How to Develop an Social Networking Android App

Their are many social networking android apps like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and many more. For developing such a Social Networking App you need some Designing and Technical issue has to be considered.

• The Design
• User Interface
• User Data Storage
• Social Networking
• Communication with the Server
• Data Updates on the Server for each Users Post

Design

Any social networking app must have the following pages.

1. Login and Sign Up Page
2. Users Home Page
3. Users Setting Page
4. App Functionality Setting Page
5. Page or Fragment or a Dialog for writing the Post
6. Users Profile Page with Edit Option 
7. Notification Page
8. Followers, Following or Friend Page

User Interface

The pages of the App should have the following Functionality

1. The Sign Up Page must have the users details form depends on your application like Name, Surname, Phone Number, Username and Password. This page must have the Link for Terms & Conditions of your App use. The Login Page must have the Username Password with Forget Password Option. You can include Login through other Social Networking app account like Google+, Facebook and other accounts. These Apps provides the facility to use their user account to Login to Your App. The advantage of such a login is that the user need not to fill the registration form of your app which is quite boring and time consuming. So to increase the use of your app you have to include Sign In with different social networking accounts.
2. The Users Home Page must have the Navigation Menu to go to the other pages. The Post Section must have the Title, User Name, Post Text and the post related image or the Users Profile image or both. The most important elements are the Text Area or the Button for the Post and the Search Option depends on your App Functionality.
3. The Users Setting page must have the users profile and users friends setting.
4. The App Functionality Setting page must have the options for the Notification Settings, the UI settings, the privacy settings and the account settings.
5. The Page or Fragment or a Dialog for writing the Post must have the text area for writing the post and the post button for posting the users views. It may have the camera button for posting the photo or selected from the phones gallery. 
6. The users profile page must have the option for changing the profile photo and any other things depends upon the functionality of your application.
7. The Notification Page must have the Notifications including which follower or following users post and details of their posts, Add Friend, Remove Friend, Trending Topics, App Functionality Topics and the reply or like or forward option of your post depends on your app functionality.
8. The Followers, Following or Friend Page must have the list and the option for editing and seeing their details.

User Data Storage

For storing the data of the Users and their posts, friends, settings the Database must have the following tables. You can change different databases SQL that is ORACLE or MySQL or NoSQL that is MongoDB.

1. User
2. User's Metadata
3. Follower
4. Following
5. Posts Details
6. Other (Depends on App Functionality)

The Users Table

Social Networking

Your app must have the data flow for increasing the network of the user. More the network of the user then more the number of your app user. The following Diagram Shows the networking.

Communication with the Server and Data Updates on the Server for each Users Post

The Database Package must have the following Functionality

1. Database Handler and Session Manager: It must have the design of the SQLITE database which is storing the data of the user in the device itself. The advantage is that the user need not to login again and again, the login credentials are stored in the users device which will helps in Session Manager. The User never logs out from the app until he chooses to log out.
2. The feed items for the post
3. The Users Functions for the login, sign up and profile
4. JASON Parser for posting and getting the data from the server
5. Choosing the Server Side Programming Tool and the Communication Library is very important for the effective working of the App. PHP or JavaScript can be used for the Server Side Programming. The Volley Library can be used for the request of data form the server. Their are many advantages of using Volley Library. The volley Code looks like this.

So start developing your social networking app. All the best.......................