Modernizing Android code bases: the best strategies
In our whitepaper, we reveal the best strategies for modernizing Android codes.
Hooray, the eagerly awaited parcel has arrived. Digital solutions such as apps have become irreplaceable to ensure that all deliveries reach customers on time. For example, an Android app developed by Merkle for Swiss Post speeds up the delivery of items. As with all apps, it is important to constantly optimize the application in order to guarantee optimal functionality.
Only when apps deliver valuable features and are continuously optimized do they offer users real added value.
Our Android developers take advantage of the latest technologies. In doing so, they usually work with an extensive code base that can only be completely updated with great effort. There are different approaches to this modernization. The best solution always depends on the specific case and the characteristics of your app.
Optimizing Android apps: the most important methods
With the following strategies, you can counteract technical debt and continue to offer your users high-performance apps with innovative features:
The Do-Nothing strategy leaves the code base completely untouched.
The All-New approach is, as the name suggests, the exact opposite: Here you rewrite the entire code at once.
With the Step-by-Step strategy, you modernize only the most important parts of the code base.
The modular method also works in several stages but is much more targeted.
In our whitepaper "Android App Optimization: How to Properly Modernize Your Code Base", we present in detail which strategy is particularly useful in which application cases.
Modernizing the code base: the most important parameters
To find the right method and the optimal time to modernize the code base, the following factors are crucial:
the size of the code base
the further development potential of the app
the expertise of the team
the maturity of the platform
The modularity of the app architecture
the test infrastructure
We also decided on these criteria for the TOVO app (TOVO is the abbreviation for "tour preparation") of the Swiss Post. Due to the large size of the code base and the dynamic working environment in the project, we chose the step-by-step strategy. The all-new approach, on the other hand, would have blocked the capacities of our developers for too long.
You can read all the details about the project with Swiss Post here.
