In an effort to improve app development for its mobile OS Android, Google has issued a style guide to help app developers to produce polished apps and to add a consistent quality to the platform.

The developers guide is aimed specifically at people developing for Ice Cream Sandwich and above and comes shortly after Google announced that it would reduce fragmentation for Android by forcing the inclusion of the standard Android theme on all phones.

Over 700,000 Android devices are activated each day and these come from a variety of different manufacturers and models. While some of these come in the form of mobile phone deals, they can also be due to tablets and now even Android powered wristwatches.

This has meant that many app developers struggle to produce apps that work consistently across various devices and has resulted in many Android apps looking quite shoddy and amateurish in comparison to those available from Apple’s App Store. With developers hitherto not having much guidance in how to develop app for Android, many have produced their own styles and themes that are inconsistent with the overall OS.

Testing these apps on all possible Android devices is also a problem – both in terms of cost and the amount of time involved. Because of this many apps, even highly popular commercial apps, do not work on some devices – leaving owners of those products a little annoyed at missing out on a particular app. This can be seen on the Android Market reviews for many apps, where a lot of negative reviews are left by people complaining that the app does not work on their phone.

This developers guide is intended primarily to address the cosmetic flaws of Android app development rather than the problems encountered in making apps compatible for various Android devices. The guide offers advice on using the standard Android Holo themes that from Ice Cream Sandwich will be included on all Android devices.

The themes include standard fonts, font sizes, interfaces and colour schemes that should help to give many Android apps a consistent look and feel and make Android a more user friendly OS to use. The guide also includes tips on using the new Roboto font that makes its first appearance on Ice Cream Sandwich, and will become the standard Android font from now on.

The guide attempts to address some of the problems that developers have in producing apps for devices with different screen sizes. One of the things that makes Apple app development so much easier is the fact that there are only a limited number of screen resolutions used by iOS devices. Android app developers on the other hand, have the constant headache of trying to get their apps to work consistently across various devices.

Until now consistency in theme styles has been the hallmark of iOS, and to an even greater extent Windows Phone, but this developers guide shows that Google is keen to improve the look, feel and usability of Android. Having a consistent theme allows users to instantly understand how an app functions, by providing different stylistic cues to the features on offer. If more Android app developers take these suggestions on board, Android may be able to lessen one of the biggest flaws it has in comparison to competing smartphone operating systems.

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