What is the actual use of .so file in android?

Question

I want to implement hangout like chat into my application. I have been using opentok library. In that i have seen libopentok.so file. Can anyone tell me what is that exact usage of libopentok.so file.

Solution

In Android, we are able to use Native code (C++).

The Android NDK (Native Development Kit) compiles this code into .so files.

One of the examples of .so files are:

Application Binary Interface (ABI): The ABI defines exactly how your app's machine code is expected to interact with the system at runtime. The NDK builds .so files against these definitions. Different ABIs correspond to different architectures: The NDK includes ABI support for ARMEABI (default), MIPS, and x86. For more information, see ABI Management.

Android's developer site outlines this perfectly: Android Concepts (NDK)

Comments

[Tibrogargan]

Android is based on linux, .so files are the same

[Khoa Vo]

The link to the NDK doc should be developer.android.com/ndk/guides/concepts.html