Generative AI tools for Android, iOS app development
Now days everyone talks about generative AI. If you are not aware of what is generative AI you can take help of Internet and gain basic knowledge of generative AI. In this article I am going to talk about generative AI tools which can be helpful in Android, iOS application development.
I explored two generative AI tools, which can be useful for Android and iOS mobile application development named Amazon CodeWhisperer (https://aws.amazon.com/codewhisperer/) and Github Copilot (https://github.com/features/copilot). There may be other generative AI tools which can be used for mobile application development, but I explored these two tools. I will first explain how we can use these tools and then I will tell what is my opinion about these tools.
Amazon CodeWhisperer :
If we want to use Amazon CodeWhisperer in Android Studio then we have to install AWS Toolkit plugin. Once we install this plugin then we have to restart Android Studio. When Android Studio restarted , We can see two tabs below AWS Toolkit, Explorer and Developer Tools. In Developer Tools you can see CodeWhisperer, expand CodeWhisperer and click green play icon it show popup with code. Click continue and then enter your AWS credentials, next it will ask for code which you seen earlier. This whole process is simple and once it complete you are ready to use Amazon CodeWhisperer in Android Studio. Amazon CodeWhisperer shows you code suggestions in the editor as you type code. There could be multiple suggestions at a time. you can navigate between suggestions and select any suggestion which you feel is suitable as per current code.
Amazon CodeWhisperer doesn’t support Swift, so I think it can not be used for iOS application development.
Github Copilot:
You need to get subscription of Github Copilot to use Github Copilot. It is free for one month. I used this free one month trial to explore Github Copilot.
We can use Github Copilot in Android Studio for generating code and writing test cases. First we have to install Github Copilot plugin in Android Studio. Once you installed Github Copilot then restart Android Studio, then you will see Github Copilot icon at the bottom of Android Studio. Click on this icon and you will redirected to GitHub website. Login with your GitHub account and enter the code which you will get when you click on Github Copilot icon. Once this process complete you will be able to use Github Copilot as coding companion.
We can use Github Copilot in iOS application development by two ways.
i) Xcode Extension: I used CopilotForXcode Xocode extension (https://github.com/intitni/CopilotForXcode/releases) to explore GitHub Copilot usage in iOS application development. First we have to install this Xcode extension and then we have to link it with GitHub Coplilot account. Once linking done, we can use GitHub Copilot for code generation and test case writing.
ii)VS code: Let first install GitHub Copilot plugin in VS code and then do linking with Github Copliot account by clicking on Github Copilot icon. Now you can create iOS app project in Xcode and open that same project in VS code without closing XCode . You can do coding in VS Code and use Xcode for building, running iOS application.
The benefit of extension approach is that you don’t have to switch between Xcode and VS code, but code generation is slow.
My Opinion :-
Both Github Copilot and Amazon CodeWhisperer can be used for Android application development as both AI tool support Java or Kotlin, but only Github Copilot can be used for iOS application development as Github Copilot supports Swift. These tools provide great help during development as these tool can generate test case and code based on comments provided by developer. This will increase developer productivity and reduce time & resource requirement for Android and iOS application development.
If you like this story please click on clap button. I will also love to answer question, query & comments, so if you any please add here.
