Episode 203: (W)rap

More from Android Developers Backstage

1. 

   22 May 2024 · 1 hr 1 min

   Episode 206: Make it faster

   In this episode we cover ADB -- not "Android Developers Backstage", but "Android Debug Bridge", the technology powering device connections. Romain and Tor talk with Fabien Sanglard from the Android Studio team on his work to improve the debug stack -- including the new USB speed detection feature recently unveiled at Google I/O. Chapters: Intro (00:00) You may know Fabien from… (00:50) Applying relevant knowledge to Android Studio (3:28) Communicating with remote devices and debugging (12:18) Accommodating a debugger (13:55) Fixed protocols and how to work around (16:10) What other versions…

2. 

   26 Mar 2024 · 47 min

   Episode 205: Time for Playtime

   In this episode, Tor, Romain, and Chet talk with Aurash Mahbod from the Play Games team at Google -- covering trends in mobile games, challenges for Android games developers, console games, and more! Chapters: Intro (00:00) What's Aurash working on currently? (02:40) How much is Play store providing users with content based on previous interests? (05:29) Longstanding games vs new games (08:34) Mobile gaming vs console (10:07) Are there stats on what type of games people are playing? (18:07) Difficulties and solutions for transitioning games from various devices (21:14) Movie corner - War…

3. 

   21 Feb 2024 · 53 min

   Episode 204: Fan'otations

   In this episode, Tor, Romain, and Chet talk about one of Tor's favorite topics: Lint! Specifically, we talk about Lint checks and the annotations that use them to enable better, more robust, and more self-documenting APIs. Lint: It's not just for pockets anymore. Chapters: Intro (00:00) Lint checks for annotations (01:50) Lint checks in Android (05:38) Logic checks (07:34) Color representations (10:01) How does lint know the type of integer? (14:40) Kotlin annotations (17:19) Unsigned (20:10) HalfFloat (22:25) Thread annotations (25:12) @CallSuper (28:18) LayoutOpt (30:26) Lint checks in…

4. 

   1 Nov 2023 · 54 min

   Episode 202: AndroidX, Gradle and Metalava

   In this episode, Tor and Romain chat with Aurimas Liutikas from the AndroidX team. Topics include performance tuning the AndroidX Gradle builds using configuration caching, local caching and remote caching, as well as tracking API compatibility using the Metalava tool. Aurimas, Romain and Tor Romain: @romainguy , threads.net/@romainguy , romainguy@androiddev.social Tor: threads.net/@tor.norbye and tornorbye@androiddev.social Aurimas: androiddev.social/@Aurimas and www.liutikas.net/blog-posts Catch videos on YouTube → https://goo.gle/adb-podcast Subscribe to Android Developers →…

5. 

   21 Sep 2023 · 45 min

   Episode 201: Firebase in Android Studio

   In this episode, Tor and Romain chat with Greg Baker and Joe Baker-Malone about exciting new Android Studio features made possible by Firebase integration. Physical device streaming allows you to connect remotely to physical devices hosted in Google's secure data centers and use them for all your development needs. We also explore other time saving features like the ability to go from a crash report directly to the correct line of code, even across git branches. Tor, Romain, Joe, Greg Links: Android Device Streaming from Android Studio feedback form App Quality Insights and Firebase…

6. 

   15 Aug 2023 · 50 min

   Episode 200: WebGPU

   In this episode, Chet and Romain speak with Ken Russell and Corentin Wallez from the WebGPU team. WebGPU is a new API that brings modern GPU rendering and compute functionality to web and other platforms (including Android!). We talk about the genesis and capabilities of WebGPU, WGSL (WebGPU's new shading language), the state of WebGL (the predecessor API for web GPU rendering), and lots of other fun related graphics topics. Ken, Romain, and Chet (not pictured: Corentin, who is on the monitor behind the photographer) Links: Samples (and its github repo ) Google I/O Codelab Google I/O…

7. 

   5 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 17 min

   Android AI Tools: Vibe coding, sub-agents, and the Android CLI

   Learn how the latest Android Studio AI features can streamline your daily development tasks. While the original agent mode chat was helpful, we rebuilt it with a re-architected experience that supports parallel tool calls and background sub-agents. For instance, you can now have an agent analyze code in the background while you continue working on a different feature. Try out the updated Journeys feature to see how plain text instructions can automatically test your critical user paths. Subscribe to our YouTube channel → https://goo.gle/AndroidDevs Speakers: Tor Norbye, Chet Haase, Xavier…

8. 

   29 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 8 min

   The inside story of Jetpack Compose

   Discover the origin story of Jetpack Compose and how it changed the way Android developers build applications. We discuss the original challenges of unbundling the UI toolkit from the operating system to deliver faster updates. By adopting Kotlin and a declarative approach, the team reduced the boilerplate necessary to build user interfaces. While earlier systems relied heavily on XML, Jetpack Compose shifts to a code-first model for easier iteration. Listen to the team share their insights on modifiers, performance improvements, and the future of Android design. Resources: Android is…

9. 

   18 Feb 2026 · 1 hr 7 min

   What's so great about R8?

   Join hosts Tor and Romain as they sit down with Søren Gjesse, Chris Craik, and Shai Barack. This week, the team dives into R8, the whole-program optimizer that handles the "last mile" of your code before it runs on a device. Learn why implementing R8 is effectively like giving your users a "free hardware upgrade" by making their current devices perform like models that are years newer. Enable app optimization → https://goo.gle/R8-Optimizer Chapters: 0:00 - Intro 0:23 - What is R8? 1:16 - R8 vs D8 1:40 - Tree Shaking & Dead Code 4:14 - Handling Reflection 10:10 - Performance Co-Optimization…

10. 

    14 Jan 2026 · 44 min

    XR: Virtually here

    Join hosts Tor, Chet, and Romain as they sit down with Diego Perez (Android Studio) and Patrick Fuentes (Developer Relations) to explore the new frontiers of Android XR. This episode of Android Developers Backstage breaks down the latest announcements and Developer Preview 3, offering a technical look at how developers can start building for spatial environments today. Resources: Hello Android XR sample → https://goo.gle/3Nbnrre Build for AI Glasses with the Android XR SDK Developer Preview 3 → https://goo.gle/49lUjGr Chapters: 0:00 - Intro 4:42 - Latest announcements 5:46 - AI Glasses 8:28…

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