Know Your Meme ๐คฃโ
Welcomes & Hellos! ๐ซโ
As a non-Large Language Model, Android254 and Kotlin Kenya officially welcome you to The May Edition of The Kotlin Kenya Newsletter! ๐คฉ See, before we dive deep into this month's issue, let us mention that we have some goodies to offer and claim them all you need to do is read this newsletter to the end. Unlike a certain red football โฝ team, you have full control of the game and losing is virtually impossible. Alright, jokes aside (including the team itself). Have a lovely read ahead. ๐ This is Episode #19 of The Kotlin Kenya Newsletter!
The April Challenge ๐ง โ
DSA Gurus, please calm down. After a lengthy waiting period (how inefficient of us ๐ฎโ๐จ) since our previous announcement, The Chief Senior Dishwasher has put up The April Challenge. Do we even need to tell you to head over there to solve it at this point? Go on, now. Flex those algorithmic muscles ๐ช and show off your LeetCode skills to your fellow programmers while hoping to somehow apply them in your Take Home Assignments... ๐คก
Designing Scalable Compose APIs ๐จโ๐ปโ
Bonjour! If you thought that we had the last encounter of Yves Kalume, GDE ๐จ๐ฉ, then nous sommes dรฉsolรฉs for we pride ourselves in our international reach. โ๏ธ Armed with his expertise and experience working with Jetpack Compose, Yves walked the audience through Designing Scalable Compose APIS by explaining the Dos and Don'ts of the same. From Detecting Quality APIS to Component Layering to Component Nomenclature, The GDE (Android) ensured that the attendees walked out of the room fully armed with the knowledge they needed to design and scale their Compose APIs...
What's New in Android, Development Tools, and Google Play ๐ฑโ
You might want to get a king-sized bucket of popcorn ๐ฟ for this section as it was a show to remember. Being an Android Engineer comes with its fair share of pain ๐ฅฒ often prescribed and administered by Google. As if to console the internal tears of afflicted developers and his fellow Arsenal supporters, Mr. Arsenal played therapist and conducted a session to discuss the challenges faced by Android Engineers when deploying their apps to the Google Play Store. Various individuals shared their areas of concern while some confessed that they had their accounts banned and were left with no choice but to do nothing but hope for a miracle. Mr. Arsenal gave his takes on the issues discussed and even offered helpful tips and tricks for handling the strict guidelines issued by Google. Arsenal finally did deliver something, did they not? ๐คง
DroidCon Kenya 2024 ๐๏ธโ
Have you still not bought your tickets to the most exciting annual event in the history of Android in Kenya? ๐คฆโโ๏ธ If we said that we had more goodies (and that is a big "If") for the first few buyers then would that motivate you to head over to droidcon.co.ke and get your tickets? There you go then, you sneaky developers. ๐ Head over to droidcon.co.ke and grab your tickets as you never know what awaits you from the 6th to the 8th of November this year... ๐
The Goodies (feat. KotlinConf' 2024) ๐โ
Did you know that courtesy of Juma Allan and Kiptoo Mfon-Abasi, we received some giveaway copies ๐ of Mastering Kotlin for Android 14: Build powerful Android apps from scratch using Jetpack libraries and Jetpack Compose that we would like to gift you? Yes. We just promised you the chance to win some goodies, did we not? While the bad news is that three of them were already gifted during The May Meetup, the good news is that the remaining copies are still available for you and all you need to do is...๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ...build a Kotlin Multiplatform app. In addition to commemorating Google I/O 2024, we are thrilled to announce that we will be hosting a recap of KotlinConf' 2024 during the next meetup. In addition to that, we have promised to award the remaining copies to the best 3 Kotlin Multiplatform apps built and voted by you. What are you waiting for? You should have already launched your favourite IDE and set up your project already. Build, get voted as one of the top 3, and win a copy of pretty much the best book if you have an aspiration of owning a German Machine courtesy of your mastery in Android App Development in Kotlin.
Check out our socials for more updates... ๐
What Have Our Community Members Been Up To? ๐คทโโ๏ธโ
1. How To Make Your Android App Extra Reactive (feat. Firebase Cloud Firestore) ๐โ
Are you a Firebase ๐ฅ user who has been struggling to make your Android app reactive to changes made in your database in a real-time fashion? If that is you, then smile ๐ and go back to your project as you read How To Make Your Android App Extra Reactive (feat. Firebase Cloud Firestore) by Emmanuel Muturiaโข. Read, learn, and build reactive Android apps with Firebase Cloud Firestore using Kotlin Flows and Snapshot LIsteners. Also, give it a shoutout ๐ฃ๏ธ and share with your fellow nerds while you are at it, will ya?
2. Event Countdown โฒ๏ธโ
If time truly is money ๐ฐ, then you are about to become rich as we are excited to unveil to you Event Countdown built by The Choxx. Do you have trouble tracking important event dates ๐๏ธ and the last place you want to be at is Google Calendar? Today is your lucky day for the app is user-friendly and will help you keep up with important dates while minimising clutter using widgets that you can easily set up on your home screen. Say goodbye to disappointing your loved ones and hello to being the best you can be for them... ๐ช
Until June ๐ซโ
It is at this point that we acknowledge our new beginnings and pledge ๐ค to have a transformative 2024. We have journeyed, are journeying, and will still journey with you. Gears are about to be shifted (Tech Bros please calm down) in your favour. If you would like to level up your career in Android, then attending the monthly meetups, building cool stuff in public, and interacting with community members should be a part of your routine. ๐ฏ We cannot wait to hear and share your stories. See you in June! ๐