Thanks for your interest in Android! Here are some ways that you can get involved
and help us improve Android. For background on the Android project and our
goals, check out
Set up for Android Development
.
Report bugs
One of the easiest and most effective ways you can help improve Android is
to file bugs. For more information, visit
Reporting bugs
.
Note that we can't guarantee that any particular bug will be fixed in
any particular release. To see what happens to your bug after you report it,
read
Life of a bug
.
Develop apps
We created Android so that all developers can distribute their apps
to users on an open platform. One of the best ways you can help Android is to
write cool apps that users love!
To get started, visit
developer.android.com
. This site
provides the information and tools you need to write apps for
compatible Android devices, using the SDK.
Contribute to the code
Code is King. We'd love to review any changes that you submit, so check
out the source, pick a bug or feature, and get coding. Note that the smaller
and more targeted your patch submissions, the easier it is for us to
review them.
You can get started with Android by learning about the
Life of a patch
,
Git and Repo
, and other tools using the links to the left.
You can also view the activity on all contributions on our
Gerrit server
. Note that
some portions of Android require that you
submit patches to upstream projects
.
If you need help along the way, join our
discussion groups
.
Code styles
For best results when contributing code, follow the code style used in that subproject (section)
of the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). Most of Android is written in Java, so you should follow
AOSP Java code style
.
Some parts of AOSP are written in Kotlin, such as
frameworks/base/packages/SystemUI/src/com/android/systemui/doze/util/BurnInHelper.kt
.
You may use Kotlin in areas of the platform already written in Kotlin. For more information about
Kotlin in Android, see the Android developer
Kotlin style guide
and
Kotlin-Java interop guide
.
For more extensive Kotlin guidance, see the
Kotlin language site
.
API guidelines
AOSP developers should understand and follow the
Android API Guidelines
when writing APIs. Use these
guidelines to see the context behind Android's API decisions. Additions and modifications of
platform APIs are validated by
Metalava
.