(For more resources related to this topic, see here.)

Common mobile components

Due to the open source nature of the Android operating system, many different companies such as HTC and Samsung ported the Android OS on their devices with many different functionalities and styles. Each Android phone is unique in some way or the other and possesses many unique features and components different from other brands and phones. But there are some components that are found to be common in all the Android phones.

We are using two key terms here: components and features. Component is the hardware part of an Android phone, such as camera, Bluetooth and so on. And Feature is the software part of an Android phone, such as the SMS feature, E-mail feature, and so on. This article is all about hardware components, their access, and their use through intents.

These common components can be generally used and implemented independently of any mobile phone or model. And there is no doubt that intents are the best asynchronous messages to activate these Android components. These intents are used to trigger the Android OS when some event occurrs and some action should be taken. Android, on the basis of the data received, determines the receiver for the intent and triggers it. Here are a few common components found in each Android phone:

The Wi-Fi component

Each Android phone comes with a complete support of the Wi-Fi connectivity component. The new Android phones having Android Version 4.1 and above support the Wi-Fi Direct feature as well. This allows the user to connect to nearby devices without the need to connect with a hotspot or network access point.

The Bluetooth component

An Android phone includes Bluetooth network support that allows the users of Android phones to exchange data wirelessly in low range with other devices. The Android application framework provides developers with the access to Bluetooth functionality through Android Bluetooth APIs.

The Cellular component

No mobile phone is complete without a cellular component. Each Android phone has a cellular component for mobile communication through SMS, calls, and so on. The Android system provides very high, flexible APIs to utilize telephony and cellular components to create very interesting and innovative apps.

Global Positioning System (GPS) and geo-location

GPS is a very useful but battery-consuming component in any Android phone. It is used for developing location-based apps for Android users. Google Maps is the best feature related to GPS and geo-location. Developers have provided so many innovative apps and games utilizing Google Maps and GPS components in Android.

The Geomagnetic field component

Geomagnetic field component is found in most Android phones. This component is used to estimate the magnetic field of an Android phone at a given point on the Earth and, in particular, to compute magnetic declination from the North.

The geomagnetic field component uses the World Magnetic Model produced by United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. The current model that is being used for the geomagnetic field is valid until 2015. Newer Android phones will have the newer version of the geomagnetic field.

Sensor components

Most Android devices have built-in sensors that measure motion, orientation, environment conditions, and so on. These sensors sometimes act as the brains of the app. For example, they take actions on the basis of the mobile’s surrounding (weather) and allow users to have an automatic interaction with the app. These sensors provide raw data with high precision and accuracy for measuring the respective sensor values. For example, gravity sensor can be used to track gestures and motions, such as tilt, shake, and so on, in any app or game. Similarly, a temperature sensor can be used to detect the mobile temperature, or a geomagnetic sensor (as introduced in the previous section) can be used in any travel application to track the compass bearing. Broadly, there are three categories of sensors in Android: motion, position, and environmental sensors. The following subsections discuss these types of sensors briefly.

Motion sensors

Motion sensors let the Android user monitor the motion of the device. There are both hardware-based sensors such as accelerometer, gyroscope, and software-based sensors such as gravity, linear acceleration, and rotation vector sensors. Motion sensors are used to detect a device’s motion including tilt effect, shake effect, rotation, swing, and so on. If used properly, these effects can make any app or game very interesting and flexible, and can prove to provide a great user experience.

Position sensors

The two position sensors, geomagnetic sensor and orientation sensor, are used to determine the position of the mobile device. Another sensor, the proximity sensor, lets the user determine how close the face of a device is to an object. For example, when we get any call on an Android phone, placing the phone on the ear shuts off the screen, and when we hold the phone back in our hands, the screen display appears automatically. This simple application uses the proximity sensor to detect the ear (object) with the face of the device (the screen).

Environmental sensors

These sensors are not used much in Android apps, but used widely by the Android system to detect a lot of little things. For example, the temperature sensor is used to detect the temperature of the phone, and can be used in saving the battery and mobile life.

At the time of writing this article, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Android phone has been launched. The phone has shown a great use of environmental gestures by allowing users to perform actions such as making calls by no-touch gestures such as moving your hand or face in front of the phone.

Components and intents

Android phones contain a large number of components and features. This becomes beneficial to both Android developers and users. Android developers can use these mobile components and features to customize the user experience. For most components, developers get two options; either they extend the components and customize those according to their application requirements, or they use the built-in interfaces provided by the Android system. We won’t read about the first choice of extending components as it is beyond the scope of this article. However, we will study the other option of using built-in interfaces for mobile components.

Generally, to use any mobile component from our Android app, the developers send intents to the Android system and then Android takes the action accordingly to call the respective component. Intents are asynchronous messages sent to the Android OS to perform any functionality. Most of the mobile components can be triggered by intents just by using a few lines of code and can be utilized fully by developers in their apps. In the following sections of this article, we will see few components and how they are used and triggered by intents with practical examples. We have divided the components in three ways: communication components, media components, and motion components. Now, let’s discuss these components in the following sections.

Communication components

Any mobile phone’s core purpose is communication. Android phones provide a lot of features other than communication features. Android phones contain SMS/MMS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth for communication purposes. This article focuses on the hardware components; so, we will discuss only Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The Android system provides built-in APIs to manage and use Bluetooth devices, settings, discoverability, and much more. It offers full network APIs not only for Bluetooth but also for Wi-Fi, hotspots, configuring settings, Internet connectivity, and much more. More importantly, these APIs and components can be used very easily by writing few lines of code through intents. We will start by discussing Bluetooth, and how we can use Bluetooth through intents in the next section.