What Is an SDK?

How Does a Mobile Software Development Kit Work?

First things first, software development kits must consider an application’s platform, operating system, and development framework to be compatible. If it is compatible, developers can proceed with the SDK integration process.

Company A provides Company B with a mobile SDK to integrate into its app. The SDK allows developers from Company B to perform actions developed by Company A in a streamlined manner. This simplifies app and product development.

An SDK might, for example, perform actions such as sending log data to a centralized system or keeping track of events triggered within an app.

What Is in a Software Development Kit? 

Typically, mobile SDKs contain things such as 

• API calls – to make requests to the relevant web services
• Libraries – code for abstracting away functions and features
• Documentation and guides on how developers can use the SDK and integrate it into their apps
• Code samples – how to use the APIs and libraries included

Altogether, with these included, mobile developers can create applications much more efficiently.

Why Use an SDK?

Mobile SDKs allow developers to add features they may not have access to within their organization, or it gives them access to a range of tools to improve their app development efficiency. This enhanced efficiency results in a quicker time to market and higher-quality products, without building everything from scratch.

Besides this superior efficiency, some software development kits offer app developers the ability to:

• place ads inside their mobile app or add a tracking solution to monitor an app’s marketing efforts
• collect, aggregate, and analyze data about user behavior and errors encountered, for example
• manage the product’s integration with other apps while keeping critical functionality secure

What Is the Difference Between API and SDK?

There are several different ways developers use an application programming interface (API). Some use API and SDK interchangeably. An API may refer to a set of libraries that form the core of the programming language or framework that a developer uses. It may also mean a web service that is used by some client application. An SDK may be provided to facilitate the use of an API. 

Both represent a way for your program to interface with, and control, resources provided by an external system.

Conclusion

By offering prebuilt packages and libraries, mobile SDKs enable mobile developers to streamline the app development process significantly – without needing to build an application completely from scratch. Software development kits also enhance the efficiency and quality of the app they’re trying to build. 

This gives developers the time they need to focus on improving the user experience of the app they’re trying to build.

FAQs