To tell you truth, when I develop android apps for clients, I always use MySQL as the main DB and the main front end is usually(but not always) a Windows program, that's because most of my clients want it that way and they pay my bills. Sometimes I develop front end in browser based ASP.Net, but either way it's up to my clients what they want on the information that I provide to them.
That's about it really, I don't use the PHP to MySQL solution, I prefer to use a library to drive the connection between bespoke the Android app and MySQL databases. I've never ever had any serious issues with my preferred solutions, so I'll just stick to them.
I hope that your project goes well for you.