Getting into Android app development is like stepping into the fast lane — Google's not shy about keeping developers on their toes with new libraries, ever-changing APIs, and of course, frequently updated design guidelines. Remaining up to date with all these changes becomes crucial if you want to stay relevant as a mobile developer, and one of the better resources for that is Now in Android, with plenty of instructional Medium articles and YouTube videos. Now Google's building on those with a dedicated Now in Android app, helping to further highlight its latest best practices.

The freshly released Now in Android app is built with Kotlin and Jetpack Compose and follows Android design and development best practices — meaning that aside from the informational material it provides, the app itself is an excellent reference point for developers, with UI components showcasing Material 3 guidelines. Screenshots highlight its flexible interface adapting to various display sizes and aspect ratios, just like a good Android app should. Google says its goal here is to showcase "best practices, opinionated designs, and solutions to complex real-world problems which other sample apps don’t handle."

Aside from leading by example, Now in Android is also a goldmine of information, with useful little info boxes on various topics users can tap on and follow to stay up to date. It's all still in the alpha stages and Google warns of bugs and missing features, but a more stable Play Store version is in the works. For now, you can check out the initial release from its GitHub repository.