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You're reading from  Android Things Quick Start Guide

Product typeBook
Published inAug 2018
PublisherPackt
ISBN-139781789341799
Edition1st Edition
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Author (1)
Raul Portales
Raul Portales
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Raul Portales

Raul Portales is a software engineer who has had a love for computers, electronics, and gadgets in general for as long as he remembers. He jumped into Android as soon as it was released. Raul has worked on social networks, education, healthcare, and even founded a gaming studio and a consultancy company. Specializing in mobile and UX, he speaks frequently at conferences and meetups. Raul's love for electronics reignited when Google announced Android Things. He started tinkering with it with the first Developer Preview, which lead to adding the IoT category on his Google Developer expert profile.
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Companion apps and communication

One of the most typical setups for IoT involves two apps: one for the thing and another one for mobile. It just makes sense to control your IoT device from your phone. With Android Things and Android Studio we can create both apps under the same project, each one being its own module. This setup also allows us to have another common library module that is used by both including areas such as a communication data model.

With Android Studio, we can have a mobile app and a Things app as modules of the same project

The big question about having a companion app is about how it should communicate with the IoT device. There are multiple ways to do so. The following three are the most common:

  • Hosting a REST API server on the things app and a client on the mobile one
  • Firebase Realtime Database integration on both sides
  • Nearby communication

Each option...

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Android Things Quick Start Guide
Published in: Aug 2018Publisher: PacktISBN-13: 9781789341799

Author (1)

author image
Raul Portales

Raul Portales is a software engineer who has had a love for computers, electronics, and gadgets in general for as long as he remembers. He jumped into Android as soon as it was released. Raul has worked on social networks, education, healthcare, and even founded a gaming studio and a consultancy company. Specializing in mobile and UX, he speaks frequently at conferences and meetups. Raul's love for electronics reignited when Google announced Android Things. He started tinkering with it with the first Developer Preview, which lead to adding the IoT category on his Google Developer expert profile.
Read more about Raul Portales