00 Preface What Should Concerned Mobile Developers Do to Break Through #
In the past six months, people have often asked me two questions: “Is there still a future in learning mobile development?” and “What else can be researched in mobile development?” These two questions actually correspond to the same phenomenon. Whether you are preparing to enter the field, just starting out, or a more experienced developer, there is some confusion and anxiety about the future of the mobile development profession. Why is this?
Looking back now, the development of mobile Internet has unknowingly exceeded ten years, and “Mobile First” has turned into “AI First”. In other words, we are no longer the “pigs on the wind.” The aura and premium of mobile development have started to slowly disappear, and they are shifting towards new areas such as AI and blockchain. The fresh blood in mobile development has also decreased significantly, especially evident in the fact that many new graduates in China have flocked to AI.
It can be said that the golden age of the mobile Internet in China has passed. Now it is about incrementally decreasing and competing for market share. The competition has shifted from acquiring users to fighting over user engagement. It is evident that many mobile phone manufacturers have embarked on internet transformation and are directly competing with traditional internet companies. On the other hand, the traditional channel strategies are no longer effective, and new emerging channels such as mini programs and quick apps have risen in importance. Both mobile phone manufacturers and major apps have placed a strategic focus on going global.
From a technical perspective, the technological changes in the mobile end have been quite slow this year. Although the concept of “big front-end” has been discussed for a long time, the effects of React Native and Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are still not satisfactory. After the pluginization trend, there are fewer high-quality articles on mobile development. After the hype surrounding Kotlin last year, Flutter has become a popular topic this year.
With this in mind, it is easy to understand why we feel lost and anxious due to the uncertain prospects of mobile development, intense competition, and the slowdown in technological changes.
With the same anxiety, I chose to leave WeChat at the end of 2017 and am currently responsible for the technical work of an internationally renowned internet company’s overseas products.
Looking back on my past, I experienced the growth of Sogou Pinyin input method users from 10 million to 100 million, and also witnessed the growth of WeChat users from 100 million to 1 billion. In addition to the rapid growth, what made me even happier was that I made some contributions to the community. I wrote some articles, established and operated the WeMobileDev official account, and shared some technical knowledge and thoughts. I embraced open source, with Tinker, Mars, and WCDB successively being open sourced. In particular, Tinker, as Tencent’s first open source product on GitHub, made me appreciate the charm of open source.
In the past six months of entering a new work environment, I have encountered some difficulties and accepted many new challenges. I gradually understand that perhaps the mobile Internet environment has changed, and we have to change along with it. The recruitment volume for mobile developers has decreased, but there are more mid-to-high-level positions available, indicating that the industry has become more mature and standardized. Although the competition is intense, the quality of products and user retention have become more important. We have entered an era where technology empowers business. The big front-end is becoming cross-platform, and the future of mobile developers is more likely to be cross-device, involving product, operations, data analysis, backend, and multiple skills.
What kind of mobile development talents do companies need? What else can be done in mobile development? I hope to answer these two questions through this column. In this column, I will combine the current situation of the industry, talk about the attempts and development directions of major companies in China and abroad. I will try to include less source code and focus more on practical experiences at work, sharing solutions to some difficult problems. Overall, it mainly includes the following three parts (Note: 60% is Android-related, 40% is cross-platform). 1. High-quality development. In today’s competitive environment, ensuring a solid user experience for your product is especially important. Recently, both domestic and international companies have been paying more attention to APM performance monitoring systems. I have chosen some common key areas, such as crashes, memory, lagging, startup, I/O, storage, network, power consumption, rendering, and package size, to provide you with a comprehensive guide on performance optimization. This will help you learn how to address existing issues and identify new ones in a timely manner.
2. Efficient development. Continuous delivery and DevOps have been gaining popularity in China in recent years as we all seek internal breakthroughs to improve efficiency. From the inception of an idea to delivering the final product, there are multiple stages involved, including development, continuous integration (CI), testing, the rollout process, and deployment. Enhancing the efficiency of each stage is a topic of great concern. Cross-platform development may offer an answer to the development stage, while dynamic deployment could be a solution for the deployment stage. In this module, I will explore these topics, drawing on examples from companies like Bytedance and Kuaishou, which have achieved data-driven development. I will also discuss effective operations.
3. Architectural evolution. “When there is an ailment deep within, it must not be ignored, or it may become a serious ailment.” For an application, the architecture is the core of its core. In this module, I will discuss some of Google’s architectural evolutions, such as Android P, App Bundle, virtual machines, power consumption, as well as mobile network architecture choices, cross-platform development, and dynamic practices that are currently in the spotlight.
From my perspective, mobile development has entered a phase of decline, or some may say it has reached the second half of mobile internet development. However, as developers, whether it is the first or second half, what is important is that we excel in our field and dive deep into our technological expertise. Indeed, mobile development is no longer a trend, but that does not mean it has become obsolete. Instead, mobile development has matured, just like web technology.
If you can only meet the “requirements” given to you for a product, that is far from enough. As mobile developers, we need to constantly improve our skills and adopt a craftsman’s mindset, striving to excel in what we do. In the pursuit of excellence, you will inevitably need to study the underlying principles, broaden your knowledge base, and integrate other technologies. With so many necessities, you will undoubtedly become stronger.
So, let me address the anxious question I posed at the beginning. First, I believe that mobile development is not limited to app development. All new technological trends can be integrated into the mobile development landscape, such as IoT, audio and video, edge computing, VR/AR. What we need to do is lay a solid foundation, always ready for battle. Second, in terms of mindset, I believe that we should not waste time agonizing over problems, but rather focus on solving them. Playing games like “Honor of Kings” or “PUBG” will not alleviate our anxieties. Embracing change is the key to a better future. Let’s encourage each other.
Finally, together with GeekTime, we have prepared a rich learning package for you. I heard it includes tickets to the GMTC conference. I’ll keep you in suspense for now, but I will reveal the details in the next section, the “Introduction”.
I hope this column can provide you with inspiration and assistance at this critical moment.
