Posted by Fahd Imtiaz – Product Supervisor, Android Developer

In case your app isn’t constructed to adapt, you’re lacking out on the chance to achieve a large swath of customers throughout 500 million gadgets! At Google I/O this 12 months, we’re exploring how adaptive improvement isn’t simply a good suggestion, however important to constructing apps that shine throughout the increasing Android gadget ecosystem. That is your information to assembly customers wherever they’re, with experiences which are completely tailor-made to their wants.

The benefit of constructing adaptive

In at the moment’s multi-device world, customers count on their favourite functions to work flawlessly and intuitively, whether or not they’re on a smartphone, pill, or Chromebook. This expectation for seamless experiences is not nearly comfort; it is an necessary issue for person engagement and retention.

For instance, leisure apps (together with Prime Video, Netflix, and Hulu) customers on each telephone and pill spend virtually 200% extra time in-app (practically 3x engagement) than phone-only customers within the US^*.

Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming service has seen a pattern of customers shifting between cell and huge screens and constructing adaptively allows a single construct to work throughout the totally different type components.

“This enables Peacock to have extra time to innovate quicker and ship extra worth to its clients.”

– Diego Valente, Head of Cell, Peacock and International Streaming

Adaptive Android improvement provides the strategic answer, enabling apps to carry out successfully throughout an increasing array of gadgets and contexts by clever design selections that emphasize code reuse and scalability. With Android’s steady progress into new type components and upcoming enhancements equivalent to desktop windowing and linked shows in Android 16, an app’s means to seamlessly adapt to totally different display screen sizes is turning into more and more essential for retaining customers and staying aggressive.

Past direct person advantages, designing adaptively additionally interprets to elevated visibility. The Google Play Retailer actively helps promote builders whose apps excel on totally different type components. In case your utility delivers a fantastic expertise on tablets or is superb on ChromeOS, customers on these gadgets may have a better time discovering your app. This creates a win-win scenario: higher high quality apps for customers and a broader viewers for you.

Newest in adaptive Android improvement from Google I/O

That will help you extra successfully construct compelling adaptive experiences, we shared a number of key updates at I/O this 12 months.

Construct for the increasing Android gadget ecosystem

Your cell apps can now attain customers past telephones on over 500 million lively gadgets, together with foldables, tablets, Chromebooks, and even appropriate vehicles, with minimal modifications. Android 16 introduces important developments in desktop windowing for a real desktop-like expertise on giant screens and when gadgets are linked to exterior shows. And, Android XR is opening a brand new dimension, permitting your current cell apps to be out there in immersive digital environments.

The mindset shift to Adaptive

With the increasing Android gadget ecosystem, adaptive app improvement is a basic technique. It is about how the identical cell app runs effectively throughout telephones, foldables, tablets, Chromebooks, linked shows, XR, and vehicles, laying a robust basis for future gadgets and differentiating for particular type components. You needn’t rebuild your app for every type issue; however reasonably make small, iterative modifications, as wanted, when wanted. Embracing this adaptive mindset at the moment is not nearly preserving tempo; it is about main the cost in delivering distinctive person experiences throughout the whole Android ecosystem.

Leverage highly effective instruments and libraries to construct adaptive apps:

• Compose Adaptive Layouts library: This library makes adaptive improvement simpler by permitting your app code to suit into canonical structure patterns like list-detail and supporting pane, that mechanically reflow as your app is resized, flipped or folded. Within the 1.1 launch, we launched pane enlargement, permitting customers to resize panes. The Socialite demo app showcased how one codebase utilizing this library can adapt throughout six type components. New adaptation methods like “Levitate” (elevating a pane, e.g., right into a dialog or backside sheet) and “Reflow” (reorganizing panes on the identical degree) had been additionally introduced in 1.2 (alpha). For XR, part overrides can mechanically spatialize UI parts.
• Jetpack Navigation 3 (Alpha): This new navigation library simplifies defining person journeys throughout screens with much less boilerplate code, particularly for multi-pane layouts in Compose. It helps deal with situations the place record and element panes is likely to be separate locations on smaller screens however proven collectively on bigger ones. Take a look at the brand new Jetpack Navigation library in alpha.
• Jetpack Compose enter enhancements: Compose’s layered structure, sturdy enter help, and single location for structure logic simplify creating adaptive UIs. Upcoming in Compose 1.9 are right-click context menus and enhanced trackpad/mouse performance.
• Window Dimension Courses: Use window measurement lessons for top-level structure choices. AndroidX.window 1.5 introduces two new width measurement lessons – “giant” (1200dp to 1600dp) and “extra-large” (1600dp and bigger) – offering extra granular breakpoints for giant screens. This helps in deciding when to develop navigation rails or present three panes of content material. Help for these new breakpoints was additionally introduced within the Compose adaptive layouts library 1.2 alpha, together with design steerage.
• Compose previews: Get fast suggestions by visualizing your layouts throughout all kinds of display screen sizes and side ratios. You too can specify totally different gadgets by identify to preview your UI on their respective sizes and with their inset values.
• Testing adaptive layouts: Validating your adaptive layouts is essential and Android Studio provides varied instruments for testing – together with previews for various sizes and side ratios, a resizable emulator to check throughout totally different display screen sizes with a single AVD, screenshot assessments, and instrumental habits assessments. And with Journeys with Gemini in Android Studio, you may outline assessments utilizing pure language for much more strong testing throughout totally different window sizes.

Making certain app availability throughout gadgets

Keep away from unnecessarily declaring required options (like particular cameras or GPS) in your manifest, as this may stop your app from showing within the Play Retailer on gadgets that lack these particular {hardware} parts however may in any other case run your app completely.

Dealing with totally different enter strategies

Keep in mind to deal with varied enter strategies like contact, keyboard, and mouse, particularly with Chromebook detachables and linked shows.

Put together for orientation and resizability API modifications in Android 16

Starting in Android 16, for apps focusing on SDK 36, manifest and runtime restrictions on orientation, resizability, and side ratio might be ignored on shows which are a minimum of 600dp in each dimensions. To satisfy person expectations, your apps will want layouts that work for each portrait and panorama home windows, and help resizing at runtime. There is a short-term opt-out manifest flag at each the applying and exercise degree to delay these modifications till targetSdk 37, and these modifications at the moment don’t apply to apps categorized as “Video games”. Be taught extra about these API modifications.

Adaptive issues for video games

Video games have to be adaptive too and Unity 6 will add enhanced help for configuration dealing with, together with APIs for screenshots, side ratio, and density. Success tales like Asphalt Legends Unite present important person retention will increase on foldables after implementing adaptive options.

Begin constructing adaptive at the moment

Now could be the time to raise your Android apps, making them intuitively responsive throughout type components. With the most recent instruments and updates we’re introducing, you will have the facility to construct experiences that seamlessly circulate throughout all gadgets, from foldables to vehicles and past. Implementing these methods will let you develop your attain and delight customers throughout the Android ecosystem.

Get impressed by the “Adaptive Android improvement makes your app shine throughout gadgets” speak, and discover all of the sources you’ll want to start out your journey at developer.android.com/adaptive-apps!

Discover this announcement and all Google I/O 2025 updates on io.google beginning Might 22.

^*Supply: inside Google knowledge