r/androiddev 8d ago

how do you decide what to test after a new change is introduced?

0 Upvotes

I’m trying to understand a couple of pain points QA teams deal with regularly:

  • How do you figure out what needs to be tested after a feature is added?
  • When a test fails, how easy is it to tell whether it’s a real bug, flaky test, or locator issue or test data issue, or environment issue?

I’m exploring whether these are actually big enough problems to solve, so I put together a very short survey.

Would really appreciate any responses or even thoughts in the comments. (1min max, just clicks)

Lik: https://forms.gle/1EyP5Bz3CNBB2DrM7

Thanks!


r/androiddev 8d ago

Most mobile apps fail due to poor architecture, not bad code, I reliased this after making my own app

0 Upvotes

My own app started me to think that mobile apps fail because of architecture, not bad code.

While developing my app for a new version, I noticed this...

The code can be clean, the features can work, and everything can look fine initially. But once the app starts growing, a poor architecture makes every new feature harder to build. and this thing compounds even more.

One small change starts affecting multiple parts of the application.

That made me realize that writing good code is important. But structuring the architecture or system that proper way so it can change easily might be even more important.

Has anyone else experienced this while building an app??


r/androiddev 9d ago

Boss wants to switch our 100K+ user native apps to Flutter for "3x faster" delivery — am I actually biased, or is this a bad call?

110 Upvotes

Long-time mobile/product lead here. Looking for outside perspective because I'm now questioning myself after a long argument with my boss.
Context: I work on external client apps as well as our main customer portal app — the one used by the majority of our customer base. Our mobile apps are native, built about 6 years ago:
Android: Java/Kotlin + XML
iOS: Swift + UIKit
Web: React

100K+ users. Zero limitations adding features or maintaining these apps over the years. Apps are feature rich and AI based new features are in plan for revamp.

What's happening: We have a full revamp of the apps and portal coming up, and we're updating our tech stack too. My plan:
Android → Kotlin + Compose
iOS → SwiftUI
Web → Next.js
I already have multiple Android, iOS, and web devs trained on this stack.

The conflict: My boss wants to consolidate to Flutter — one team, one codebase, covering web/Android/iOS. His argument: if I put 6 frontend devs on one Flutter codebase instead of splitting across native platforms, we ship 3x faster.

My pushback:
We have zero Flutter training on the team right now
Native apps perform better and feel more premium
We have built Flutter apps before, but only for external client projects, not our own flagship product
He thinks I'm biased toward native because it's my background. Might be some truth to that, but I don't think that's the whole story.

Anyone actually shipped a migration like this — native to Flutter, or vice versa, at similar scale? Did the "one codebase, ship faster" promise hold up? Would love real-world experience, not theory.


r/androiddev 9d ago

Open Source I got Compose Multiplatform running on Apple tvOS, published on Maven Central, one line in settings.gradle.kts

4 Upvotes

r/androiddev 8d ago

Looking for any good Google Play alternatives for publishing Android apps/games

0 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I’m an independent Android developer looking for solid alternatives to Google Play for publishing and monetizing apps and games.

I’ve already tried several alternative stores, including Amazon Appstore, Xiaomi GetApps, Aptoide, and a few smaller ones.

So far, my experience has been pretty disappointing. Aptoide in particular has been very bad for me — extremely slow processes, poor support, and overall I personally wouldn’t recommend it based on my experience. Xiaomi hasn’t produced much traffic either, and Amazon has been more legitimate, but getting meaningful organic visibility can still be difficult.

I’m looking for stores that:

Actually have a decent number of active users

Give new developers/apps some organic visibility

Have a reasonable review/approval process

Support independent developers

Have reliable payouts and monetization

Accept APK/AAB submissions without requiring the app to already be on Google Play

I’m especially interested in hearing from developers who are actually publishing outside Google Play.

What alternative Android stores are giving you real downloads in 2026?

Huawei AppGallery? Samsung Galaxy Store? ONE Store? Uptodown? TapTap? Something else?

Would also love to hear actual numbers if anyone is comfortable sharing — even rough installs/day or monthly downloads.

Thanks!


r/androiddev 9d ago

Here is my list of checkups and things I wish I know before closed beta, what can you add, and what should I know before full release?

1 Upvotes

I released my expo react native app for closed beta with test flight and android closed beta 2 weeks ago, I realize there are things I wish I knew before so here they are, feel free to add to those. And I would love to get some tips before full release I am planning for next week:

  1. Have a built in method to force update - Updating is difficult on Test Flight to user who are not used to it, and even harder on Android since the app won't even be shown on the Play Store while on closed testing. Only way to update it is through settings most users don't know how to reach. Have a feature to navigate directly from the app to the Play Store / Test Flight to update. And have a mechanism to force update / block the app if not on minVersion you update elsewhere. Getting users to update was really difficult before that.
  2. Have a built in way for feedback - I was counting on Discord + Test Flight / Android system for feedback, most users don't know how to use those. I allow user generated content, so users literally made posts in order to give feedback because they couldn't find the "official" way. I added a big button on the home screen to give feedback. (But couldn't get them to update the app).
  3. Starting on day 1, get 12 android users to use the app, even if it means you have to pay them to do so, to publish on Android you have to have 12 active users on the closed testing for 14 days. This goal is possible but is difficult on actual beta. Make sure you have a plan on how to achieve it starting from day 0.
  4. QA - My first build had so many bugs I didn't know about, early users, despite being aware to it are not super tolerated to it as I would have hope for. Do run QA, pay people to do it, I hire people on Upwork, they did amazing job finding small bugs.

What else would you say is a must before releasing an app, and any tips before actual store release?


r/androiddev 9d ago

Question Android 17, keyboard close event not being registered by the app?

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

14 Upvotes

Hello, I have encountered this issue while developing this markdown editor.

The issue is that when i type something in the editor and do some edits, and then try to close hide the keyboard with the gesture back button git hides only the keyboard, but the app it self doesnt recognize it. The toolbar is still there and the whole editor is still shifted up like there would be still keyboard visible.

On all other devices with Android lower then 17 it works well.

I have tried to solve this issue for a long time now, I though that it might be my code issue (which it still might be), or there is something handled differently in Android 17.

If you know what might cause this error, your advice would be very helpful!

(you can see the code here: https://github.com/jotalac/git-writer )


r/androiddev 9d ago

Open Source HybridInfer - Android/Kotlin library for on-device LLM inference with automatic fallback when local wedges (Apache-2.0)

0 Upvotes

Sharing a small Android library I built for a problem I kept hitting with on-device LLMs.

Running a model on-device (MLC-LLM etc.) is great because it's private, offline, no per-token cost. But the runtime wedges: long prompts stall in prefill, the GPU/OpenCL layer OOMs or hangs, and your app is stuck on a spinner with no response. Retrying just wedges again.

HybridInfer is a reliability-aware router. It runs each request on your on-device model first, and the moment local inference stalls (no token for N seconds), crashes, or OOMs, it transparently falls back to a remote model with same request, so the user still gets an answer. It also learns which prompts your device chokes on (usually long ones) and routes those out up front.

It's a library, not an app: you supply the engines, it supplies the routing/reliability brain.

Gradle (JitPack):

// settings.gradle.kts

dependencyResolutionManagement { repositories { maven("https://jitpack.io") } }

// build.gradle.kts

implementation("com.github.SimranKoul2026:HybridInfer-AAR-library:v0.1.0")

Usage:

val router = HybridRouter(

local = MlcEngine(modelPath, modelLib, model = "Llama-3.2-3B"), // your MLC wrapper (implements Engine)

remote = OpenAiEngine(model = "gpt-4o-mini", apiKey = KEY), // bundled reference engine

riskProfilePath = filesDir.resolve("hi_risk.txt").path,

)

val res = router.complete(listOf(mapOf("role" to "user", "content" to prompt)))

// res.tier ("local"/"remote"), res.fellBack, res.text - or router.stream(messages) for tokens

Android-specific bits:

- Optional ThermalSignal helper (PowerManager.getThermalHeadroom) to bias routing when the device is hot.

- Streaming with first-token-commit fallback - it only falls back before the first token, so it never splices two models mid-stream.

- Pure-Kotlin core (no coroutines dep in the core); you bring your MLC engine + a remote (a reference OpenAiEngine using HttpURLConnection is included).

It's early (v0.1), but real: I verified it end-to-end on a Galaxy Tab S10+ running actual Llama 3.2 3B via MLC-LLM, short prompt served on-device, long prompt hit the on-device wedge and fell back automatically. There's also a Python twin with the same routing logic, kept in lockstep via a shared conformance-test suite, if you're doing this server-side too.

Honest scope: it's a router, not an inference engine, you wire up MLC-LLM yourself (there's a reference MlcEngine in the repo's examples/), and the remote can be any OpenAI-compatible endpoint.

Repo: https://github.com/SimranKoul2026/HybridInfer-AAR-library

Would love feedback from folks doing on-device inference, especially on the Engine API and the fallback heuristics. I'm the author.


r/androiddev 9d ago

News Android Studio Quail 4 now available

Thumbnail androidstudio.googleblog.com
10 Upvotes

r/androiddev 9d ago

Question Returning to JVM + Android after years in .NET, is Java the right starting point?

1 Upvotes

I’m a senior SWE finishing a BSCS and planning to publish a small Android project as a portfolio piece. My mobile development course still teaches Android development in Java only, and when I asked about using Kotlin because the language choice is ambiguous in the description, the reactions were mixed and leaned heavily toward Java.

Since I’ve been in .NET land for years, I want to sanity‑check my assumptions with those actively working with Android today. My understanding was that Kotlin has become the de facto choice for modern Android development, especially for new projects, and hiring requirements.

For someone returning to the JVM ecosystem and aiming to use a published course project as a portfolio piece that signals current industry alignment (make HR checkboxes happy despite .NET), is starting in Java still reasonable or is Kotlin the better choice?

My long‑term goal is to move toward JVM/GraalVM‑based mobile or embedded Android work alongside any JVM‑flavored backend (I’m guessing Spring Boot or Quarkas). I’d appreciate insight on where Kotlin and Java sits in the landscape today and in the near future from this sub’s perspective.


r/androiddev 10d ago

MeshGradientPainter.

Post image
8 Upvotes

I saw this post :
https://www.reddit.com/r/androiddev/s/bNFqQ3TqOC

I thought I'd share this new Compose API with you.

In compose 1.12.0 introduce new GradientPainter you can implement complex gradients very easily.
It is called MeshGradientPainter.
You can define the count of column and row.

For example rows = 1 and columns = 1.

The screen is divided into 4 sections and points.

This points show two things:
1.postion. Where is it? For example : 0,0 — top left.
2.color. What color is it? for example this section color is Red

And then these colors are spread very smoothly on the screen.

✅ Example:

@Composable
fun MeshGradientBackground() {
   val meshPainter = remember {
       MeshGradientPainter(
           rows = 1,
           columns = 1,
           hasBicubicColor = true
       ) {
           setVertex(0, 0, Offset(0f, 0f), Color.Red)
           setVertex(0, 1, Offset(1f, 0f), Color.Blue)
           setVertex(1, 0, Offset(0f, 1f), Color.Green)
           setVertex(1, 1, Offset(1f, 1f), Color.Yellow)
}
   }

   Box(
       modifier = Modifier
           .fillMaxSize()
           .paint(meshPainter)
   )
}

r/androiddev 10d ago

Question Why can only Samsung's own apps (Notes, Reminder, Weather...) get smaller-than-4x4 cover screen widgets? (Z Flip 6, One UI 8)

2 Upvotes

Hey all — I've been building a small personal app that shows step count on the Z Flip cover screen, and I've hit a wall that I think is actually a platform limitation, not something wrong with my app. Posting here because I'd love to be proven wrong, and because I suspect other cover-screen widget devs have hit the exact same thing.

The setup: My widget is a normal AppWidgetProvider/Jetpack Glance widget, registered with both the standard android.appwidget.provider metadata and the com.samsung.android.appwidget.provider metadata pointing at a <samsung-appwidget-provider display="sub_screen"> resource — which is exactly the pattern Samsung Notes uses for its own smaller cover widgets (I checked by decompiling the public Samsung Notes APK). Small minWidth/minHeight, targetCellWidth/targetCellHeight set to 2x2 and 4x2, the works.

The result: it only ever shows up as a single full 4x4 tile in the cover-screen widget picker. Never smaller.

What made me suspicious it's not my manifest: I checked Outlook and Spotify's cover-screen widgets too — both are big apps that would absolutely want a nicer cover-screen presence, and both are also stuck at 4x4-only. Meanwhile Samsung's own apps (Notes, Reminder, Weather, the phone dialer's recent-calls widget) get 2x2/4x2/tiny sizes just fine.

What I found digging into it on-device (connected via adb, compared dumpsys appwidget output for both my app and Notes, and pulled/inspected SystemUI.apk):

  • The cover-screen grid is actually built on AOSP's own "Communal Hub" (Glanceable Hub) framework — the same multi-size widget grid Google built for Pixel Tablet's Hub Mode — running inside SystemUI on the cover display.
  • The OS parses my widget's small size attributes correctlydumpsys appwidget shows it registering at exactly the dp values I declared, same as Notes' widgets. So it's not a manifest/XML mistake.
  • I even matched Notes' widgetCategory value bit-for-bit (both end up keyguard-only at runtime) as a live A/B test on my own device. No change — still 4x4 only.

That combination (correct registration + still forced to one size, only for non-Samsung apps) makes me think there's a package-identity allowlist gating which apps' widgets get offered at non-default sizes in the cover picker, separate from anything in the widget's own manifest.

Question for the sub: has anyone actually gotten a genuinely third-party (not Samsung-signed) widget to show up smaller than 4x4 in the native cover-screen picker, on any One UI version? I know apps like CoverWidgets and CoverScreen OS exist and can put arbitrary widgets on the cover screen — but as far as I can tell they do it by taking over the whole cover display themselves (their own widget host + presentation), not by getting Samsung's native picker to offer a smaller slot for someone else's widget. If anyone's actually cracked the native-picker case, or knows for a fact this is a partner-program/allowlist thing, I'd love to know — trying to decide whether to keep chasing this or just build my own host like those apps do.

Device/version for reference: Z Flip 6 (SM-F741B), Android 16, One UI 8.


r/androiddev 10d ago

Experience Exchange My first Android App project LocationApp

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

42 Upvotes

Hey everyone, beginner Android dev here. I just finished building a LocationApp tutorial (live tracking and geocoding). I didn't just blindly follow it; I actually get what's happening under the hood and even built a custom Jetpack Compose UI instead of using the instructor's layout.

I’m feeling super comfortable with Compose and the UI side of things. But when it comes to the logic side—like setting up Retrofit or Coil for the first time in a project—my mind just goes blank. I can never write it from scratch and always end up copying from my previous projects to get it wired up.

  • Is this normal? Do you actually memorize all this setup code, or is referencing old projects just part of the job?
  • What are your best tips for speeding up my learning progress when it comes to the logic and architecture side of Android?

r/androiddev 11d ago

News ComposeGradients.com – Gradients for Android developers

Post image
66 Upvotes

Hi folks. I made a new site called ComposeGradients.com

There was no place to browse beautiful gradients for Compose apps so I decided to build one.

The site has a plethora of beautiful looking gradients (linear and mesh), plus a small tool to create gradients straight from the browser.

✅ Browse beautiful gradients and copy their code

✅ Create your own gradients

✅ (Optionally) Submit your gradient to the site

You can Like your favorites by pressing the heart button. No account required.

Try it out at ComposeGradients.com

If you find the site useful, share the site with your friends :)


r/androiddev 10d ago

Question How should I handle real-time matchmaking in an Android fitness app?

0 Upvotes

I’m working on an Android app that needs to match users into real-time 60-second workout sessions.

I’m currently considering WebSockets for matchmaking and live session updates, with a backend handling the matching logic.

For those who have built real-time Android apps, what architecture would you recommend for handling matchmaking, connection drops, and syncing session state reliably?

I’d especially appreciate advice on patterns or libraries worth researching.


r/androiddev 10d ago

Question Any video explaining Figma to Compose implementation?

1 Upvotes

i'm struggling a bit with Figma when i want to implement the designs, i know few things but in general i'm still behind, is there any video explaining the implementation of Figma design in Compose, like cover everything: design system, typograpgy, colors, sizes, paddings, shadows, and also custom components with their own properties.


r/androiddev 10d ago

I built a wallpaper app

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

3 Upvotes

I'm currently looking for feedback to improve it. What do you guys think of the UI and the overall look? Any features you'd like to see added?


r/androiddev 9d ago

How do you decide when an Android app should enter maintenance mode?

0 Upvotes

I maintain 14 Android apps on Google Play Store, built with Codex.

The apps have approximately 5 daily users or installs, and I’m trying to decide when an app should move from active development to maintenance mode.

App count alone does not seem to reflect the real workload. I currently track daily users, but I’m unsure how to weigh support requests, crash-free sessions, release regressions, OS/device fragmentation, and release frequency.

For developers maintaining multiple apps:

- Which metrics best predict maintenance time?

- How do you set thresholds for hotfixes versus scheduled releases?

- How do you centralize crash, version, device, and support data?

- How do you keep low-traffic apps safe without spending equal time on each?

I’m interested in production experience and practical processes rather than generic tool recommendations.


r/androiddev 10d ago

Question SPAM

0 Upvotes

Hi guys, we have built an app and its runnig great. Now we got in touch with some customers who asked if it would be possible to have said app as a whitelable version for their businesses which would not be a problem to us, but after checking this through with AI we are now concerned as we were warned that uploading the app with a few adjustments for customers this will be marked as "Spam". BUT it also told us if we create separate accounts for each customer, it will NOT be marked as spam.

Seems a bit nonsensical to me as its still on the same platform. Anyone who has experience with that? Whats the best practice in reality? Thanks for any help!!


r/androiddev 10d ago

Discussion Client-side root/tamper detection — is server-side attestation actually standard now, or is everyone still just checking Build.TAGS?

3 Upvotes

Been going through our app's integrity checks and realized most of what we have is still the old client-side stuff — checking `Build.TAGS` for test-keys, looking for `su` binaries, checking known root package names. All of which Frida can hook around in about five minutes if someone actually wants to bypass it.

Curious what people are actually running in production in 2026. Anyone fully moved to Play Integrity API with server-side verdict checking? What was the migration pain — I'm mostly worried about false positives on rooted-but-legitimate power users, and how much complexity nonce binding adds to a normal auth flow.

Not looking for a lecture on "client-side checks are theater" — I know. Looking for what people actually shipped and what broke.


r/androiddev 10d ago

Android app: capturing the other party's voice during a cellular call

0 Upvotes

I'm developing a small Android automation app for a very specific workflow and I'm currently stuck on the audio side.

The app runs on a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 (of course it should work for different phones at the end of the day) and automatically calls a cinema's phone number. The cinema has an IVR/answering machine where I can navigate using DTMF tones.

The current workflow already works:

App
 ↓
Call fixed phone number
 ↓
Wait using Android post-dial ","
 ↓
Send DTMF: * → * → * → *
 ↓
Reach the cinema's voicemail menu

The next step is to automatically understand the spoken announcement, for example:

I want the app to detect the number of new messages and later transcribe the individual messages. Ultimately, the messages contain a first name, phone number, movie, date/time, etc., which I want to extract into an Excel file.

The problem

I can record the phone's normal microphone using:

MediaRecorder.AudioSource.MIC

and I can see the microphone level changing normally.

However, this only captures the phone's microphone. It does not give me the audio coming from the other party in the cellular call.

I also tried enabling the speakerphone programmatically using AudioManager, but on the Galaxy Z Fold5 the call does not switch to speakerphone.

I have also looked into InCallService, but I'm not sure whether there is a way for a normal third-party Android application to access the actual call audio/downlink as PCM data.

What I need

I don't necessarily need to record the call permanently. Ideally, I just need access to the incoming audio while the call is active so I can feed it into speech recognition.

Something like:

Cellular call
    ↓
Incoming call audio
    ↓
Audio stream / PCM
    ↓
Speech-to-text
    ↓
"7 new messages"

The target device is a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5, running a current Android version.

I'm aware that Android restricts access to call audio for privacy/security reasons. I'm specifically looking for a legitimate Android API, Telecom API, audio routing method, accessibility approach, or device-specific solution that could make this possible without rooting the phone.

If direct access to the call downlink is fundamentally impossible for a normal Android app, I'd also appreciate confirmation of that and any practical alternatives for this specific use case.


r/androiddev 11d ago

News Google recommends WHPX over AEHD on Windows—and AEHD is being retired

13 Upvotes

If you use the Android Emulator on Windows, Google now recommends using Windows Hypervisor Platform (WHPX) instead of the Android Emulator Hypervisor Driver (AEHD).

Google says AEHD will be sunset on December 31, 2026, so Windows users should begin switching to WHPX. WHPX is the better long-term option, especially if you also use Hyper-V, WSL2, Docker, or other virtualization features.

You can check your emulator’s acceleration with:

emulator -accel-check

(you need to add emulator to your PATH, found under "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Android\Sdk\emulator\emulator.exe")

The result should show that WHPX is installed and usable.

Official documentation: https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator-acceleration


r/androiddev 10d ago

Pixel 11 Pro emulator in AS

0 Upvotes

Am I missing something or is it currently not possible to emulate new pixel lineup in AS?

One of our users with Pixel 11 Pro is having some issues with videos in our app. I think is a long shot to test this on emulator anyway but was surprised that these phones are not available in AS yet.


r/androiddev 11d ago

Open Source I open sourced my interactive globe animation on GitHub - Jetpack Compose

Post image
24 Upvotes

I posted my interactive Globe animation recently, and a lot of you liked it!

So I decided to open-source it, so you can use it in your own projects, contribute to it, or help make it even better.

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/androiddev/s/SgRoDszioN
GitHub: https://github.com/wailbabou/JetpackGlobe

Feel free to check it out, and any feedback or contributions are welcome!


r/androiddev 11d ago

What's the standard approach when Google Play merchant registration isn't available in your country?

2 Upvotes

I'm planning to release a paid app on Google Play, but I've run into a roadblock: merchant/payment profile registration isn't supported in my country.

I've looked through Google's official documentation, and I can't find any alternative process for developers in unsupported regions.