Developing apps for mobile phones is not an easy task and requires extensive knowledge of programming skills. The program development also takes considerable amount of time. Android based apps are available in the Google Play Store. Most of these apps are free of charge and can easily be downloaded to your mobile device. The problem with most of these apps is that they are not tested by any authority and therefore are available as you see them.
 
The new Elektor book Android App Development for Electronics Designers is about developing apps for the Android mobile phones or tablets using the Basic For Android (B4A) language and the integrated development environment. B4A includes all the features of the Android mobile devices and is therefore an ideal platform for developing apps for the Android mobile phones. Features such as Wi-FI, SMS, NFC, graphics, serial ports, phone utilities, and many more features are supported by B4A.
 
The author, Dr. Dogan Ibrahim, begins Android App Development for Electronics Designers with a description of how to install the B4A on a PC. He then presents simple projects to introduce B4A’s syntax and programming features. He describes how an Android mobile device can communicate with a variety of hardware platforms — including Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and the ESP32 processor — over a Wi-Fi link or by using SMS text messages. Some of the projects show how data packets can be sent from a Raspberry Pi, Arduino, or ESP32 processor to an Android mobile phone and then displayed on the mobile phone. Full program listings are given in the book with detailed hardware and software descriptions of each project.