Top 20 Developer Tools SDKs Used in Android Apps on Google Play
We at 42matters have identified the 20 most popular Developer Tools SDKs leveraged by Android apps available on the Android app market.
Developer Tool SDKs help developers build sophisticated mobile apps. Technology vendors and platform providers develop these SDKs — which include programming libraries, APIs, sample code, documentation, and other tools — for third-party app developers that want to build mobile apps that leverage the features and functionalities of their technologies or platforms.
This list is based on our analysis of the millions of mobile applications – and the 2,300+ SDKs they use – that constitute the vast inventory of the Google Play Store. The accompanying data provides readers with a glimpse into the rich mobile application insights generated by the 42matters technology. This data is also available via our APIs, file dumps, Explorer, and SDK Explorer.
The intended purpose of this article is to assist app builders in their search for the perfect Developer Tools SDK to leverage in their app, as well as to give SDK developers insight into their biggest competitors and potential customers. This data collected by our technology may also serve as a useful tool for folks researching the wider mobile app market.
The 20 most widely-integrated developer tools SDKs:
- Android Support Library V4
- Google Firebase
- Protobuf
- RxAndroid/RxJava
- Dagger
- Android Support Library V7
- Checker Framework
- React Native Reanimated
- EventBus
- Apache Commons Codec
- Android Support Library V13
- Apache Commons IO
- Apache Commons Lang
- Android Design Support Library
- react-native-device-info
- Jackson FasterXML
- Animal Sniffer
- SLF4J
- SDP
- Timber
Android Support Library V4
Check “Android Support Library V4” SDK InsightsAmong all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 99.43% have integrated Android Support Library V4. This accounts for 99.60% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.
The Android Support Library V4 SDK includes the largest set of APIs compared to the other libraries, including support for application components, user interface features, accessibility, data handling, network connectivity, and programming utilities.
Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Android Support Library V4.
Google Firebase
Check “Google Firebase” SDK InsightsAmong all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 76.89% have integrated Google Firebase. This accounts for 86.67% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.
Firebase is Google's mobile platform SDK that helps you quickly develop high-quality apps and grow your business.
Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Google Firebase.
Protobuf
Check “Protobuf” SDK InsightsAmong all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 12.93% have integrated Protobuf. This accounts for 40.24% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.
Protocol Buffers (a.k.a., protobuf) are Google's language-neutral, platform-neutral, extensible mechanism for serializing structured data.
Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Protobuf.
RxAndroid/RxJava
Check “RxAndroid/RxJava” SDK InsightsAmong all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 12.08% have integrated RxAndroid/RxJava. This accounts for 18.08% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.
The RxAndroid/RxJava SDK is a Java VM implementation of Reactive Extensions — a library for composing asynchronous and event-based programs by using observable sequences.
Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use RxAndroid/RxJava.
Among all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 11.58% have integrated Dagger. This accounts for 23.36% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.
Dagger is a fully static, compile-time dependency injection framework SDK for Java, Kotlin, and Android.
Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Dagger.
Android Support Library V7
Check “Android Support Library V7” SDK InsightsAmong all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 11.55% have integrated Android Support Library V7. This accounts for 28.26% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.
The Android Support Library V7 SDK provides a variety of feature sets that can be included in your app. This includes the v7 appcompat library, v7 cardview library, v7 gridlayout library, and more.
Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Android Support Library V7.
Checker Framework
Check “Checker Framework” SDK InsightsAmong all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 10.16% have integrated Checker Framework. This accounts for 16.61% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.
Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Checker Framework.
React Native Reanimated
Check “React Native Reanimated” SDK InsightsAmong all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 8.93% have integrated React Native Reanimated. This accounts for 1.88% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.
Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use React Native Reanimated.
EventBus
Check “EventBus” SDK InsightsAmong all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 7.11% have integrated EventBus. This accounts for 15.12% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.
EventBus is an open-source library SDK for Android and Java using the publisher/subscriber pattern for loose coupling.
Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use EventBus.
Apache Commons Codec
Check “Apache Commons Codec” SDK InsightsAmong all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 6.57% have integrated Apache Commons Codec. This accounts for 8.48% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.
Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Apache Commons Codec.
Android Support Library V13
Check “Android Support Library V13” SDK InsightsAmong all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 6.51% have integrated Android Support Library V13. This accounts for 3.58% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.
The Android Support Library V13 SDK adds support for the Fragment user interface pattern with the (FragmentCompat) class and additional fragment support classes.
Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Android Support Library V13.
Apache Commons IO
Check “Apache Commons IO” SDK InsightsAmong all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 6.28% have integrated Apache Commons IO. This accounts for 5.90% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.
The Apache Commons SDK is an Apache project focused on all aspects of reusable Java components.
Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Apache Commons IO.
Apache Commons Lang
Check “Apache Commons Lang” SDK InsightsAmong all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 5.94% have integrated Apache Commons Lang. This accounts for 6.04% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.
Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Apache Commons Lang.
Android Design Support Library
Check “Android Design Support Library” SDK InsightsAmong all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 5.72% have integrated Android Design Support Library. This accounts for 4.78% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.
The Design Support library SDK adds support for various material design components and patterns for app developers to build upon, such as navigation drawers, floating action buttons (FAB), snackbars, and tabs.
Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Android Design Support Library.
react-native-device-info
Check “react-native-device-info” SDK InsightsAmong all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 5.55% have integrated react-native-device-info. This accounts for 1.10% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.
The react-native-device-info SDK offers device information for React Native for iOS and Android.
Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use react-native-device-info.
Jackson FasterXML
Check “Jackson FasterXML” SDK InsightsAmong all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 5.01% have integrated Jackson FasterXML. This accounts for 10.70% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.
The Jackson FasterXML SDK is a suite of data-processing tools for Java, including the flagship streaming JSON parser / generator library, matching data-binding library, and additional data format modules to process data encoded in Avro, BSON, CBOR, CSV, Smile, (Java) Properties, Protobuf, XML or YAML. It can even be used for the large set of data format modules to support widely used data types such as Guava, Joda, PCollections, and many, many more.
Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Jackson FasterXML.
Animal Sniffer
Check “Animal Sniffer” SDK InsightsAmong all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 4.85% have integrated Animal Sniffer. This accounts for 3.85% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.
Animal Sniffer is an SDK that helps you verify that classes compiled with a newer JDK/API are compatible with an older JDK/API.
Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Animal Sniffer.
Among all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 4.47% have integrated SLF4J. This accounts for 9.95% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.
The Simple Logging Facade for Java (SLF4J) serves as a simple facade or abstraction for various logging frameworks (e.g. java.util.logging, logback, log4j) allowing the end user to plug in the desired logging framework at deployment time.
Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use SLF4J.
Among all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 4.08% have integrated SDP. This accounts for 1.58% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.
An android SDK that provides a new size unit — sdp (scalable dp). This size unit scales with the screen size. It can help Android developers with supporting multiple screens.
Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use SDP.
Among all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 3.98% have integrated Timber. This accounts for 3.73% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.
Timber is a logger SDK with a small, extensible API which provides utility on top of Android's normal Log class.
Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Timber.
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