Android Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach

Appendix B. Android NDK

The Android Native Development Kit (NDK) helps you boost an app's performance by converting C/C++ source code (in which you write the app's performance-critical sections) to native code libraries that run on Android devices. The NDK provides headers and libraries for building activities, handling user input, using hardware sensors, and more. Your app's files (including any native code libraries that you create) are packaged into APKs; they execute inside of an Android device's Dalvik virtual machine.

Note

Think carefully about whether you need to integrate native code into your app. Basing even part of an app on native code increases its complexity and makes it harder to debug. Also, not every app experiences a performance ...