Question: How do you access DynamoDB from an Android app?

Answer

Use an authenticated API between your Android app and DynamoDB, such as an Amplify/AppSync API or an API Gateway backend. Android Studio is the development environment; the app calls the API, and the backend authorizes and performs database operations.

With Amplify, define your data model and authorization rules, deploy the backend and configure the Android client to call its generated API. With a custom backend, validate the user's token and use a server-side IAM role to access the table. Both approaches keep business rules and privileged database access outside the APK.

Do not follow old examples that embed an IAM access key and secret in Gradle files or application code. An installed app cannot keep those values secret. If direct AWS access is required, use short-lived credentials and narrowly scoped per-user permissions, then test that users cannot access another user's records.

Choose current Android libraries from the official setup documentation rather than wildcard versions of the old AWS Android DynamoDB SDK. Existing applications should review that SDK's lifecycle and migration guidance before extending it.

Design queries around keys and indexes so mobile requests do not require broad scans. See AppSync and Amplify integration and access control.

Source: Amplify Android data setup.