Custom Android app development by App Developers for Android

Customer Testimonial - Parker Hannifin

"...great at understanding our needs and building a new android app and web-facing management interface that met all our requirements.
The solution was delivered within impressive timescales and at a competitive price..."

Secure bespoke Android apps

We try to learn from the best e.g. dissecting Edward Snowden's Haven Android app
to see how the world's cleverest software engineers use cutting-edge encryption in Android apps.

Customer Testimonial - Weblight

"...we identified the need for a Bespoke Android App and a Web-based Management System
Their solution was provided on time and within budget and has exceeded our expectations..."

Customer Testimonial - Phoenix Oils

"...these apps mark a new turn towards technology for an industry that’s been slow to adapt until now
We were involved in the development process from the start, getting the right solution that suited our operations..."

Customer Testimonial - Wing Parking

"...were able to develop exactly what was required with minimal input from ourselves
As this was the first Android app we had developed we were pleased that it was done on time and within the quoted price..."

How we develop our Android apps

We have been developing custom Android apps for UK businesses since the first stable version of Android in 2009, using a blend of cutting-edge development methods and deep knowledge and experience to deliver bespoke solutions for exchanging data between a client’s corporate systems and bespoke Android apps. Our flexible and client-focused approach uses the latest methods and technologies whilst remaining within the client's comfort zone (e.g. when integrating with legacy system EDIs).

Keep using without an Internet connection!

We code all our Enterprise Android apps so any data which needs to be pulled from the cloud or data, photos, signatures which need to be pushed to the cloud (e.g. for real-time management reporting) is synced whenever there is an available Internet connection. This means your staff will be able to use the Android app we develop for you even when they are in an Internet connection black spot. Any operations or reporting they do on the app can be safely carried out and then this will sync with the web-based cloud systems (which we can develop for you) as soon as a connection is established.

How we transfer data from the Android app to your cloud systems?

Most of the bespoke Android app solutions we develop for companies will be made up of an Android app which can be installed on your Android phones or tablets and a secure web-app which can be used for setting up Android app users, adding data which populates forms on the Android app, setting up customer sites, setting up technician jobs, etc.. We usually also develop an API as part of the web app so the web app can integrate with other corporate systems (CRMs etc.). We then tend to code the Android app and web apps to exchange data in JSON format. JSON is an acronym for JavaScript Object Notation which is an open-standard file format used to transmit data between devices. For photos taken, or signatures captured, on the Android device, we tend to convert the photos into a Base64 array (basically a very long string of data in ASCII format where each digit represents exactly 6 bits of data) and this is sent as JSON to the web app and then on the web app we convert that string back to an image so the photos and signatures are saved on your cloud systems as images.

How we build our Android apps

We develop our Android apps in the Java programming language (the latest version is Java 9, released by Oracle in September 2017). In the early days of Android (back in 2009 for us) we used the Eclipse IDE with the ADT plugin (IDE stands for Integrated Development Environment which usually comprises a source code editor together with build and debugging tools; ADT stands for Android Development Tools and this plugin developed by the Android team at Google provided an integrated environment for the development of Android apps). In June 2015 Google announced that they would soon stop supporting ADT and any security bugs would not be fixed. Developers were therefore told they should migrate their apps to the new version of Android Studio which would become Android's official IDE. We of course followed this advice (we take security very seriously) and now all our Android apps are developed using Android's official IDE, Android Studio.

How does this help you the client?

Well, Android Studio has a number of great features which help speed up the coding and testing of Android apps. The less time we spend coding and testing our bespoke apps, the cheaper the development costs for you.

Instant Run

A great feature of Android Studio is called “Instant Run” which allows us to see coding changes in real time on a running app. We can connect any of our Android devices to the development computer via a USB cable and as we change the Android app’s source code in Android Studio we see those changes instantly on the app running on the phone/tablet without having to restart the app or rebuild the APK. This makes our lives as Android developers so much easier compared to the lengthy process we used to have to follow when developing Android apps in Eclipse.

Code Editor

The code editor in Android Studio is excellent and helps us work faster (and write more accurate code) because it offers code completion (i.e. start typing and if offers suggestions), refactoring (i.e. restructuring existing Java code without changing app behaviour) and also code analysis.

Super-Fast Android Emulator

An emulator is a screen on your computer which simulates various Android phone, tablet, Android Wear, and Android TV devices. When using the Eclipse IDE, trying to test Android apps on the device emulator was painfully slow and kept crashing. The Android device emulator which comes with Android Studio is a great tool as it comes with configurations for popular devices and can transfer data faster than a real device connected via USB. The Android Emulator also allows us to simulate features such as GPS location, network latency, motion sensors, and multi-touch input. Together with the real Android devices we test our apps on, the emulator allows us to test the Android apps we develop on any number of device configurations so we are sure they will work as intended on the many Android devices out there in the wild!

If testing doesn't pick up a bug?

Don't worry! We've got it covered! We build bug and error monitoring into all the Android apps we develop so we know instantly if there is a problem! We integrate ACRA (a leading open-source bug/crash reporting library) into our apps. This means we get instant notification if any of our apps crash or throw any type of error. This allows us to deal proactively with any issues which were not identified during our extensive pre-release testing.
Android app error reporting

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)

Whilst Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have been around for many years it is only in the last year or so that Deep Learning architectures, such as deep neural networks, are within reach of specialist enterprise Android app developers. Deep Learning architectures allow mobile app developers to integrate Machine Learning (i.e. allowing apps to use data and then learn for themselves) into low-cost bespoke apps. Think of Machine Learning as teaching applications to think like humans whilst being far better than humans with regard to speed of computation and eliminating human error.

We have been testing the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning for our bespoke Android apps and we are simply blown away by what we can achieve in the sphere of image recognition by training deep convolutional neural networks with machine learning algorithms. Google’s Artificial Intelligence unit (Google Brain) has hade available powerful Machine Learning frameworks like TensorFlow (an open source software library for numerical computation) which are causing a major paradigm shift in the way in which we can give "intelligence" to the bespoke Android enterprise apps we develop for UK businesses. A couple of high profile uses of Machine Learning and Tensorflow can be seen below.

Machine Learning algorithm learns chess in 4 hours!
An algorithm developed by Google’s Artificial Intelligence unit, DeepMind, was able to beat world-leading specialist chess software Stockfish 8 just four hours after being given the rules of chess and being told to learn by playing simulations against itself. "Starting from random play, and given no domain knowledge except the game rules, AlphaZero achieved within 24 hours a superhuman level of play in the games of chess and shogi (Japanese chess) as well as Go, and convincingly defeated a world-champion program in each case." Read the paper published by Cornell University on 5 December 2017 for more information.
Learn More

Machine Learning with NASA's Kepler data finds solar system similar to ours!
Machine Learning with NASA Kepler data find solar system similar to ours NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope observed hundreds of thousands of stars between 2009 and 2013 with the aim of identifying planets of a similar size to Earth which were orbiting sun-like stars. Such planets could possibly sustain life and therefore be populated by alien species similar to our own. Engineers at Google Brain trained a deep convolutional neural network using data from the Autovetter Planet Candidate Catalog at NASA's Exoplanet Archive. They then fed the Kepler Space Telescope non-transiting planets data into TensorFlow (an open source software library for numerical computation for machine learning). This then identified two new planets with a high degree of confidence. One planet adding to the five already known planets orbiting Kepler-80 and the other planet adding to the seven already known planets orbiting Kepler-90 making Kepler-90 similar to our solar system (i.e. a sun orbited by 8 planets). The combination of the Harvard College Observatory (HCO) and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) is known as the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and they published a very interesting paper on this discovery in December 2017. We have included a link to the actual paper on Harvard-Smithsonian's server.
Learn More

We are about to enter very exciting times when combining Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning capabilities into the custom-made Android apps we develop for clients.

Android Neural Networks API
Released in November 2017, the Android Neural Networks API (NNAPI) is used to perform demanding, in-depth, data-processing activities for Machine Learning on smartphones and tablets and contributes a foundation for powerful Machine Learning frameworks like TensorFlow Lite which instruct and teach neural networks. The API is available on smartphones and tablets running Android 8.1 (API level 27) or higher.

NNAPI aids "inferencing" (i.e. deduction, the steps needed to move from assumptions to conclusions) by applying data from Android devices to previously worked out models such as categorising images, forecasting user behavior and providing pertinent responses to a search query.
Android Neural Networks API

TensorFlow Lite API
TensorFlow™ is an open source software library for high-end computation developed following many years of work by researchers and engineers working on the Google Brain Team within Google's Machine Intelligence research organisation and is the AI technology which powers Google Photos to Google Cloud Speech. Released on 14 November 2017 as a "developer release" (i.e. bleeding-edge but work in progress), the TensorFlow Lite API allows Android apps on smartphones to accomplish Machine Learning.

Machine Learning will change the computing landscape radically over the coming months and years, especially as users become accustomed to voice operated intelligent personal assistants such as Amazon Alexa/Echo and Google Home where thay have human-like interactions with their devices via the camera and voice interaction.
TensorFlow Lite API

Google Cloud Machine Learning Engine
Google Cloud Machine Learning Engine allows us to create machine learning models that work on all types of data with no size restrictions. It can take any TensorFlow model and perform large scale training (i.e. the software learns from the data) and support thousands of users and many terabytes of data (a terabyte = 1,024 gigabytes).

The service is integrated with Google Cloud Dataflow for pre-processing, allowing us to access data from Google Cloud Storage and Google BigQuery should we wish to. Basically it allows us to harness the power of Google's global data centres and networks to perform high-end Machine Learning which was previously only available to the likes of massive research organisations such as CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) when analysing data from the Large Hadron Collider to confirm the existence of the Higgs boson.
Google Cloud Machine Learning Engine

Democratising Deep Learning
A big step towards making deep learning accessible to everyone as deep machine learning transitions from an area of research to mainstream software engineering.

For example, a video is simply many individual frames stuck together and by passing say a video from a smartphone app to TensorFlow Lite, this can break out each video frame as a single image and from each image it can break out each element as numeric data points and then compare those in real-time to millions of stored data points in pre-compiled models to tell what each frame of the video contains and what the video is about. The opportunities are limitless for enterprise apps (i.e. create an Android app to take frequent photos or video of your factory production line and any products not meeting quality control guidelines could be flagged and an action taken instantly).

TensorFlow without a PhD

How to construct and train a neural network to recognise handwritten digits.

TensorFlow on Android

Implement a machine learning model that is tailored to a custom dataset.

TensorFlow Models

The latest open source TensorFlow models for image classification.

Just Filters Harlow, Essex

With clients such as Compass, Fullers, Black & Decker, Mercedes Benz, Panasonic & Royal Marsden Hospital needing to meet their insurance obligations and environmental health requirements. Just Filters’ technicians remove grease laden kitchen canopy filters and replace them with a fresh set of clean ones on each scheduled visit.

Their Requirement

They needed a bespoke Android app which allowed them to schedule technician visits and allow the technicians to report on each job (exchange status, save photos, add comments, capture customer signature) and that these reports would appear instantly on a customer portal and also so management could track the location of technicians.

Our Solution

The solution we developed provided the following features:

A secure web app for management to set up customers, customer sites, rounds, assets, technicians and view reports captured on the Android app

On the bespoke Android app list all jobs needed to be performed by technicians during their rounds

Provide a simple "one click" process on the Android app for operatives to answer questions and add notes according to business logic as defined by management on the web app

Take photos

Capture signatures

Looking for something similar? Give us a call!
☎ 01462 627 848

Hammond Produce Nottingham

Hammond Produce, based in Nottingham, farms over 3,500 acres across 3 counties and produces over 50,000 tonnes of fresh vegetables each year. They grow, pack, prepare and deliver a wide range of fresh produce in an even wider range of sizes, cuts and shapes to retailers and supermarkets throughout the UK.

Their Requirement

Hammond Produce required a bespoke Android app to be installed on tablets which their drivers and production line operatives could use to manage the various stages of the production line and delivery to supermarkets. The questions that appear on the Android apps should be managed through a secure, bespoke web app and all data, photos and signatures captured on the Android apps should appear in a management reports section on a secure web app.

Our Solution

We developed a number of bespoke Android and web apps for Hammond Produce (Transport Management, Production Line Management, Quality Control, etc.) such as an Android app for Quality Control assessments where operatives answer questions, score and save photos of produce on their phone and a web-based system displays the data for management and customers.

A secure web app for management to set up production runs, questions and view reports captured on the Android app

A secure customer portal web app where customers can view production line reports

Provide a simple "one click" process on the Android app for operatives to answer questions according to business logic as defined by management on the web app

Take photos

Capture signatures

Android Scan Barcode Screen

Android Answer & Photo Capture Screen

Looking for something similar? Give us a call!
☎ 01462 627 848

Curries Online Online take-way service

Curries Online is an online take away ordering system (think "Just Eat", but focused only on currie houses) which allows real-time ordering of curries from thousands of restauarants and take aways in the UK.

Their Requirement

They required an Android app which would integrate with their existing systems and would allow orders to arrive instantly on an Android tablet in restaurants and orders be printed on a bluetooth thermal printer in the restaurant kitchen.

Our Solution

Curries Online required a bespoke Android app that could be installed on tablets in restaurants and that would integrate with their existing systems and would allow orders to arrive instantly on an Android tablet at the restaurant and then when the green accept button was clicked that the order be automatically printed via a bluetooth thermal printer so the order could be fulfilled in the kitchen. The solution we developed provided the following features:

The Android app should poll the cloud-based ordering system every minute and update orders on restaurant tablets

Orders can be viewed and either accepted or declined by the restaurant and this will update the cloud-based ordering system immediately

Accepted orders will be automatically sent to a thermal printer in the kitchen via a Bluetooth connection

Notes, queries and delivery estimates can be selected/entered by restaurants and will be sent to customers via the cloud-based ordering system

Initial pilot testing proved positive and the app is awaiting roll-out to restaurants

Looking for something similar? Give us a call!
☎ 01462 627 848

These apps developed by App Developer for Android mark a new turn towards technology for an industry that’s been slow to adapt until now. With no suitable ‘off the shelf’ solution available below costly, enterprise level software, we were involved in the development process from the start, getting the right solution that suited our operations and our customers.

Ben Guy, Managing Director

Hammond Produce - Nottingham, Nottinghamshire

Having recently moved to Android PDAs for our mobile workforce, we identified the need for a Bespoke Android App and a Web-based Management System to control it. App Developer for Android demonstrated a real understanding for our needs and a "can do" attitude that we found extremely helpful. Their solution was provided on time and within budget and has exceeded our expectations. We will be happy to work with them again when we have further requirements.

Trevor Wright, IT Manager

Weblight - Ware, Hertfordshire

App Developer for Android quickly understood what we needed and were able to develop exactly what was required with minimal input from ourselves. As this was the first Android app we had developed we were pleased that it was done on time and within the quoted price. We would gladly work with them again and recommend them.

Mark Austin, Managing Director

Wing Parking - Luton, Bedfordshire

Alastair was great at understanding our needs and building a new android app and web-facing management interface that met all our requirements. The solution was delivered within impressive timescales and at a competitive price. He kept us up to date throughout the project, was happy to be involved in conference calls to discuss setup and deployment, and was always incredibly responsive to our questions and requests for further enhancements. It was a pleasure working with Alastair and we look forward to the opportunity of working with him again in the future.

Stephen Connolly, Technical Team Manager

Parker Hannifin - Warwick, Warwickshire

Excellent service, clear pricing and Alastair is so easy to deal with. Would definitely recommend. We're very pleased with our new App!

Mary Stealey, Operations Manager

Just Filters - Harlow, Essex

New Media Aid has been the app development partner for Kelly Turkeys since 2006 and has developed a number of mission-critical bespoke apps for us and we highly recommend them for bespoke application development.

Asa Howard, Finance Director

Kelly Turkeys - Danbury, Essex

New Media Aid has been our development partner for both our website and virtual learning environment since 2004. The quality of service has been consistently exceptional in every way. I would be very happy to recommend them for any development and as a highly reliable long term partner as well as for short term projects.

John Rubinstein, Principal

Woodhouse College - Finchley, London

New Media Aid has developed a number of advanced, bespoke apps for BAE Systems and we are happy to recommend them for bespoke app development.

Rob Morris, Vice President Marketing & Analysis, Asset Management

BAE Systems - Hatfield, Hertfordshire

New Media Aid has successfully developed a number of bespoke applications for us over the last few years - we have always been pleased with the results and with the ongoing support and assistance we receive.

Anne Barlow, Marketing Manager

British Chiropractic Association - Reading, Berkshire

New Media Aid undoubtedly fulfils the requirements we have for our company’s app. Not only did they provide us with all the features we needed from the get-go, they also promptly come up with solutions when we have new requests.

JD Venter, Deputy Editor

Dry Cargo International - Colchester, Essex

The app has been designed in such a way that we’re able to have it updated when our needs as a company develop. Our trade customers love the fact that they can login and view historical orders as well as viewing new products and ordering online themselves. I would definitely recommend New Media Aid for bespoke app development.

Shona Easton, Managing Director

Easton Design Studio - Cranleigh, Surrey

We have worked closely with New Media Aid for over 10 years and they have always been immediately available to sort out any of our issues on our app and have accommodated any changes we have needed to make - always prompt and efficient service.

Sue Sanders, Operations Manager

Excelerate Resources - Warwick, Warwickshire

New Media Aid develops business-critical bespoke applications for Gateway College and we are happy to recommend them for bespoke application development.

Paul Taylor, Network And Corporate Data Manager

Gateway College - Leicester, Leicestershire

We are delighted with the flexible and efficient service we received from New Media Aid. Highly professional and personable which works well for us as a small business. No hesitation in recommending their services.

Gordon Little, Managing Director

GE Little Radiator Covers - Basildon, Essex

Gigacom Telecommunication Engineers Management Services

New Media Aid developed Gigacom Tems a bespoke and fully integrated project management system. New Media Aid fully support all our IT requirements and must be congratulated on the valued and excellent support that we continue to receive from the New Media Aid team. I have no doubt that without the high level of innovative support that we receive we would not be able to efficiently deliver the services that we provide for our customers.

Phil Taylor, Operational Management Team

Gigacom Telecommunication Engineers Management Services - Alton, Hampshire

Alastair was really easy to work with, understood what we needed to achieve with our app and built it accordingly. The app was linked to our database and has been brilliant for us. We have needed a few tweaks to the app as we've moved forward and Alastair has been able to quickly put these tweaks into place. The app has really helped our customer experience. I'd highly recommend Alastair.

Rachel Bothamley, Senior Examinations Officer

Lincoln College - Lincoln, Lincolnshire

New Media Aid has supported the development of a complex store and back office system that significantly helps improve the accuracy of our processes whilst improving the efficiency and service to our clients. Couldn't be happier with a supplier (who we genuinely consider as a partner).

Stephen Mason, Managing Director

Mason Information Technologies - Nottingham, Nottinghamshire

New Media Aid has provided an excellent, responsive service to our organisation for over 10 years. They find fast fixes to most issues and offer creative, affordable solutions to improve our digital comms.

We specialise in Android app development!

Because we only develop for Android (not iOS etc.) we are specialists in developing complex bespoke Android apps...

Customer Testimonial - Parker Hannifin

"...great at understanding our needs and building a new android app and web-facing management interface that met all our requirements. The solution was delivered within impressive timescales and at a competitive price..."

Secure bespoke Android apps

We try to learn from the best e.g. dissecting Edward Snowden's Haven Android appto see how the world's cleverest software engineers use cutting-edge encryption in Android apps.

Customer Testimonial - Weblight

"...we identified the need for a Bespoke Android App and a Web-based Management System Their solution was provided on time and within budget and has exceeded our expectations..."

Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning

We can provide cutting-edge Machine Learning capabilities for your Android apps...

Customer Testimonial - Phoenix Oils

"...these apps mark a new turn towards technology for an industry that’s been slow to adapt until now We were involved in the development process from the start, getting the right solution that suited our operations..."

Bespoke App Developers you can trust!

Many of our clients have trusted us with their app development requirements for more than a decade...

Customer Testimonial - Wing Parking

"...were able to develop exactly what was required with minimal input from ourselves As this was the first Android app we had developed we were pleased that it was done on time and within the quoted price..."

App Developers for Android

Bespoke, secure and scalable Android apps

Delivered on time and on budget

Highly competitive rates

Happy to sign NDAs (Non-Disclosure Agreements)

All work done in-house

Only 30 mins from London and Cambridge

How we develop our Android apps

Keep using without an Internet connection!

How we transfer data from the Android app to your cloud systems?

How we build our Android apps

How does this help you the client?

Instant Run

Code Editor

Super-Fast Android Emulator

If testing doesn't pick up a bug?

Developing Android apps for the future

Compute Engine

App Engine Flex

Cloud Storage

Cloud Datastore

BigQuery

Cloud Pub/Sub

Cloud Dataflow

Android Things SDK

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)

TensorFlow without a PhD

TensorFlow on Android

TensorFlow Models

Keeping abreast of Android developments

Android Developers YouTube Channel

Google Developers Blog

Build Out

Google I/O

Google Developers Codelabs

Android Architecture Components

Android API Package Index

Android API Class Index

Our Work

Weblight

Phoenix Group

Wing Parking

Parker Hannifin

Leathermarket JMB

Just Filters

Hammond Produce

Curries Online

What is Android?

How times have changed!

A prehistoric Android app from 2009!