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I know its a very general question but I really keen to know and want to develop an android application with special UI (I mean a professional UI like Google Inbox app).

I just wanted to know if there is a special sort of technology used in it or it just made by relative layout and linear layout and other android UI component which known in Android SDK with java.

any kind of clue would be greatly appreciated.

Mehdi Golzadeh
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The design language you're seeing is called Material Design.

The user interface elements that it may be using are RecyclerView for storing a list of information and CardView to represent individual items in the list:

    <android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView/>
    <android.support.v7.widget.CardView/>

Have a look at this https://developer.android.com/training/material/lists-cards.html on how to cook up such an activity (a screen in Android).

The theming your application is not too difficult. Have a look at https://developer.android.com/training/material/theme.html

material design tutorial

Jay Wick
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  • tnx dear @jay your answer was really helpful. just do you have any project sample by material design like Google inbox which can help me to go through it? – Mehdi Golzadeh Dec 22 '14 at 15:15
  • I just found [**saulmm/RecyclerView-demo**](https://github.com/saulmm/RecyclerView-demo). It looks to have a very good overview of what each class required does. – Jay Wick Dec 23 '14 at 00:05
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Certainly Google is doing some cool things, and they make good use of their own platform, but I don't believe there are major special technologies they are using just for their own apps. They just put together view hierarchies, nice animations, and nice resources, to make it look good.

Was there a particular aspect you are wondering about?

Bruce
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There is no specific strange technology but some principles. please take a look at this: http://www.google.com/design/spec/material-design/introduction.html#introduction-goals

it may give you some ideas.

Milad Faridnia
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  • thank you this is what exactly I mean by Inbox UI but its html5 I think... is it possible to combine it with java in eclipse? I mean html5 UI and Java backend? – Mehdi Golzadeh Nov 30 '14 at 19:09
  • Actually after watching your link and a little searching , I found that android material is designed for lollipop (v 5.0) . but I have seen apps with this style which works correctly in android 2.3 and above. how is this possible? – Mehdi Golzadeh Nov 30 '14 at 20:02
  • @MGol yes Actually material design is for lolipop But you can have all those features in lower apis. thats just a little difficult and it needs to be implemented by the developer himself from scratch. – Milad Faridnia Dec 01 '14 at 06:35
  • So how can I do? for example all those complex animations and other stuff.. is that possible? – Mehdi Golzadeh Dec 01 '14 at 07:19
  • as I told you you can have what ever you want for example for drop shadow you can take a look at this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15333529/how-to-provide-shadow-to-button and for other stuff just do some searches on SO you'll find them. ;) – Milad Faridnia Dec 01 '14 at 07:44
  • Thank you Mr Milad, have you seen "Abrak" Application?? it has so much visual effects which I think it should be implemented somehow easier than what you mentioned. can you please help me to know how? – Mehdi Golzadeh Dec 01 '14 at 07:50
  • Ok I'll take a look at that. please give me the download link. – Milad Faridnia Dec 01 '14 at 07:53
  • here you can download it : http://myket.ir/App/com.omid.abrak/%D8%B4%D8%A8%DA%A9%D9%87-%D8%AF%D9%88%D8%B3%D8%AA%DB%8C-%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%B1%DA%A9 – Mehdi Golzadeh Dec 01 '14 at 08:18
  • I saw it. everything they used is with java. i'm sure. – Milad Faridnia Dec 01 '14 at 10:34