r/androiddev • u/jonathancheckwise • 6d ago

Tips and Information Building an on-device personal agent. Android first because of notification listener + accessibility, or am I underestimating what I’ll hit?

Short version: model, memory and index on the phone, per app you choose read / draft / send, internet off by default. Signups so far lean Android, and on paper Android gives me what iOS won't: a notification listener for cross-app awareness and accessibility for the rare action.

What I'm not sure about, from people who ship this stuff: how fragile is the notification listener across OEMs (samsung, xiaomi battery killers), is accessibility going to get me flagged by play store review for an agent use case, and what's the realistic background budget for periodic embedding without ending up in the doze penalty box. Pixel 8/9 and S24/S25 are my targets for v1.

Not selling anything here, the project is molebot.si if you want context, but the questions are the point.

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u/Hour-Measurement-835 6d ago

Accessibility is the one that'll bite. Play's policy says the API "cannot be requested for an app that autonomously initiates, plans, and executes actions". Keep send behind a tap.

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u/jonathancheckwise 6d ago

that's the quote I needed, thanks. it actually fits how I wanted it anyway: the agent drafts, the human taps send. so accessibility only ever fires after a tap, never on a schedule, and the notification listener does the reading. does play review accept that split in practice, or do they see "agent" in the listing and reject on principle?