Mobile
Android
Native software for the world’s most-used mobile platform, built by engineers who ship to Google Play and keep it running.
Overview
Android is Google’s mobile operating system and, by device volume, the most widely used computing platform on earth — it runs on phones from dozens of manufacturers across every price point, and it is the default way most of the world outside a few wealthy markets goes online. Native Android development means building directly against that platform’s own SDK, so your app has full access to the hardware, the OS services, and the newest capabilities on the day Google ships them, rather than reaching them second-hand through an abstraction layer. When performance, deep integration, or a genuinely native feel are the point, this is where you build.
In practice we build the way Google intends the platform to be built. Kotlin is the modern default language — concise, null-safe, and the one Google now designs its APIs and documentation around; we still read and maintain the Java that older codebases are written in, but new work is Kotlin. For interface work we use Jetpack Compose, the declarative UI toolkit where the screen is a function of state and the framework handles the redraw, and we keep fluency in the older XML and View system because a great many real, working apps are still built on it and will be for years. Around that sits the Jetpack family — Room for local storage, WorkManager for deferrable background work, Navigation for moving between screens, Hilt for dependency injection — mature libraries that spare you from rebuilding solved problems by hand. The tooling is Android Studio and the Gradle build system.
We reach for native Android when the target audience is on Android and the things that make a native app worth building — raw performance, deep hardware and OS integration, best-in-class platform UX, and access to new OS features immediately — matter more than sharing one codebase with iOS. That last clause is the honest boundary of the tool. Android’s reach is enormous, but running separate native Android and iOS codebases is genuinely expensive, and there is a point where cross-platform is the pragmatic call. We will tell you where that line falls for your product before you commit to two native builds.
Best for — Performance-critical, deeply integrated, or Android-first mobile products where a native build earns its keep — and where a senior team can be honest about when cross-platform would serve you better.
Why teams choose Android
The platform’s full power, unmediated
Native code talks straight to the OS and hardware with no bridge in between, so you get the best available performance and access to every capability Android exposes, including features that land in a new OS version the day it ships.
The largest reach in mobile
Android runs on more devices, in more countries, at more price points than any other platform. If your growth depends on the wider world rather than one affluent market, that reach is the whole point of building here.
A mature, first-party toolkit
Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, the Jetpack libraries and Android Studio are built and maintained by Google as one coherent stack, so common problems — storage, background work, navigation, injection — are already solved to a high standard rather than reinvented per project.
Why businesses choose Android
- Your users are on Android, and reaching them well matters more than sharing one codebase with iOS.
- You need performance or deep platform integration that a cross-platform layer cannot match.
- You value building on Google’s own mature stack — Kotlin, Compose, Jetpack — over a third-party abstraction.
- You want a senior team that will be honest about fragmentation cost and about when cross-platform is the smarter call.
What we build with Android
The capabilities this technology is genuinely strong at — and what we most often build with it.
Kotlin as the default language
We write new Android work in Kotlin — null-safe, concise, and the language Google now shapes its APIs around — using coroutines and Flow for asynchronous work so background and UI code reads top-to-bottom. Where a codebase is legacy Java, we maintain it fluently and migrate deliberately rather than for its own sake.
Jetpack Compose for modern UI
Compose is Android’s declarative UI toolkit: the screen is a function of state, and the framework recomposes what changed. We build new interfaces in Compose for the speed and clarity it brings, and we keep it honest about its edges — recomposition cost, and interop with the older View world.
The XML and View system where it fits
A vast number of shipping apps are built on the older XML layout and View system, and it is not going away. We are as comfortable maintaining and extending a View-based app as building a new Compose one, and we mix the two cleanly when a migration is gradual rather than wholesale.
The Jetpack libraries
Room for a typed local database, WorkManager for background work that must survive process death and reboots, Navigation for moving between screens, and Hilt for dependency injection. These are Google’s own answers to problems every app faces, and using them well is faster and safer than hand-rolling equivalents.
Deep hardware and OS integration
Camera, sensors, location, Bluetooth, connectivity, foreground and background services, widgets, and the notification system built the way the platform intends. This is the work that only truly pays off natively, and getting it right — particularly around Android’s background execution limits — is where experience shows.
Google Play and open distribution
We handle release the Play way — app bundles, staged rollouts, Play Console, and the review process — and we understand Android’s more open model, where sideloading and alternative stores are legitimate channels. That openness is a reach advantage and a responsibility, and we build with both in mind.
Use cases
Consumer apps with global reach
Products whose growth depends on the wider world — including markets where Android is effectively the only platform — and where reaching a broad range of devices and price points is the point.
Performance-heavy and media apps
Camera-driven, real-time, graphics-intensive or on-device-processing apps, where a native build extracts performance a cross-platform layer would leave on the table.
Deeply integrated device software
Apps that lean on sensors, connectivity, background services, widgets or hardware features — the kind of software that is only worth building because it is native.
Android-first product bets
Teams choosing Android as their first or primary platform, whether for audience, cost sequencing, or the freedom of its distribution model, and wanting it built properly from the start.
When Android is the right choice
- You are building a performance-critical app — real-time media, on-device processing, graphics, anything where every frame and millisecond counts — and you want the platform’s full power with nothing in the way. This is native Android’s home ground.
- You need deep hardware or OS integration: camera and sensor access, background services, Bluetooth and connectivity, widgets, notifications done properly, or new platform features on the day Google releases them.
- Your audience is Android-first or lives in emerging markets, where Android’s device share is overwhelming and reaching those users well is the difference between a product that grows and one that stalls.
- You want best-in-class user experience that feels unmistakably like the platform — motion, gestures, and behaviour that match what Android users already expect, rather than an approximation.
- Wrong for: a product that must ship to both iOS and Android from one small team on a tight budget, with a fairly standard feature set. Maintaining two native codebases doubles the surface area you build and test; here Flutter or React Native usually serves you better, and we will say so before you fund two builds.
Android: pros and cons
Strengths
- Full, unmediated access to hardware and OS features, and to new platform capabilities the moment they release.
- The best performance available on the platform — no abstraction layer between your code and the device.
- Enormous global device reach, especially strong in emerging markets where Android dominates.
- A mature first-party ecosystem — Kotlin, Jetpack Compose and the Jetpack libraries — backed and evolved by Google.
Trade-offs
- Device and OS-version fragmentation is real and costly: many screen sizes, manufacturers, and Android versions to support, which raises QA effort more than any other platform.
- Per-user monetisation has historically run lower than iOS, so revenue-driven products sometimes prioritise iOS first despite Android’s larger reach.
- A native Android app does not run on iOS — reaching both platforms natively means two codebases, two skill sets, and roughly double the build-and-maintain cost.
- The open distribution model (sideloading, alternative stores) widens your audience but also widens the security and testing surface you are responsible for.
Architecture
We build Android apps around a clear separation of concerns rather than piling logic into activities and fragments. In practice that means a unidirectional data flow with UI state held in a ViewModel, a repository layer that owns data and hides whether it came from the network, a cache, or the Room database, and a UI layer — Compose or Views — that simply renders state and sends events back up. This is broadly the pattern Google’s own guidance recommends, and it exists for a reason: it makes the app testable, keeps business logic off the main thread and out of the UI, and survives configuration changes and process death without contortion.
Android’s activity and process lifecycle is the thing that most often bites teams who treat it casually. We design for it deliberately — state that outlives a rotation, work that survives the system killing your process, and background tasks handed to WorkManager rather than fought against Android’s ever-tightening execution limits. Getting the architecture right up front is what keeps an app maintainable as it grows, and it is the difference between adding a feature cleanly and rewriting a screen to accommodate it.
Performance
Native is where Android performance is won, but the platform still rewards care. The usual culprits are predictable: work on the main thread that stutters the UI, a layout or Compose tree that recomposes or measures too often, and memory pressure that provokes jank and garbage-collection pauses on the mid- and low-end devices that make up most of the installed base. We profile with Android Studio’s tools — the profiler, layout inspector, and Compose recomposition counts — rather than guessing, then fix what the measurements actually show.
The point we hold firmly is that a fast flagship phone is not your test device. Much of the Android world runs on modest hardware, and an app that feels smooth on the latest handset can be painful on a three-year-old budget phone that millions of your users actually own. We test and tune against realistic devices, keep the main thread free, and treat startup time, scroll smoothness, and battery use as first-class targets rather than things to look at if there is time left over.
Security
Android’s security model rests on app sandboxing, a runtime permission system, and signed packages, and we build within it deliberately: request only the permissions a feature genuinely needs and at the moment it needs them, store sensitive data in encrypted storage and the Keystore rather than in plain preferences, and never trust the client to enforce what the server should. As always, authentication and authorisation live on the backend; the app is a presentation of rules enforced elsewhere.
Android’s more open distribution model widens the threat surface, and we account for it. Because apps can be sideloaded and repackaged, we treat the possibility of a tampered or reverse-engineered client as real — pinning where it matters, protecting API keys and secrets rather than shipping them in the bundle, and validating on the server. We keep the dependency tree lean and current, because every third-party library is attack surface, and we handle data with the privacy expectations of the Play Store and the law in mind.
Scalability
For a mobile app, scale is less about traffic — the backend carries that — and more about the codebase, the team, and the sheer breadth of devices you must keep working. As an Android app grows, a flat structure calcifies; we head that off with a modular architecture, clear feature boundaries, and typed contracts, so several engineers can work in parallel and a new feature slots in rather than forcing a rewrite. Kotlin’s type system and a disciplined build setup are what keep a large app coherent as people and features multiply.
The other axis of scale is device and OS coverage. Supporting more of the Android world means a deliberate matrix of screen sizes, manufacturers, and OS versions, and a build and test pipeline that exercises them rather than hoping. We set a sensible minimum SDK based on your actual users rather than chasing the newest API for its own sake, and we automate what we can so that widening device support is a managed cost, not a recurring surprise.
Android integrations & ecosystem
The technologies we most often pair with it — each links to how we work with it.
How we work
We start by settling the decisions that are cheap to get right early and expensive to change later: the language and UI toolkit for this codebase, the architecture, the minimum SDK your real users justify, and an honest read on whether native Android is even the right call versus cross-platform. From there we build in thin vertical slices — a real feature, end to end, running on real devices — rather than a scaffold that demos well and does nothing.
The engineers who design the app are the ones who write it and keep it running. That is what we mean by operating what we build: decisions are made by people who will live with them through eighteen months of OS updates, new devices, and Play Store policy changes. You get honest trade-offs, testing against the hardware your users actually hold, and a codebase your own team can pick up and extend.
The service behind it
Delivered throughMobile App DevelopmentWhat we build with Android
The disciplines this technology most often shows up in — from a first build to taking over and stabilising an existing one.
How we deliver
- 01
Discover
We map the system, the constraints and the business it serves — including the parts nobody documented.
Architecture brief
- 02
Architect
Decisions get made, written down and defended before a line of production code exists.
Decision records
- 03
Build
Short cycles against working software. You see progress in the product, not in a status deck.
Shipping increments
- 04
Operate
Monitoring, incident response and iteration. The system is alive, so the engagement is too.
Runbooks & SLOs
Industries we use Android in
Domain knowledge changes what gets built. A few of the sectors we know before the first meeting.
Also in Mobile
Why teams choose us for Android
Senior engineers only
Android’s lifecycle, fragmentation, and background limits punish guesswork. The people making your architectural decisions have shipped Android apps before and have felt how those decisions age across OS versions and devices — there are no juniors learning on your project.
We operate what we build
We run the apps we ship, so we optimise for the maintenance reality — OS updates, new devices, Play policy changes — not the demo. That means testing on the hardware your users actually own, not just the latest flagship on our desks.
Honest about native versus cross-platform
If your product would be better served by Flutter or React Native across both platforms than by two native codebases, we will tell you before you spend the money. We would rather lose the work than build you two apps you did not need.
Kotlin-first, without dismissing your Java
New work is Kotlin, done the modern way with coroutines and Compose. But we read and maintain the Java that real codebases are built on, and we migrate deliberately where it pays off rather than rewriting for fashion.
Typical timeline
- 01
Discovery and architecture
One to two weeks agreeing the feature set, the language and UI choices, the architecture, the device and OS support matrix, and whether native Android is genuinely the right call.
- 02
First vertical slice
Two to three weeks delivering one real feature end to end, running on real devices, proving the architecture against reality rather than a plan.
- 03
Iterative build
Feature-by-feature delivery in short cycles, each shippable to an internal Play track, with performance and device testing checked as we go rather than bolted on at the end.
- 04
Hardening and release
Profiling on realistic devices, testing across the target OS and screen matrix, Play Console setup and a staged rollout, and documentation so your team can own and extend the app.
How pricing works
- Fixed-scope builds for a well-defined app — a specific product with a clear feature set — quoted once we understand the interactions, integrations, and the device support you need.
- Monthly senior engagement for ongoing product work, where scope evolves release to release and you want continuity rather than a fixed deliverable.
- Focused audits and rescues for existing Android codebases — performance, architecture, a Java-to-Kotlin or Views-to-Compose migration, or a stalled project — priced by the assessment.
Hire Android engineers
Need Android capacity on your own team? We embed named senior engineers into your existing team — reporting to your leads, working in your rituals — so you add capacity without a hiring cycle.
Hire Android engineersCommon questions
Kotlin or Java for a new Android app?
Kotlin, without hesitation. It is Google’s preferred language, the one its newest APIs and documentation target, and it is more concise and null-safe than Java, which removes a whole class of crashes. Java is not going away and we maintain plenty of it, but there is no good reason to start a new app in Java today. If you have an existing Java codebase, the two interoperate, so migration can be gradual rather than a rewrite.
Should we build native Android or use Flutter or React Native?
It depends on the product. Native Android is the right call for performance-critical apps, deep hardware or OS integration, and Android-first audiences who deserve a best-in-class platform experience. If you need iOS and Android from one small team with a fairly standard feature set, maintaining two native codebases is expensive, and cross-platform is usually the pragmatic choice. We assess your specific case and tell you honestly, rather than defaulting to whichever we prefer to build.
How much does Android’s fragmentation actually cost us?
More than teams expect, and it is the platform’s genuine downside. There are many screen sizes, manufacturers with their own OS tweaks, and Android versions still in active use, and each combination is something to test. We manage the cost by setting a sensible minimum SDK based on your real users rather than the whole history of Android, automating testing across a realistic device matrix, and being disciplined about which devices we actually target. It is a managed cost, not an unbounded one.
Do we have to use the Google Play Store?
No, and that openness is one of Android’s distinguishing traits. Play is the main channel and the one we set up by default — with app bundles, staged rollouts and the Play Console — but Android also allows sideloading and alternative stores, which can matter for enterprise distribution, certain markets, or reaching users where Play is not available. That freedom widens both your reach and the security surface you are responsible for, and we build with both in mind.
Should we build for Android before iOS?
Often, but it depends on who your users are. Android has by far the larger global device base, particularly in emerging markets, so if your growth depends on reach and the wider world, Android-first makes sense. The counterweight is that per-user monetisation has historically been higher on iOS, so revenue-led products sometimes lead with iOS despite Android’s larger audience. We help you weigh reach against revenue for your specific market rather than giving you a generic answer.
Building on Android?
A technical conversation with the engineers who would do the work. If we are not the right fit, we will say so on the call.