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Android development

Practical Android applications — and the unglamorous half nobody advertises: bringing an app that current Android left behind back into working order.

Android moves, and applications that were finished five years ago stop behaving without a single line of their own code changing. Permissions get replaced, broadcast receivers have to declare their export status, edge-to-edge display pushes content under the status bar, and a target SDK that was fine last year now blocks the install outright.

Half of this work is new applications. The other half is rescue: taking something that already exists, often written by somebody else, and getting it back onto current Android without a rewrite nobody wants to pay for.

What this covers

  • New Android applications, built to work offline where the connection cannot be relied on
  • Modernization of existing applications, including ones originally written by someone else
  • Target SDK migrations and the permission model changes that come with them
  • Bluetooth LE work, including the move from the legacy location-based permission model
  • Repackaging under a separate identifier so an updated build can be installed and compared alongside the original
  • Store packaging and release preparation

How it goes

  1. Establish what actually broke

    Usually not the hardware and not the logic. It is the platform that moved. Naming the exact change — permissions, receivers, display — turns an open-ended rewrite into a list of fixes.

  2. Fix rather than rewrite

    Raising the target SDK and repairing what that breaks is a fraction of the cost of starting again, and it keeps the behaviour users already know.

  3. Test on current Android

    On a device running the current version, not an emulator running the one the app was written for. The Bluetooth controller below was tested on Android 16.

  4. Ship so it can be compared

    Repackaged under its own identifier where that helps, so the updated build installs next to the original and the difference can be seen rather than argued about.

Where this has been done

One new application and one rescue.

  • FishCast — Fishing Forecast

    Scores fishing conditions per species, location and day, calculating pressure trend, solunar periods and moon phase on the device. Works offline, asks for no account.

  • Legacy Bluetooth Controller Modernization

    A third-party Bluetooth LE controller left behind by Android platform changes, brought back onto current Android and tested on Android 16.

Questions about Android work

Our app still works but Google Play says it is out of date. What is involved?

Usually a target SDK migration and the permission changes that come with it. Nothing about the app is wrong; the platform raised its floor. It is a bounded piece of work, and much cheaper than a rewrite — establishing exactly what broke is the first step and it is quick.

The original developer is gone. Can you still work on it?

Yes, provided the source exists. The Bluetooth LE controller listed above was written by somebody else and modernized without a rewrite. Where the source is genuinely lost, that changes the conversation, and I will say so rather than quote for the impossible.

Do you build iOS as well?

No. Android, web and internal tools are what this studio does properly, and pretending otherwise would cost you more than the honesty does. If a project genuinely needs both platforms, an agency is the better fit and I will say so.

Does the app need an account or an internet connection?

Only if what it does requires one. FishCast keeps the last forecast for places with no signal and asks for no account at all. An app that demands registration for a feature that does not need it loses users at the first screen.

Can you publish it to Google Play for us?

Yes — store packaging and release preparation are part of the work. The listing stays under your account where that matters for ownership.

App stopped behaving on newer phones?

Tell me what it does, what changed, and what the users are seeing. Establishing what actually broke is quick and usually cheaper than expected.

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