IO — Ivan Labs

Tag: Android

Building World Travel Tracker: An Android App Case Study

How World Travel Tracker — an Android app for tracking visited countries with a map and JSON export — was designed and built, and the decisions behind it.

Aug 3, 20263 min readAndroid

Room vs SharedPreferences vs DataStore: Which Storage for What

A practical comparison of Android's three main local storage options — Room, SharedPreferences, and DataStore — and when each one is actually the right choice.

Aug 3, 20263 min readAndroid

Building an Offline-First Android App

What 'offline-first' actually means architecturally, why it's not just a checkbox feature, and the core patterns that make it work.

Aug 3, 20263 min readAndroid

Migrating an Existing Java Codebase to Kotlin Without Breaking Everything

A practical, incremental approach to migrating a real Java Android codebase to Kotlin without a risky full rewrite.

Aug 3, 20263 min readAndroidKotlinJava

Kotlin vs Java in 2026: What to Choose for Android

A practical comparison of Kotlin and Java for Android development in 2026 — syntax, performance, tooling, hiring, and migration.

Aug 3, 20263 min readAndroidKotlinJava

5 Mistakes to Avoid on Your First Google Play Release

The most common, avoidable mistakes first-time Android developers make when releasing to Google Play, and how to sidestep each one.

Aug 3, 20263 min readAndroid

Designing Android Architecture So You Don't Rewrite Everything Later

The architectural decisions that actually matter early in an Android project — the ones that are expensive to change later if you get them wrong.

Aug 3, 20263 min readAndroid

How Much Does It Actually Cost to Build an Android App?

A realistic breakdown of what actually drives Android app development cost, beyond the vague 'it depends' answer most estimates give.

Aug 3, 20263 min readAndroid

How to Analyze an Android APK File Step by Step

A practical walkthrough of the tools and steps used to decompile and analyze an Android APK file, from unpacking to reading the decompiled source.

Aug 3, 20263 min readReverse EngineeringAndroid