What the work is
A mobile developer builds smartphone apps: for banking, deliveries, taxis, learning. They work with the Android and iOS platforms — in Kotlin, Swift or cross-platform frameworks such as Flutter and React Native. A big part of the job is making the app start quickly, go easy on battery and data, cope with a weak connection and pass app-store review.
A typical day
Building a new screen from a mock-up, connecting it to the API and testing it on several real devices. Going through crash reports from users. Talking to the designer about making a gesture or animation feel better, and to the backend developer about the data the screen needs. Preparing a build for release.
How to start
- Choose a direction: native development (Kotlin or Swift) or cross-platform (Flutter, Dart).
- Learn the basics of the language, the app life cycle, networking and local storage.
- Build and publish a small app: a habit tracker, a currency converter, a class timetable.
- Add links to your projects to your profile and apply for internships.
Related professions
Frontend developer, backend developer, UI/UX designer, QA engineer.