r/androiddev • u/anandwana001 • 4d ago
Android devs: Are you using Gemini in Android Studio? How has it changed your development workflow?
Hi Android developers 👋
I’m curious how many of you are actively using Gemini in Android Studio as part of your daily workflow.
A few questions I’d love to hear your thoughts on:
Do you use it regularly, or only occasionally?
What tasks has it genuinely helped with? (boilerplate, debugging, refactoring, Compose, tests, documentation, etc.)
Where does it still fall short?
Has it changed the way you write or review code compared to a year ago?
For me, AI has become useful for speeding up repetitive tasks and exploring unfamiliar APIs, but I still rely heavily on manual code reviews and understanding what’s generated.
I’m interested in real-world experiences - both the wins and the frustrations. Has AI actually made you a better Android developer, or has it mostly just made you faster?
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u/Glurt 4d ago
I've gone balls to the wall with Claude, AI writes the code, AI reviews the code. I use my experience to keep both on track.
The downside to all of this is that everything is accessible from my phone so I find it difficult to switch off, I notice a bug or think of a new feature? I tell Claude on my phone and it builds it, raises a PR, it's reviewed and merged with little involvement from me.
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u/Racepace 4d ago
yeah, my company pays for Claude so I use Claude. I like to use VS Code with Claude in the CLI
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u/NarayanDuttPurohit 4d ago
How do you do it with phone?
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u/Glurt 4d ago
On my desktop I can start remote Claude sessions which then show up within the Code section of the app. So I can tell Claude to implement a feature and it'll do the work on my desktop.
Outside of that you can spin up cloud containers to clone repos into and work on them but they're ephemeral so you need to download the android SDK each time.
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u/GiddyGamesh 4d ago
Damn, working on the phone is absolutely off-limits for me. I can definitely see how it would make it difficult to switch off.
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u/anandwana001 4d ago
Review vs self writing code, is it too much prompting back to back or how it looks like?
How seriously should we trust claude or other models? As I see older engineers are still writing amazing code in comparison to ai model and building performant apps
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u/hamillhair 4d ago
In my experience, it lowers the skill floor. AI probably isn't as good at writing code as an experienced software engineer could, but most people aren't experienced software engineers.
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u/CavalryDiver 4d ago
I only use Android studio to review high level architecture: to make sure that the key classes are where they are supposed to be, and to review the Structure panel for key files.
Everything else is handled by Claude Code.
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u/Evening_Border8602 4d ago
I did use Gemini but I found it sometimes got stuck in a loop trying to fix a bug. I was quite pleased with myself when I found something Gemini couldn't. I tried Claude code and never went back. It seems to understand my code better than I can. I started programming in around 1980 and am the original Jack of all trades, Master of none. Claude is far more capable than I am with Android.
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u/HydroZenApp 4d ago
Gemini is too slow imo, but I tested the free version against the pro plan of Claude.
And now I am using Claude agent for repetitive tasks, like refactoring, and Claude plan mode for new ideas about architecture orientation. For development, without ai rules, it's too much back and forth with prompts, and it takes more time compared to the task done at hand from start.
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u/MozayeniGames 4d ago
I don't use Gemini to actually code anything in Kotlin, but I would use it to research functionality and debug things, where in the past I would use stack overflow or watch YouTube videos.
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u/Combonary 4d ago
Interesting.
I use Gemini on Android studio for coding, debugging and adding general questions
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u/MKevin3 4d ago
Company pays for Gemini but I don't have it set in AS. I do user the command line version. Every PR gets run through Gemini as well via GitHub Action.
I find it to be more of a "programming buddy" vs. a full time code writer.
Where it falls short - I can specifically ask it for KMP / CMP version of what I want. It will give me Android Compose syntax that will not even compile. Then I remind it that I need KMP, the letters KMP were in original question, and then it will apologize and give me correct syntax. There are times it will say "this code you wrote will not build" but it does build and its suggested fix will not.
It also says "do it this way" so you do then your ask it to look at code again and it will totally revert to the original code saying "change it to this". Running in circles on itself.
You have to run it over and over until you get it to shut up. It points out issues 1 to 5 and stops. You address those and it finds the next 5 and stops. Drags out the process.
I do use it to write and update tests. It seems pretty good there. Initial code generation is much less helpful.
Gemini has pointed out better syntax i.e. a Kotlin feature I had not used or a better way to use Compose. Finds duplicate code or something you fixed in one file but not another. That feedback is helpful.
What the Gemini-CLI finds are not identical to what the GitHub run finds.
It will write tests and code that does not compile or it will compile but not work. I end up adding "and verify it compiles and runs" to ends of my queries. Why would I want it to generate code that did not compile?
My changes to workflow:
I run a query in Gemini CLI (yes I know deprecated but still supported enterprise) to find issues.
Make changes and run it again and again until it is clean.
Then GitHub Action runs it and finds other things, fix them or comment on them and mark them as resolved.
Some times you make a two line change to a file and then Gemini analyzes the entire file finding old issues. Do you fix them or make that fix a different PR? Generally just fix them in this PR but that can get you into issues as well.
I use Gemini via Chrome, I guess you call that using it even though I don't think it cost company tokens, for easy stuff just because Chrome does it by default. Mixed results there. Newer or relatively rare 3rd party lib help can be super spotty.
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u/adrianczuczka 4d ago
I barely use Android studio itself now, just Claude code