Is my developer pulling my leg?

I just hired a developer from odesk. She said something that worried me and I was wondering if anyone on this forum could give me some assurance.

The app requires use of a few existing Android features such as dialing a number, GPS, video, and altering the sleep mode. I was of the understanding that Android is open source so that whomever I hired could use some of the OS open source code to accomplish some of these features without the need for programming. However, she told me that the entire app will need programming. Does this sound right?

Thanks,

Doug

It sounds like this is a misunderstanding. Android does provide features for dialing, location, video, etc., but those features are provided as code APIs. When building an app that uses them you don't have to program low-level functionality for interacting with the device hardware, that's the part that is built into Android. However, programming is still required in order to be able to use the features in an app. It is only possible to access the features through code, thus code to utilize the feature has to be written for each built-in feature you want in your app.

I highly doubt your developer was considering bypassing any of the functionality that comes with Android, particularly the low-level functionality dealing with calling, location and the camera. That type of work is extremely difficult and far beyond the ability level of most app developers. In fact, even if you were to ask a developer to do something like that, chances are they would just tell you it can't be done.