AR Ayurveda Android App

AR Ayurveda's customer base was increasingly mobile-first, but the Laravel website wasn't optimized for phone screens and lacked native features like push notifications. I built a native Android app to give customers a proper mobile shopping experience -- browse products, place orders, pay with Razorpay, and get notified about order updates and promotions.

The Challenge

The app had to work seamlessly with the existing backend that was built for the web. I needed to integrate Razorpay's payment flow natively (not through a WebView), handle Firebase push notifications reliably across different Android versions, and make the product catalog feel fast even with hundreds of items and images.

How I Built It

I went with native Java and the Android SDK rather than a cross-platform framework because performance and payment integration reliability were priorities. The app consumes the same REST APIs as the website, so product data, user accounts, and orders stay in sync. Razorpay is integrated natively for a smooth checkout flow. Firebase handles both push notifications (order status updates, promotional alerts) and analytics so the team can track user behavior. I implemented image caching and lazy loading to keep the catalog snappy on lower-end devices.

Impact

The app was published on the Google Play Store and gave the business a direct mobile channel to their customers. Building it end-to-end as my first production Android app taught me native development patterns, payment gateway integration, and the nuances of Android's notification system across fragmented device ecosystems.