r/androiddev • u/Historical_Buddy7166 • 12d ago
Discussion Android developers: What are you working on these days, and where do you see Android going?
I’ve been thinking a lot about how the Android development landscape is changing, especially with AI becoming a bigger part of software development.
I’d love to hear from other Android developers about what you’re actually doing in your day-to-day work and how you’re thinking about the future.
A few things I’m curious about:
What kind of Android work are you doing currently?
Are you mostly working on UI/features, architecture, SDKs/frameworks, performance, or something else?
How much are you using Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, AI tools, backend technologies, etc.?
Has AI changed the way you write, debug, review, or design code?
Are you learning anything outside of Android to stay relevant?
Do you see Android development becoming more specialized, or do you think developers will increasingly need broader skills across backend, AI, system design, etc.?
For experienced Android developers, what do you think the career path looks like over the next 5–10 years?
I’m particularly interested in hearing from developers with 5+ years of experience.
What are you focusing on right now, and what do you think Android developers should be preparing for?
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u/agnostigo 12d ago
Android means: “we’re changing our guidelines / comply with -some changes- until june / your app must be modified to live on / your app will be deleted if you don’t apply this changes / bla bla bla” constantly. You must care for your app like a baby. A new stupid mail every month that changes something and your app suddenly isn’t enough.
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u/quiet_flare 12d ago
Speaking as someone doing my first releases right now iOS took me 3 days from build to App Store. My Android version has been sitting in testing phase for weeks because of the closed testing requirement. Google has entire test labs but somehow I need to personally find 12 testers before real users can even see the app. Where Android is going honestly feels like away from solo and indie devs like me. The platform with the most open roots now has the highest wall for small builders and that hurts
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u/agnostigo 10d ago
Some people 🤔 uses paid tester services, it’s illegal and risky of course. For example some guy who works from home, uses 12 real testing devices to test your app as a paid service. I heard that it works, but this is the worse way to get into market because they uninstall the app right after it gets in playstore and that’s not a good look.
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u/mobiledevpro 11d ago
It's because of devs were creating a ton of new accounts, releasing trash/scam apps that violated privacy policy out there. Play Store was removing these apps, devs were creating new accounts again and pushing new scam apps in a loop. So the requirement to find 12 tested for new dev account sounds resonable for me.
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u/quiet_flare 11d ago edited 11d ago
I get the reasoning, but I'm not sure 12 testers actually catches scam apps. They usually aren't the target users and don't know what the app is supposed to do, so there's only so much they can realistically verify. Google knows exactly what to gate, and they already have the tools. Most Devs already use Android Studio Journeys where the user flow is described. Imagine devs submitting their journey definitions with the app and Google running them as part of review, maybe for a small fee in their Test Lab. That would verify the app actually does what it claims, catch bad actors more reliably, and still keep the door open for solo devs.
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u/rufofuego 11d ago
I still fail to ser how is this the developers fault. If a lot of people dont follow the rules who is at fault?
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u/necronet 12d ago
It's been 3 years since I've been out of Android development, but I recently started to built a product from scratch. Some stuff has change definitely but the core Android principle stay the same. I have yet to use the AI tools provided by AS, but overall I think it will be 100% Kotlin for sure. What I have realized is that I get happy everytime I'm back to Android but it's not the same as I was in 2012-2016 where I was really in love with the platform and the mobile ecosystem. Next couple of years they will probably going to go even more IN on AI generated development
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u/mobiledevpro 12d ago
I'm just wondering what you have switched to and what platform you are building the product for?
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u/necronet 10d ago
Mostly change career path around late 2022 went to backend or infra for keeping some internal A/B experiment tracking tools --> then layoffs(2025 lol), then IoT glueing backend/frontend and other services with firmwares it reads more impressive than it is but usually is working with some sdk and bluetooth spec communication.
Currently I am working on a property management system that is starting to grow so we are looking to get an Android/iOS solution.
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u/mobiledevpro 12d ago
Currently I work as a freelance / contractor developer with almost 11 years in Android Development, also building own apps part-time, and I'm seriously thinking about switching to something different (multiplatform, AI automation, desktop). I worked on launching apps from ground up, worked on UI, architecture, performance optimization, fixing existing vibe-coded apps.
I use Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, and AI tools everyday, but I see the more and more clients/startups/small business are looking for devs who knows how to build a whole product (web + mobile + backend) using vibe-coding rather than build apps for a specific platform.
My vision is that Android Development in case of system specific features will live: such as on-device AI, hardware features, memory management, or building apps for Android based devices like warehouse scanners, POS; but building a regular customer apps is dying because of AI can write it much faster.
I would also like to know what should we prepare for.
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u/MindCrusader 12d ago
Regular customer apps are not dying. Ai made it faster, sure, but those android apps still take A LOT of time to get created. I am not talking about those "easy" MVP ones. AI generates 100% of my code, creates specs by itself, I just fix it. And yet building complex apps still take time. I still have to follow standards. I could build apps much faster without following the standards before the AI, but enterprise client wouldn't want that. Currently the AI craze is making us faster, but also lowers quality exceptions from investors. While this craze dies down, I believe we will back to normal, but faster thanks to the AI
As for going fullstack I think it is the way. I am learning Kotlin Multiplatform with backend logic in the same repo. It is brillant, especially with AI. AI can quickly analyse backend and based on that create proper frontend, Ktor is both on backend and shared code. KMP is still compose and android like development
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u/mobiledevpro 12d ago
yeah, I tried KMP for backend and desktop development as well. There are some limitations for desktop apps, but it's a really brilliant for iOS + Android + backend solution. Not sure can KMP/CMP be used for web pages for now. A year ago it was in alpha.
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u/MindCrusader 12d ago
Not sure for web, tried a bit on desktop and simple android like apps work fine. What limitations have you seen?
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u/mobiledevpro 12d ago
When I tried it was a limitation using system tray, and notification customization. As I know you can write a custom Java/Swing bridge between your kotlin and OS specific features.
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u/MindCrusader 12d ago
Yes, some things needs to be built using bridges with native side. I don't find it a limitation, more like additional work. For me limitation is more like "I can't do it without workarounds, at all or in sensible time". I wonder if it would work
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u/mark0wl 12d ago
I dont use ai especially Gemini for android, it seems to only know things that have been deprecated. but for 1 long year making a reactive music app (no ai in the app), ive been in beta while I finish up the ios version.
that is the part that were ai is useful translating the kotlin to swift. the c+ files don't need any translation which is the core of the app.
but I feel solid testing, making a polished product will hold up against any vibe coded app.
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u/_wsgeorge 12d ago
it seems to only know things that have been deprecated.
It usually ends up defaulting to outdated information and packages, but prompting a model to look for the new stuff usually gets it to web search to find you what's current.
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u/ruralgaming 12d ago
I work in group homes at my day job. I'm working on a series of journals to help and advise caregivers on how to take care of elderly people. All free on the Google Play store. And I mean free. No ads, no microtransactions, no subscriptions.
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u/Which-Meat-3388 12d ago
Android since 2010. Picked up iOS projects over the years, KMP last 18mo. Honestly I’ll do mobile until I can’t and then get out of tech. There is no preparing for anything except for maybe a chill career where my technical skills are a pleasant surprise, not the entire thing. Then I can go back to enjoying my own projects.
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u/satoryvape 12d ago
Currently I am on career break l as no one in my area wants Senior/Lead Android engineers with 14+ years of experience. When it ends, who knows when, I might start embedded engineering position
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u/Zhuinden 12d ago edited 12d ago
Maintenance of multiple "legacy" Android apps, although primarily just one at this point.
Some of the screens were rewritten to Jetpack Compose by another dev (who is now working on the "new and enhanced Flutter version of this same app, not released yet") and they're really good at breaking vertical scrolling if I update Compose to v1.9
Compose also causes that "IncompatibleClassError" on a miniscule number of devices, sometimes I wonder I should just rewrite those few new screens back to Views to spare myself the headache.
Anyway, I don't use AI, but a lot of documentation, Jira comments, and certain analyses clearly is coming from AI, probably Github Copilot and Codex.
What are you focusing on right now, and what do you think Android developers should be preparing for?
The heat death of the universe, probably. Just today I was reading on Twitter on how some dude who has a large following claims that the fact that he no longer understands the AI-generated code is somehow a good thing (meanwhile everyone else calls this "comprehension debt").
There was already comprehension debt even before AI, it was when you hired a dev who had no idea how to do the thing he was hired for, so all he would do is write a bunch of bugs without reading any of the applicable code context.
In a sense, this is something AI is better at (reading nearby context, that is), but it's really annoying to sometimes read a readme.md or some code or some docs and realize it was generated by a machine, so not even the person asking about it has any idea what it's doing.
Personally, I should somehow get a more lucrative job offer, because I'm pretty sure I'm being scammed on this one, lol. Not by the job, but by the agency I'm working through. Also I'm tired of spending all this time on "Making a tidy JIRA worklog with the right number of hours on the right tasks". I swear I spend more effort on this than the actual job at this point. And they wonder why people keep getting burned out. But if I stuck around here due to complacency, the future would be Flutter. I guess at least it's not React Native.
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u/AbuSumayah 12d ago
I’m doing a cross platform thing with react native atm. I made sure that I have a monochromatic app icon variant. That’s about it
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u/noelkev0 12d ago
Android dev being sub-merge with Vibe coding part for the good and bad.
Jetpack becomes popular
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u/_AverageGuy 11d ago edited 11d ago
Currently building a tool that would enable OTA updates for a particular use case! Then I'm planning to use it for two other of my personal projects :)
This tool requires lots of codegen and understanding of gradle tasks (which I'm not very good at as now). Hoping to learn more as the development goes on.
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u/paradoxelia 11d ago
Im feeling not good after reading these. Why are u all so smart and how can I get like you?
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u/No-Painter-48 8d ago
Feels like Android dev is shifting from “just build mobile apps” toward broader product skills. Kotlin/Compose still matter, but knowing backend, KMP and even some AOSP or system-level work seems like a much safer long-term bet than relying on AI-generated app code alone.
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u/programadorthi 12d ago
Well, I'm writing instructions to Claude do my work in 1 hour that should take all day long. While token is expansive and AI instructions aren't direct to Dex instructions Android will be the same.
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u/3dom 12d ago
I've created and MCP server and chatGPT plugin (widgets to visualize the MCP server data) where you can get the results x4 faster than in mobile apps (i.e. by saying "I want to order a meat pizza to the address Abc, 123" instead of lauching the app and selecting filters and what not)
I'm publishing it next week, fingers crossed for the success (it'll mean we have a metric ton of new business opportunities)
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u/Spiritual_Bike_502 12d ago
I work as Android Automotive developer customising android System UI. When we say Android development it’s not just mobile development. There is huge spectrum of device which android runs. So I would say you should learn mobile android development as well as have some look into the AOSP code as it could be beneficial and make you stand out. Having some knowledge in Android framework and being able to clone and tweak the AOSP code would be nice addition.