A new report that documents the fastest-growing Android SDKs of 2017 has been made available to help app developers understand what technologies are taking off. It uses an interactive charting tool that lets you identify the mobile trends you find most interesting. 

The report, which focuses on Android apps comes from MightySignal, a mobile app intelligence and data company which scans every app that is updated or released to identify the SDKs embedded in them.

For this report data on the top 100 Android SDKs was collected for twelve months starting November 2016. By default the SDKs are ordered by maximum monthly growth rate (i.e. Relative growth).

However, the interactive tool allows you to switch to Absolute and between its chart view and a searchable table which provides links to the landing page of each.

In chart view you can opt to see all 100 at once or filter them using five categories - although some SDKs fall into more than one category and others are either uncategorised or in unlisted categories. You can also view one SDK at a time by double clicking its legend to the left. You can see the values for the points on the chart corresponding to the srart of each month by hovering with the cursor. 

On the blog post introducing the tool, MightySignal's CEO Shane Way says:

"We believe this provides a new and exciting way to identify mobile trends. As a developer, you can now see how your peers have changed their approach to building apps over the past year and what new tools they’re implementing. We hope this unearths new opportunities and resources that you can leverage in creating your own, unique app."

Using its data, MightySignal reports that:

In 2017 mobile developers opted for app development platforms (one SDK that provides many functions) more than they did specialized ones (many SDKs each serving different functions). The top of the ranks include Firebase (Google’s SDK), HockeyApp (Microsoft’s SDK), and Facebook. All of these provide functionality across the board  from analytics, to backend, to advertising, and more.

With Google's Admob being the top SDK in absolute terms it's not surprising that second trend commented on was:

ad tech remains one of the hottest, fastest-growing technologies adopted by developers in 2017 

Two other trends identified were that developers are increasingly incorporating location into their app experiences with Altbeacon being singled out as the examplar and developers are visualizing data they are collecting in their apps, referring to MPAndroidChart as one of the fastest growing SDKs.

There are probably more trends lurking in this data that can act as inspiration for new apps or new directions in 2018.

More Information

Fastest Growing SDKs of 2017

100 Fastest Growing Android SDKs

Related Articles

Google Improves Firebase Analytics and Open Sources SDKs

Microsoft Buys HockeyApp

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