So let me preface by saying none of my apps use ads or collect user data, so I'm not even affected. However, I think GDPR is horrible. I'm all for user data protection, I want my data protected too, however it doesn't accomplish it's goal. I'll outline why.

• It requires explicit consent, I think this is going too far. If users don't care then why should you force them to opt in? Because now the users who don't care, a company can't make money on. They're not going to care to tick those check boxes even if they don't care. This isn't really a bad against GPDR, it's just my view.

• It doesn't do shit to the large companies, but imposes a lot on small Devs.

• There was horrible communication and a lot of misinformation. This was passed what, a year and a half ago? And we're just hearing about it in the last month? What the hell?

• It could've been done better. I think just explicitly telling users what data your collecting and offering a off switch would've sufficed.

• I'm not sure on this one, but you apparently can't deny a user access to your service if they refuse data collection. Why? If it's my service I created I should be able to do what I please with it.

Like I said, I'm all for data protection, I want my data to be protected. But the EU usually goes too far. I think a law like GDPR is fine but it could've been done better.

Hi everyone,

I’m working solo on an Android app using Kotlin and Jetpack Compose, and honestly, it feels like a nightmare. Between the constantly changing permission handling, deprecated APIs, the slowness and complexity of simply displaying a photo gallery, and the frustration of never having a truly smooth and stable UI… I feel like I spend more time working around bugs and limitations than actually coding.

Jetpack Compose, which is supposed to make development easier, often feels like it imposes many constraints and hacks just to accomplish basic things (like showing a grid of image thumbnails, handling permissions properly, or building expressive Material 3 UIs).

Am I missing some methodology, tool, or best practice that would make this cleaner and simpler? Or is this just the current reality of native Android development? I’d appreciate any advice, experiences, or alternatives.

Thanks in advance!

One of my biggest dream as an #AndroidDev is to work in a team where if I ask the Designer "Should I use the standard Android component?" they reply: "Of course! What else would you use?!?

— Ivan Morgillo 🐕💻⚔️☮️❄️🧘🏻‍♂️ (@hamen) Mar 15, 2022

Yes, that's true. When AI first started to emerge, articles began appearing about how the excessive use of AI alone without researching and relying on it would eventually make you unable to function without it at all. This is exactly what happened to me two days ago. I was using Fireblinder as usual, fixing some bugs in my app, until something I didn't expect happened: a message stating that I'd exceeded the limit and could continue after 6 days. At that point, I felt paralyzed; everything stopped, and my brain shut down. I could have subscribed to the paid version or looked for a different AI assistant, but I started wondering: am I really no longer able to function without AI after I was a pro at researching information and reading documentations and open project code on GitHub to find a solution?

I started to retrieve the articles that appeared and were talking about this matter. Unfortunately, I found that I no longer have the patience to search or read the documentations to reach the solution. I started to want the solution quickly with the click of a button.

So, any tips to avoid this and not fall into it again? And how do you use AI assistants at work?

"Is it just me or many developers who are experiencing this problem?"

I’ve been working as an Android developer for a while now, and lately, I can’t shake the feeling that it’s become… repetitive. Most of the work revolves around the same cycle: building UIs with Activities or Fragments, using ViewModels, calling APIs, managing lifecycle events, and dealing with Chinese OEM quirks.

But when I look at backend development, the engineering problems seem more dynamic and challenging. For example: • “We suddenly hit 1 million users, how do we scale?” • “We’re getting 1000+ concurrent requests—how do we handle that load?” • “Our APIs are slow—how do we optimize performance, caching, and DB access?”

It just feels like there’s more engineering in backend, more need for deep thinking, architecture, and continuous scaling decisions.

So here’s my question: Does Android development feel limited to you in terms of challenging engineering problems? Or am I just missing the more complex parts of mobile dev?

Would love to hear from folks who’ve done both Android and backend. How do the engineering challenges compare in your experience?

I was super excited to release my very first app on the Play Store...

But my excitement quickly turned into shock when I saw that all my private information was displayed on the app’s listing. I honestly wasn’t expecting that level of exposure, and it feels horrible.

Has anyone else gone through this? Is there a way to protect your personal data when publishing apps, or is this just how Google Play works by default?

Everyone talks about clean architecture like it’s the holy grail. But in practice? It turns simple features into over-engineered messes with 10 layers and zero velocity.

Sometimes working code > perfect layers.Read this and share your thoughts.

Anyone else feel this?

Well I have been working on this app for the last 2-3 months juggling between my exams and practicals and yeah it's finally on playstore...

Well Initially I didn't though it would take me this much time to make... sometimes sitting at one place for like 12 hrs just to debug an error caused in release apk due to R8 Optimization or trying to add some small animation which wont be even noticed by users... but overall it was a great learning experience for me.

What the app do?

The app could run .task and .litertlm AI models locally without any internet. You just require internet to download models... rest the chat history, chat sessions, system prompts & model used in that chat session is all stored on-device...

There is a large catalogue of models you could download (although you need to check if those are compatible with your mobiles hardware)

I ran a 8B Qwen model locally on my friends 12GB RAM phone which although isn't fast but comparing the models size it's good to see it's working...

I have a 6GB RAM phone where a 4B model runs decently and a 2B model works great.

Rn it supports text & image as input...

Do check out & feel free to contribute to Github if interested...☺️

Playstore :- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.yashbhadange.tinyai

Github :- https://github.com/YashBhadange2006/TinyAI

Example:

        with(target) {
            addLinearLayout {
                setOrientationVertical()
                setBackgroundColorId(R.color.TitleBackground)
                addLinearLayout {
                    setOrientationHorizontal()
                    setGradientBackgroundVertical(
                        R.color.black,
                        R.color.TitleBackground
                    )
                    setGravityBottom()
                    addTextView {
                        setPaddingsDP(10, 0)
                        setTextSizeSP(40)
                        setTextColorID(R.color.white)
                        setFontId(R.font.nunito_bold)
                        setTextId(R.string.app_name)

                        setOnClickListener {
                            content.set(StackList())
                        }
                    }
                    addFiller()
                    addImageView {
                        setDrawableId(R.drawable.owl)
                        setSizeDP(40)
                        setMarginsDP(0, 0, 5, 5)
                    }
                }
                addView {
                    setHeightDP(3)
                    setWidthMatchParent()
                    setBackgroundColorId(R.color.WhiteTransparent)
                }
            }
        }
    }

full App: https://github.com/koje71/com.koje.cards

We're getting too much spam in here.

Edit: to -> too

Does anyone else feel that Kotlin and newer practices have made code reading extremely difficult.
Java had explicit types and honestly it made code reading better. Figuring out context object it in lambdas is another pain. Personally in code reviews I ask to name context objects.

In IDE I enable inlay hints for all these type of stuff and I swear by it. The only problem I guess if I do code reviews on version control platforms.

I feel that even with the data binding issues it fixes and the lego brick approach programmers LOVE so much, and even with applying all the tricks (state hoisting, passing functions and callbacks as parameters, checking recomposition, side-effects) I am much slower still than I ever was writing XML UI code.

I just feel like I am being slowed down. Yes, the UI code is reusable, atomically designed, the previews mostly work with a bit of TLC, but.... I just feel slowed down

Hi to everyone! Are you guys thinking that flutter will replace native development? I have a friend of mine who claims that, but i think it otherwise, you have so much power and control with native development. What are your opinions?

lets look at /r/android, I sometimes cannot tell the difference between that and /r/androidcirclejerk. I find it amazing how a lot of the users are suddenly experts with the android Gui and api and how many mockups are made to make the apps "look better" that are just simply not feasible in a real situation. Then we have graphic designers making "better UI" when in fact they are most likely introducing a number of bugs. I mean I understand the need for proper gui and it's true some applications are horrid. But at the same time these people don't seem to understand that many developers want a more platform agnostic UI. When you see Holo you think Android but that wouldn't fly with an IOS app. So some developers like to make something that would fly on both. for example the new facebook app's gui seems to look fantastic.

my point being does anyone just find it a bit irritating and annoying that these vocal few simply wouldn't touch an app because it's not HOLO? Or even prefer a buggier app to a more stable one in favor of "looks" have android users changed over the years? I literally cannot browse /r/android without getting angry at some of the comments.

How do you as developers prefer to handle this situation if your developing for both IOS and android? Do you go for a more platform agnostic style or just do unique UI's based on the platforms?

EDIT: It appears that I'm being partially misunderstood. I agree that apps should follow their native UI. When I make apps they follow android UI (I don't make multiplatform apps) I'm simply bringing this up because I'm just fed up those subreddit's who are in a huge minority, I have never once heard of my mom,sister,father,friend, etc. complain about the UI in any of the big multiplatform apps. Which have the most platform agnostic experiences. Your average user might notice when an app looks nice but your average user won't really notice if the UI is native or not (unless it's one of those blatant IOS ripoffs)

Is there a big difference in build times, gradles syncing etc? I know android studio is tailored towards unix but how much if a difference is it. Is it worth moving towards Mac if your develop native android?

I'm considering buying a Mac Mini M2 as they seem to be the best value and don't take up too much space. Just looking for information on whether it's worth the change in os