Show -- don't tell. Being able to watch someone do something as they tell you what's happening has been the way of conveying knowledge since before written language. Maybe that's why how-to videos are so popular.
Yet when you have a half-billion people posting how-to videos, there will be more videos that suck than are successful. Let's turn up the good and turn down the suck in this list of Android programming video tutorials on YouTube. If you want to see who my personal favourite is, you'll have to stick it out to the end of the article.
If you're just testing the waters, why not check out the general idea of what you need to learn to program an Android app and then get started on the videos.
The New Boston's Android Tutorials
With over 200 Android videos on their YouTube channel, The New Boston is an excellent source for learning and development ideas. The videos are done by different people, so the visual and sound quality can vary pretty widely. The information is pretty solid though, and reasonably well organized.
This channel may be better suited to someone who is a novice developer with a bit of programming experience, instead of someone who has never coded before. If you've never coded before, give the Google App Inventor a try. No fancy coding is needed, but you can still put together some pretty impressive apps.
Android Developers
The YouTube home of Google's own Android Developers is obviously going to be a well-produced and well-stocked channel of videos. They also provide different language versions, such as Japanese and Portuguese, of some videos.
There are some videos that take a look at Android development from a basic level, however this channel is better used as an adjunct to your learning, whether a newcomer or expert. There are plenty of videos to introduce new features being added to Android that a developer can make use of, plus general Android news.
Android Tutorial for Beginners
This collection of YouTube videos is brought to you by SlideNerd. SlideNerd only takes on teachers with great enthusiasm. That's what makes these videos so engaging. They are well produced with decent sound and solid information. Even so, it's definitely the passion for what SlideNerd does makes these videos popular.
If you like SlideNerd's Android videos, you'll also love their video tutorials on, well, everything else. Really? Everything? Okay, you asked for it:
How to Build an Android App
Presented by the folks from xda-developers.com, this series of videos takes you through the entire process of building an Android app in 5 videos. There are an additional 9 videos in the playlist that expound on Android development and introduce concepts such as Android app engineering, stopping people from hacking your app, and using the Google ADK with Arduino development.
An additional bonus is that the videos are supported by the xda-developers forum community. With over 5 million members, someone has to have the answer you're looking for. Like SlideNerd, xda-developers also has plenty of tutorials on other types of development, but mostly focused on mobile platforms, like making apps for an iPhone or Windows phone.
Android Online Training
Don't have a lot of time to sit and watch videos? Android Online Training presents material in videos averaging about 5 minutes in length. With a clear voice and solid explanations, the 198 videos will take you through installing the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that you need to work in, to much more advanced concepts like voice recognition, and putting your new Android app on the market.
The only downside is that two videos are missing. Oh well. With the other YouTube videos in this article, you definitely won't miss anything.
Android Development for Beginners
Yes, Derek Bana's videos are my personal favourite. With a pleasant voice, well produced videos, and easy to follow lesson plans, Derek presents a complete series that will take you from getting the software needed to having a polished app in your hands.
The 26 videos in this series have been designed to stay mostly around the 30 minute mark. This is just about as long as the brain can take in really new information without tiring of the subject matter. Also, 30 minutes fits nicely into a lunch hour or mid-evening personal development session.
Time To Start Learning!
It's great that there are so many people out there willing to share their hard earned knowledge about something they love to do. Many of these people are Android developers in their day jobs, so even though more people learning to program for the Android should work against their market value, they still want to share with you. How great is that?
Got a favourite video on Android programming? Is there another place for great videos that you know about? Did you learn something new from the sites shared? We'd love to read about it; after all, we're all in this together.