Top 25 Android Libraries, Projects And Tools Of 2018
This is a list of the 25 latest Android libraries, projects, and tools released in the last 3 months. There is no first and last place here, it’s just a list of interesting libraries. They definitely deserve your attention. Enjoy!
1. scrcpy
This tool is developed by the Genymotion team and does the same thing as Vysor. It provides the display and management of Android devices connected via USB. No root rights are required for its operation. It works on Linux, Windows, and MacOS. And it’s free!
README is really good here. In it, you will find a full description of the installation and launch of the project. For Mac users, the project is also available through the homebrew.
2. Long Shadows
This library is for creating simple beautiful long shadows in Android.
In this library you will find many interesting functions:
- support for any kind of View-components,
- full control of the display of shadows,
- the ability to specify multiple shadows for the View component,
- shadow animations,
- asynchronous calculations,
- and much more.
README is full of excellent examples and very well written. This is probably one of the best README I’ve ever read. The project was released under the license of MIT.
3. TextPathView
This is a View-component that animates the rendering of text.
The original README is written in Chinese, but there is also an English version. There you will find information on how to use the library, and what updates are being prepared for release. The library is still at an early stage of development (version 0.1.2), so be prepared for the problems that arise. The project was released under the license of MIT.
4. ShapeOfView
This is a library that allows you to create custom shapes of unusual shapes.
Here is another example of what you can do with the library:
Impressive, right? More examples can be found in the documentation. The library itself is implemented under the Apache 2.0 license.
5. ModalBottomSheetDialogFragment
This library was designed to use a pop-up dialog box on the principles of material design.
The documentation is enough to start using dialogs. The project itself was released under the Apache 2.0 license.
6. PhotoEditor
The Photo Editor library is designed just for editing images using colors, text, emoticons, and stickers.
README is very useful and good. The project is at a rather early stage of development (version 0.1.1) and released under the Apache 2.0 license.
7. Hyperion-Android
Hyperion is a tool for debugging and testing applications. It can be easily integrated into any application.
More information you can get by reading the README or developer blog. The project is released under the MIT license, and currently, its version is 0.9.22.
8. KotlinPleaseAnimate
This is a library for creating beautiful animations, written in Kotlin.
The documentation in the field is enough to start working with it. The project is released under the Apache 2.0 license.
9. ElevationImageView
Thanks to this library, you can add a shadow to your ImageView.
The documentation is rather short, but it is enough to start using the library. Currently, the version of the library is 1.1, and the project is released under the Apache 2.0 license.
10. Floating Action Button Speed Dial
This library implements a floating button from the material design.
Documentation in addition to the theory includes an example of an application available on Google Play.
The project is released under the Apache 2.0 license.
11. RadiusTransition
This application, which allows you to transform a circular image into a square. The image in this example is displayed via Glide.
README is short, but if you want you can read the code because it’s pretty simple. The license is not mentioned.
12. Hiroaki
Hiroaki’s goal is to help test integration with the API using Kotlin’s power.
The library provides MockWebServer to create a stub server as the target for your HTTP requests that you will send to your backend.
This will allow you to test how your program will react to certain server and API behaviors.
The documentation is worth it to look into. The project is written under the Apache 2.0 license.
13. Ferris-Wheel
Many of you have probably heard about one of the tallest wheels in the world – the London Eye. Now in your application, you can make your own Ferris wheel thanks to the Ferris-Wheel library.
In README, you can read how to connect and use it in your project. It is released under the Apache 2.0 license.
14. gradle-dependency-graph-generator-plugin
This is the Gradle plugin, which allows you to visualize your dependencies on a graph.
In the documentation, you will find how to configure the plugin and how to use it. The project is created under the Apache 2.0 license.
15. Runtime Permission
This library, according to Florent Ciampino, is the easiest way to request dynamic permissions in newer versions of Android.
For more information, see the documentation. The project is released under the Apache 2.0 license.
16. Prefekt
Prefekt is Android SharedPreferences for Kotlin. It is easy to use and effective due to memory caching. You can subscribe to the updates of the values in the SharedPreference, and the subscription will work even if the value has not been changed via the Prefekt functional.
There are many other interesting functions described in the documentation, so the project is worth your attention. It is released under the Apache 2.0 license.
17. ColorPickerPreference
A library that allows you to implement ColorPickerView, ColorPickerDialog, and ColorPickerPreference. With it, you can get HSV color, RGB values, HTML color code for images from the gallery.
The documentation is comprehensive and even contains descriptions of methods. Definitely a worthwhile library. License: Apache 2.0
18. MusicVisualization
With this library, you can visualize your audio file. To do this, the library uses the Android OpenGL ES functionality.
In the library releases section on GitHub, you can find the .apk file of the library functioning example. Distributed under the Apache 2.0 license.
19. TreeView
Android TreeView is used to display data in tree structures.
The documentation is detailed and describes all the necessary steps to connect the library to your Android project. License: Apache 2.0
20. inline-youtube-view
This utility is designed to embed YouTube component in your Android application. The YouTube component was designed to work with Android, iOS and React Native.
The library describes some of the problems that you might encounter, for example:
YouTube SDK does not work on all devices
You can not run more than one instance of the YouTube component at a time
21. WhatsNew
WhatsNew automatically displays a brief description of the new features of your application after users update it.
In README, you can read how to use the library. The project was released under the license of MIT.
22. ColoredShadowImageView
This is the second library in this list, which allows you to create beautiful shadows around the image based on its color scheme.
In the documentation, you will find an example of an apk file and a description of the settings and usage. The project is released under the Apache 2.0 license.
23. easy launcher-gradle-plugin
This library will help you to change the application icon for each of your buildVariants using simple Gradle rules. You can add strips of any color, impose your own images or change the color of the icon.
The documentation contains a description of the use of the library, the way it is configured, the available parameters, and a description of the structure of the project. The project is released under the Apache 2.0 license.
24. ConcealerNestedScrollView
This is a library that makes it easier to hide the View-components at the top and bottom of the screen while scrolling the custom NestedScrollView.
In the documentation, you will find everything you need to achieve this effect.
25. Theater
This is a project that uses a pure architecture + MVVM + reactive extensions + architectural components of Android. The main goal is to use the latest practices and libraries.
The project uses such libraries as Android KTX, Android architectural components, Dagger 2, RxJava, RxKotlin, RxAndroid, ConstraintLayout, Glide and many others. It really needs to be seen! License: Apache 2.0.
