Python App Development – Everything You Need to Know in 2021

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Python App Development

Technology is improving a lot day by day. Hence, leading to gradual upgradations in Smartphones, Artificial Intelligence, Supercomputers, etc. Then, to use these technologies, we developed various programs and mobile applications that are worked by programming languages. One such popular language is Python. 

Python programming language is prevalent among developers. It was declared as the top programming language of 2019, beating the original coding language – Java. It has facilitated the whole mobile app development process to a great extent and won the title mentioned above.

So, let’s look at Python app development and the kind of apps it can build.

Why is Python so Popular?

Python has become very popular, and one of the most preferred languages for developers. We will have a look at why:

Quick 

Here, the programs are added to the interpreter and are run directly. It means there is no compiling, which usually happens for almost all the other languages. It’s quick and easy to get your hands on the python code’s feedback, such as recognizing errors. You can finish and execute your programs faster than other programming languages.

Easy to Read and Understand

One of the significant features of Python is its syntax. The rules of its syntax let the developers express concepts without writing any additional code. It has a way of making complicated things simple; hence it is suitable for beginners to learn.

Python is the only language that focuses on code readability and allows developers to use English keywords instead of punctuation marks. Such factors make Python perfect for mobile applications and custom applications. Plus, the exact codebase helps developers to maintain and update the software without any extra effort. 

Facilitates Test-Driven Development 

Python makes prototype creation for software applications easier. It fully supports prototype development and allows you to build applications directly from the prototypes by refactoring them. Coding and testing go hand-in-hand now. Python has adopted the methodology called TDD, acronymous of test-driven development.

Compatible 

Python supports many operating systems, like Android, iOS, and Windows. You can use Python interpreters to run and use the code across tools and platforms. Python also lets you run the same code across multiple platforms and the modified app code without any recompilation. Plus, if you want to check the impact of changes made in the code, even if instantly, then you can choose Python.

Strong Standard Library

Python has a robust standard library that gives it an edge over other languages. It enables you to select modules from a wide range as per the requirements. Python’s module lets you add functionalities later in the process without extra coding. 

Read This: Node vs Golang – Everything You Need to Know in 2021

Suppose you are writing a web application. Then, you can employ certain modules in Python to implement web services or manage the OS interface. Browse through Python’s library and gather information about the modules.

Strong Corporate Sponsors and Supportive Community

Community support is another prominent element that decides the popularity of any programming language. Python has an active community that provides impeccable guides and tutorials, and other documentation forms to better understand language. Plus, it has sponsors like Google that add up to the list of reasons for Python’s popularity.

Supports Big Data

It is another emerging technology, and Python is one of the most preferred languages in its development due to its vast number of libraries. Plus, it’s easier and faster to code with Python for Big data projects than other languages. Thus, making it a popular choice for developers around the world.

Read more: Why should you choose Python for Big Data?

Python Frameworks That are Popular for App Development

Python Frameworks

Flask 

This Python framework is developed on Werkzeug and Jinja 2 and is denoted as a microframework. Flask does not require tools and libraries like other frameworks due to integrated support for unit testing, restful request dispatching, etc. Flask is considered an ideal option for small projects than Django used in the development of big projects.

Read more: How to develop a web app using Flask?

Django 

It is one of the high-level and open-source Python Frameworks that streamlines web app development through access to different features. Django is perfect as it allows developers to create complex codes and Python web applications efficiently.

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A few features that make Django a popular framework for Python are its authentication mechanism. The database schema migration implements ORM for mapping its objects to the template engine and database tables.

Read further: How to create an app in Django?

Web2Py

It is one of the most popular Python Frameworks used for mobile app development. The framework is loaded with a debugger and a deployment tool that helps the developers debug and build the code effectively and test the apps.

Web2Py is a cross-platform framework and is compatible with Mac, Linux, Windows, Android, etc. It follows the Model View Controller design. One element that impresses the developers the most is its ticketing framework, a component that issues a ticket whenever a mistake is made.

For more information: How to design your app using Web2Py?

CherryPy

CherryPy is an open-source framework capable of implanting its multi-strung server. It possesses features like setup framework, thread-pooled web server, and module framework.

The framework does not demand you to use any particular and specific ORM or template engine. It allows developers to utilize various technologies for data access and templating. Hence, making it a preferred choice of developers to build applications in Python.

Read more: CherryPy Applications Tutorials?

Pyramid

It is a highly adaptable framework for Python App Development that works incredibly for Python’s easy and complicated apps. The framework is useful in creating prototypes of applications and for developers to chip away at API projects.

A majority of Python developers love this framework for its transparency and high-quality features. Pyramid’s transversal framework for mapping URLs is another feature worth mentioning for coding, making it easier to create restful APIs. Some tech industry giants like Mozilla, Yelp, and Dropbox have used it in their processes. 

Read further: How to use Pyramid to develop your app?

Types of Apps That You Can Build Using Python

Blockchain Applications 

Blockchain is one of the hottest trends of this decade in technology that has swept the market off its feet. For Deve, Blockchain development was not easy, but Python made it look so. Python is an understandable language, and the process of building blockchain applications is more facilitated.

Developers can use HTTP requests for interacting with the blockchain over the internet and develop endpoints for distinct functions of blockchain by employing Python frameworks like Flask. Developers can also run the scripts on multiple machines to build a decentralized network – all with Python’s help.

Learn about: 7 Predominant Blockchain Technology Trends To Watch In 2021

Audio and Video Apps 

Python App Development helps you to create music and other types of audio and video applications. As the internet is loaded with audio and video content, you can use Python to analyze it. Python libraries like PyDub and OpenCV help you in the successful completion of the app development.

YouTube is one application that is created using Python. You can make out how useful and incredible this language is in delivering apps with high performance.

Command-line Apps 

Console applications and Command-line applications are the same. It is a computer program utilized from the command line or a shell and does not have any graphical user interface. Python is a suitable language for such applications due to its Real-Eval-Print-Loop (REPL) feature that enables the developers to evaluate the language and identify new possibilities.

As Python is a globally popular language, top app development companies have access to various free Python libraries that they can use to develop command-line apps.

Game App Development 

Many games like EVE Online and Battlefield 2 have been created using Python. Battlefield 2 employs Python for all its add-ons and functionalities, and the World of Tanks game uses it for the majority of its features. Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean game was written with Panda 3D game engine’s help, whose game development language is Python. 

Read This: What is SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle)?

Developers have the facility to create a rapid game prototype, and Pygame and Python are used to test them in real-time. Plus, you can use Python to build game designing tools that help in the development process, namely, creating dialog trees and level designing. 

Read more: How to build a mobile game using Python?

Machine Learning Apps

Machine Learning development is another tech trend of this decade. It is an algorithm technology that feeds data to operating systems and lets them make intelligent decisions. Creating apps of machine learning was a tricky task earlier, but Python makes it easier. 

Python is loaded with libraries like Scikit and Pandas for machine learning that are available free in the market, and you can use it under a GNU license.

NLP (Natural Language Processing) is one such branch of machine learning that enables a system to analyze, understand, and manipulate human language for the algorithm to work. Developers can create machine learning apps with these highly competent and effective libraries with basic Python knowledge.

Read further: Build a simple machine learning app using Python

System Administration Apps

System administration can get very tedious, given thousands of tasks to complete and a sea of data to manage. System Administration apps are a savior for the management. 

Python is excellent at creating system administration apps as it allows developers to communicate with the operating system via the ‘os’ module. It will enable the developers to interface with the OS where Python currently runs. The language makes all the IO operations accessible, including simple reading and writing to the file system.

Business Apps 

Python supports practical agility and is capable of developing many types of applications. That is why Python also assists in e-Commerce app development solutions and ERP.

Odoo (all-in-one management software) is written in Python that provides a wide range of business apps, forming a suite of business management apps. Tryton is another famous business application built with Python that is a three-tier general-purpose and high-level application. It is effortless to develop such apps using Python, so app development companies choose it.  

What is Python Used for 

The Python use cases are as follows:

Image Processing and OCR

Python Programming Language has an amazing ability of object detection and image processing. With a wide range of Python libraries like PyTesseract for OCR (Optical Character Recognition), Python Imaging Library (PIL), and TensorFlow for object detection, it has become highly efficient for developers in creating apps with computer vision capabilities and self-contained deep learning.

Web and Software Development 

Python has an easy and simple code to understand, and it makes the process more efficient. Its compatibility to integrate with other languages makes it an even better option.

Read This: Mobile App Development Cost Report 2020

Frameworks like Django and Pyramid assist developers in software development with Python and create web apps from scratch. The standard Python library also supports various internet protocols like XML, JSON, and HTML. Instagram is one such application created using Django – a Python framework.

Web Crawlers

Web Crawlers, also called Spiderbot, are typically used to duplicate all the visited pages of the world wide web for later preparation through a search engine. It indexes the downloaded pages to render fast searches.

Crawlers are useful to automate maintenance tasks on a website. For instance, checking links or validating HTML code. Python is ideal for creating these Spiderbots due to its simple and fast code and impeccable libraries’ availability. 

Automated Testing 

When you talk about Automated Testing, Python is the language of choice. It is the process of execution of the apps’ features using a script over a human being. So, Python and Selenium (a web-based automation tool) offer many libraries and tools to perform automated tests. They are also known as CI/CD tools acronymous of “Continuous Integration” and “Continuous Deployment” and can run the tests, compile and publish apps, and deploy them into production.

Read more: Top 10 use cases for Python

Popular Apps Built Using Python 

Some of the popular apps built using Python language are as follows:

  • Instagram 
  • Spotify 
  • Pinterest 
  • Dropbox 
  • Reddit 
  • Uber 
Popular Apps Built Using Python

Most Demanding Python Frameworks for App Development 

The most popular and demanding Python Frameworks in the app development industry are as follows:

Kivy vs BeeWare

Custom mobile app development for Android and iOS was not Python’s strong suit in the past – but things are different today. In earlier times, Python did not have a strong story for writing GUI for mobile apps. Android and iOS mobile app development were pretty out of the question with only Python. 

There have been many Python Development changes in recent years that enhanced Python’s outlook for writing codes for mobile apps. Let’s have a look at some latest options for custom mobile app development using Python. There are mainly two frameworks to call out specifically: the BeeWare project and Kivy. 

BeeWare Project – Native Python Mobile Apps

BeeWare is the second graphical UI and mobile app development framework. It provides you with useful tools and an abstract layer that you can use to write original-looking desktop and mobile apps using Python. One of the critical differences between BeeWare and Kivy is that BeeWare programs make use of the native UI toolkit for all the platforms. On the other hand, Kivy uses a custom user interface toolkit that uses the same kind of controls on all the platforms.

In the BeeWare tool, the widgets that control your mobile app are checkboxes, buttons, and form elements provided by the base operating system. So, you can create mobile apps that feel and look 100% original on each mobile (and desktop) platform.

Read This: Types of Graphs and Charts

One of the major drawbacks in using this tool is that the BeeWare project is relatively new and is presently led by Pythonista Russel Keith-Magee, a development leader. As with other frameworks that have not yet had the opportunity to mature for years would mean more work for you as a mobile app development company due to lack of features, API changes, and errors. 

Kivy – Cross-Platform Python GUIs

Kivy is an open-source library of Python for creating GUI for mobile apps across various platforms. It enables developers to develop pure graphical Python apps that run on major platforms (Linux, macOS, Windows) and iOS and Android. 

Whenever you hear about a new toolkit of the graphical user interface, you would want to know how it feels “authentic.” The big graphic user interface app should play with the strengths of that particular platform that it runs on. For example, you would expect consistency among the mobile apps you use when you use an iPhone. It is a big concern to use a mobile app designed with user interface styles from another platform.

Kivy has a customized user interface toolkit that offers its versions of text stickers, text entry forms, buttons, to name a few. So, the tools are not represented using the native user interface controls. It has its pros and cons. On the other hand, the tool ensures your mobile application’s applicability and consistency from one platform to another. Plus, the Android mobile app will not sound or look like an Android mobile app. 

Depending on the type of mobile app you consider, it isn’t a problem at all. For example, the “cradle” of the user interface is not crucial. The same would apply to different types of specialized mobile apps like MIDI graphics controllers to control music. But for other mobile apps, it has a great impact on usability.

To work with a non-native UI toolkit in mobile apps, Kivy is a fantastic choice for you. The tool allows you to create mobile apps using your Python skills without learning another platform language such as Apple Swift.  

Read more: The best Python Frameworks for mobile app development

Conclusion 

Are you looking to Hire Python Developers for your project? Our team of highly dedicated and experienced developers is ready to serve you.

FAQs – Python App Development

  • Is Python suitable for Enterprise applications? 

Python is an excellent choice when it comes to developing business applications. Odoo and Tryton are two of the many popular enterprise apps built with Python.

  • Can I use Python to build an app?

Yes, of course. Python Programming Language is touching the heights of popularity due to its scalability, flexibility, etc., and functionalities that mobile app development companies opt for this language.

  • What is the primary use of Python?

Python is an open-source programming language, excellent at creating web and mobile apps. Applications like Dropbox and Instagram are built using Python. 

  • Is Python the future?

Over 25 years, Python has managed to reach a high level above others and makes it the fastest-growing language. Plus, it also has a promising future, in addition to other technologies. Undoubtedly, Python is the future of the software industry. 

  • Is Python the same as Java?

Both languages have their merits and flaws, but mainly, Java is statically typed, and Python is dynamically typed. They have similarities, as they both adopt “everything is an object” design, use immutable strings and deep standard libraries, and have cross-platform support.

  • Where is Python mostly used?

Python is used as a “scripting language” for web applications. It can automate a specific series of tasks, making it more efficient. Python is often used in software applications, pages within a web browser, the shells of operating systems and games. 

  • Can Python replace Java?

As per TIOBE’s latest top programming language Index, Python has surpassed C++ and is now among the top three programming languages. Java holds the top spot while C is in second place. TIOBE says, if Python keeps this pace up, it can replace both Java and C in three to four years.

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Siften Halwai
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In addition to serving as a Content Writer & Content Marketing Strategist, Siften Halwai is a certified Cambridge English: Business Vantage (BEC Vantage) who empowers to create content that his targeted audience loves to read and engage with. His IT educational background and years of writing experience have given him a broad base for various content formats. Also, he’s a great cook, always ready to explore food, cultures, and adventures.

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