear and concise info about popular ad networks? How about implementation guides, or mediation adapters? Instead of having to dig through pages of old forum discussions, you’ll now be able to find all this information easily accessible on the Wiki.

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Opening For Guest Authors

Over the past couple of years this blog has documented my personal journey developing and monetizing Android apps. The initial goal of $1000/month seemed lofty at the time – but since October 2011, I’ve continued to exceed this target every month. Now it’s time to move on to a new stage in the site’s evolution. … Read more

Reply To Comments Enabled For All Google Play Developers

A few months ago we heard that Google had started enabling “reply to comments” for selected Android developers on Google Play. Unfortunately I didn’t get access at the time, and have been waiting for a chance to try it out ever since. Well it seems like today is the big day. According to the official announcement by Google, all developers can now reply to comments on Google Play.

Screenshot of Google Play developer feature - Reply To User Reviews

This new feature is a big deal for many Android developers. Anyone who’s released an app on Google Play knows what it’s like to receive a negative review, complaining about problems which have already been fixed, or are simply the result of a misunderstanding by the user. This kind of thing happens all the time. And up until now, it’s been impossible to follow up with these users.

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New Android SDK Tools and ADT Revision 17

Android with Screwdriver and Spanner InlaidThe Android Developers blog just announced an update for the Android SDK Tools and ADB. This new release, version 17, brings many improvements to the build process. Here are some of my favourite new features:

  • Added check for Android API calls that require a version of Android higher than the minimum supported version. This will save you from having to test your app on Android 1.6 for example, only to have it fail due to an API call that was introduced in Android 2.1
  • Added a feature that allows you to run some code only in debug mode. Builds now generate a class called BuildConfig containing a DEBUG constant that is automatically set according to your build type. You can check the (BuildConfig.DEBUG) constant in your code to run debug-only functions such as outputting debug logs.
  • Added feature to automatically setup JAR dependencies. Any .jar files in the /libs folder are added to the build configuration (similar to how the Ant build system works). Also, .jar files needed by library projects are also automatically added to projects that depend on those library projects.
  • Updated the resource chooser to show the resolved value for resources. For example, when selecting @string/hello the chooser displays a resolved value such as “Hello World”). The resource chooser also now allows you to edit the chosen value directly.

There are plenty more changes to be found in the SDK Release Notes and ADT Release Notes. The Android Emulator can now run x86 system images at native speed, thanks to contributions from Intel. Lint has also received a major upgrade, with 40 new rules checking for performance and code issues.

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Android Developers on Google+

This morning Google announced a brand new Google+ page for Android Developers. The goal is to create “a place for Android developers everywhere to meet, share, and connect with the people behind the Android developer experience”. The Android Developer Relations team will be hosting Google+ Hangouts from this page, and even calling in some external developers … Read more

SOPA Blackout Today

January 18th is SOPA Blackout Day. I’ll be participating in this endeavour – anyone visiting the blog today will be presented with a black overlay and a link explaining why the SOPA legislation is so dangerous to the internet as we know it today. For those who aren’t aware, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) is … Read more

Over 700,000 Android Devices Activated Per Day

Chart of Android Activations by David Webb

Andy Rubin just posted the latest Android goodness on Google+. Apparently there are now over 700,000 Android devices activated per day around the world. And that’s not counting upgrades.

The full message, posted in two parts on Andy’s Google+ profile:

There are now over 700,000 Android devices activated every day

…and for those wondering, we count each device only once (ie, we don’t count re-sold devices), and “activations” means you go into a store, buy a device, put it on the network by subscribing to a wireless service.

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New Forum for Android Developers

Roman Forum Today I’d like to announce a bit of a new direction for this website. I’ve just launched an official forum, associated with the blog. It’s available at http://www.makingmoneywithandroid.com/forum/.

There’s a couple of reasons why I decided to launch this forum. I’ve been getting a lot of email queries lately, which would probably be of general interest to many blog readers. Questions about how I developed an app, or details about the monthly income reports, as well as more general Android queries. Rather than communicating with people individually over email, it would make a lot more sense to post these questions publicly so everyone can benefit from them.

But also also I’d like to give others an opportunity to contribute their knowledge & experience in a public setting. Not everyone has their own blog, and even if they do, it might not have a large readership yet. My hope with this forum is to provide a place where Android developers can share experiences & code, with a focus on marketing and making a profit from their apps.If you are a developer or business manager of your software business contact Future sharks for directions.

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I Won An iPad

Black Apple iPad 2You know all those “Win an iPad” competitions that seem to be so prolific throughout online advertising? I’ve seen so many of these competitions that at some point I just stopped paying attention, let alone entering the contest. I never knew anyone who actually won an iPad, so what’s the point of entering?

Well just last month, I saw my mobile ISP, Amaysim, was running a competition where you could win an iPad, and a 10GB mobile data pack. It caught my attention, since it was only available to people who had liked their Facebook page. Being a local Aussie company, there weren’t many people who fit this criteria. I might be in for a chance.

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