Add as preferred on Google
Open-Source LMS: Top platforms for 2026Read More
Improving Mobile App Performance: Best Practices for Android Development
Key Takeaways
Android apps stay fast when UI is built with Jetpack Compose, work stays off the main thread with Coroutines and Flow, and each change is measured.
- Jetpack Compose keeps UI state easier to reason about, and small composables with stable state limit unnecessary recomposition.
- Moving disk and network work to a background dispatcher such as Dispatchers.IO with Coroutines and Flow keeps scrolling and input responsive.
- Hilt scopes dependencies to Android lifecycles, which helps stop objects from outliving their screens and leaking memory. Coil likewise cancels image requests when the screen goes away.
- Retrofit with OkHttp caching and compression cuts data usage, and Kotlin Serialization is suggested over Gson, which the Gson README says is in maintenance mode.
- Room handles relational data with build-time compiled SQL queries, while DataStore suits small key-value data and adds type safety over SharedPreferences.
- Monitoring covers both stages: Android Studio Profiler, LeakCanary and Macrobenchmark before release, and Android Vitals in Google Play Console afterward.
- Google's Baseline Profiles documentation states a typical gain of about 30% in code execution speed from first launch, so teams should measure the result in their own app.
Measure first, then fix the slowest screen or startup path before adopting more libraries.
This guide is for Android developers and tech leads, and it draws on the work behind our Android app development services. It maps each performance concern (UI rendering, background work, dependency injection, local data, networking, image loading and monitoring) to the modern Android library or practice that addresses it, then applies them to a news app. The short answer is to build UI with Jetpack Compose, keep work off the main thread with Coroutines and Flow, and measure before and after each change.
How does Jetpack Compose improve Android app performance?
Jetpack Compose gives Android developers a declarative way to build UI, and a few habits keep it fast. Android Developers' Jetpack Compose documentation describes Compose as Android's recommended modern toolkit for building native UI. Its declarative model, together with state hoisting and one-way data flow, makes UI state easier to reason about and leaves fewer places for bugs to hide. Compose also works with Kotlin coroutines, so long-running work stays off the main thread and the UI stays responsive. As a general rule, keep composables small and pass them stable state, which limits unnecessary recomposition.
Use Kotlin Coroutines and Flow to keep the main thread free
Kotlin Coroutines let developers write asynchronous code in a sequential style, and structured concurrency cancels work when its scope ends, for example when a ViewModel is cleared. Flow builds on coroutines to stream values, such as database or network updates, to the UI as they change. A practical rule is to move disk and network work to a background dispatcher such as Dispatchers.IO instead of running it on the main thread, which keeps scrolling and input responsive.
How Hilt dependency injection helps performance
Android's documentation calls Hilt the officially recommended library for dependency injection on Android, and it reduces the boilerplate of doing dependency injection by hand. Hilt scopes dependencies to Android lifecycles such as the application, an activity or a ViewModel. That scoping helps stop objects from outliving their screens and leaking memory. Because dependencies can be swapped, unit and integration tests are also easier to write.
Room and DataStore for Efficient Data Management
Efficient data storage and management are important application performance factors. Room is perfect for relational data since it guarantees SQL queries compiled at build time and integrates easily with Kotlin coroutines for smooth operations while DataStore suits storing key-value pairs very well for saving small pieces of data due to performance and typing safety over SharedPreferences.
Improve network performance with Retrofit and OkHttp
Most apps depend on network calls, so the way they are made has a direct effect on how responsive the app feels. Retrofit defines the API as a typed Kotlin interface, and OkHttp underneath handles connections, response caching and GZIP compression. Caching responses and compressing payloads cuts data usage and speeds up loading. For JSON parsing, the Gson README on GitHub notes that Gson is in maintenance mode and, for Android apps, suggests Kotlin Serialization, which uses code generation instead of reflection and gives faster performance on Android devices.
Load images efficiently with Coil
Coil is a Kotlin-first image loading library built on coroutines. It caches images in memory and on disk and downsamples them to the size they are displayed at, which lowers the risk of OutOfMemoryError. Coil ties each request to the lifecycle, so requests are cancelled when the screen goes away.
Which Jetpack libraries improve Android app performance?
Several Jetpack libraries support performance work, including ViewModel, WorkManager and Navigation, used alongside Kotlin Flow. Jetpack is a suite of libraries that helps developers follow best practices, reduce boilerplate and write code that works consistently across Android versions, devices and form factors. ViewModel keeps UI state across configuration changes, so the app does not reload data every time the screen rotates. Android's LiveData documentation suggests using Kotlin Flows for data streams in other layers and converting them to LiveData in the ViewModel. Google recommends WorkManager for tasks that must keep running after the app leaves the screen, such as syncing, and Navigation handles in-app navigation.
How to monitor Android app performance
Before release, profile CPU, memory and rendering in the Android Studio Profiler. LeakCanary, a memory leak detection library for Android, catches leaks in debug builds. The Macrobenchmark library tests larger use cases such as app startup, scrolling a LazyColumn and running animations, and these tests can run in CI as part of automation testing services. Android Developers' Baseline Profiles documentation says Baseline Profiles improve code execution speed by about 30% from the first launch, because the included code paths avoid interpretation and just-in-time (JIT) compilation. That figure is Google's stated typical result, so measure the gain in your own app.
After release, track Android Vitals in the Google Play Console to see how the app behaves on real users' devices. Timber, a logger built on top of Android's Log class, is useful for structured debug logging when investigating the issues Vitals reports.
Example of performance choices for a news app
A news app shows how these choices fit together, with each need mapped to a tool from this guide:
- The scrolling feed uses Jetpack Compose with small composables, and Coil loads and caches article thumbnails.
- Articles are fetched with Retrofit, cached by OkHttp and parsed with Kotlin Serialization.
- Coroutines and Flow stream new and updated stories to the UI without blocking the main thread.
- Room stores saved articles for offline reading, and DataStore keeps reader preferences such as language and region.
- WorkManager refreshes headlines in the background, even after the reader leaves the app.
- Hilt wires repositories, API clients and the database together and scopes them to the right lifecycle.
- Macrobenchmark checks startup and feed scrolling before each release, and Baseline Profiles improve code execution speed from the first launch.
Conclusion
Teams modernising a legacy Android app usually get the most from measuring first, with Macrobenchmark before release and Android Vitals in production, and then fixing the slowest screen or startup path. In our view, one measured fix on a high-traffic screen teaches a team more than adopting every library at once. To plan a performance review of your app, talk to Arbisoft's Android development team, or see our App Development Company Dallas page.
...Loading Related Blogs
