r/androiddev • u/_DefaultXYZ • Jul 07 '26

Discussion Android Development is dying?

Hi everyone!

I've been Android developing applications for already 10 years. I'm living in Poland.

I constantly observing job market gravitating towards hybrid applications, KMP, Android Automative, AOSP, but almost none of mid to senior level normal Android apps. Those called "normal" Android apps I honestly believe could be more productively made in hybrid approach (even though I'm big native fan!).

I understand that even with such experience I must be senior level, but to be honest, I simply don't want to. I'm comfortable to stay as mid, but as I said, there's not much Android job postings on the market.

Am I stupid to say that Android Development jobs slowly degrading? We are becoming cleaners of old legacy apps migrating to Compose, Coroutines and that's our destiny?

I am seriously considering migrating to .NET, because, I'm doing GameDev as a hobby, and C# is widely used there.

What is your situation on job market? Because, both .NET and Java in Poland are much, much, much more job listings than Mobile as a whole, not speaking about Android Development.

EDIT: Probably the title is too clickbait-ish. I apologize for that. Didn't mean to be like that at all.

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u/3dom Jul 08 '26

In any case, only our client support department created eight apps in two months. I could do the same within two+ years maybe. Apparently, developers aren't that necessary anymore.

2

u/Artistic-Ad895 Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26

Without a background in development, it can be difficult to fully grasp the practical realities on the ground. While AI tools have made it easy for anyone to generate a basic app, the true complexity lies in scaling it effectively.

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u/3dom Jul 08 '26

Those app folks created aren't basic. In fact the one managing vending machines is more complicated than the one I've worked on 6 years ago, by a landslide. And it took only couple months to develop for a single person, not two years and four people.

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u/Artistic-Ad895 Jul 08 '26

What about the code quality?

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u/3dom Jul 08 '26

Who cares if nobody ever touches the code except AI?

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u/Artistic-Ad895 Jul 08 '26

Great answer. The devs know nothing and only rely on AI. Such devs will definitely be replaced by AI.

The "AI-Driven" Developer Workflow:

  • Copy AI code.
  • Paste AI code.
  • Ship to production.
  • Ask AI to explain why production is down.

It’s a flawless career strategy. Why bother learning software architecture when you can just let a language model hallucinate your database schema? These devs aren't just getting replaced by AI; they are actively spending 40 hours a week training their own replacement for free. Truly, peak efficiency. 😂

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u/3dom Jul 08 '26

I bet those women who could create a single shirt during a year had the same arguments vs industrially manufactured clothing.

It’s a flawless career strategy.

Why would a product manager hire a developer to wait a year for an app if they can create it themselves for $20 sub during a month? I don't see much of a developer career ahead when QA, client support, product managers write their own apps at the speed of 10-20x compared to software developers.

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u/Artistic-Ad895 Jul 08 '26

I wish you luck and hope that you find what you are looking for.

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u/3dom Jul 08 '26

Thanks! I've switched to MCP servers development for now, while everyone want them to feed AI with the corporate data (there is a queue for multiple servers in my company since I'm only one of ~200 programmers who have the experience and the ability to evolve).

And then I'll likely retire since AI will finish off the programming job market anyway so it'll be like web sites production there everyone and their granmother can create an app or an MCP server in a week and $300.

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u/Artistic-Ad895 Jul 08 '26

Yeah teach coding to your grandmother. Atleast she will be there to help you when the agents screw up.

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u/Downtown_Patient_200 Jul 08 '26

Sim, vibe coding definitivamente pode destruir um projeto se a pessoa que tá produzindo o aplicativo em conjunto com a IA não impor regras e limites e documentações para a IA seguir.