Android apps can use a variety of ways, including RESTful services created in PHP or Java, to get, update, and send data over the web. This course shows how you can take advantage of web services, integrations, and libraries to optimize how your app handles network connectivity, errors, data management, and more. Instructor David Gassner starts with an overview discussion about available networking strategies, and then dives into how to declare networking permissions, make network requests, handle responses, parse data returned from a web service, and pass user credentials to services that support HTTP basic authentication. He also provides an overview of popular higher-level networking libraries, including OkHttp, Retrofit, and Volley, and offers recommendations for improving performance and battery life in network-connected apps. How to use static feeds, use dynamic PHP pages hosted on a public server web service, and integrate apps with network data storage is also covered.

Topics include:
* Integrating mobile apps
* Communicating with Android
* Helping prevent app freezes by optimizing web service calls
* Preparing an app for network communication
* Declaring permissions
* Checking network connectivity
* Retrieving data over the web
* Using traditional APIs
* Using third-party libraries