Posted by Meghan Mehta – Android Developer Relations Engineer

#1 Agentic AI is available for Gemini in Android Studio

Gemini in Android Studio is the AI-powered coding companion that makes you more productive at every stage of the dev lifecycle. At Google I/O 2025 we previewed new agentic AI experiences: Journeys for Android Studio and Version Upgrade Agent. These innovations make it easier for you to build and test code. We also announced Agent Mode, which was designed to handle complex, multi-stage development tasks that go beyond typical AI assistant capabilities, invoking multiple tools to accomplish tasks on your behalf. We’re excited to see how you leverage these agentic AI experiences which are now available in the latest preview version of Android Studio on the canary release channel.

You can also use Gemini to automatically generate Jetpack Compose previews, as well as transform UI code using natural language, saving you time and effort. Give Gemini more context by attaching images and project files to your prompts, so you can get more relevant responses. And if you’re looking for enterprise-grade privacy and security features backed by Google Cloud, Gemini in Android Studio for businesses is now available. Developers and admins can unlock these features and benefits by subscribing to Gemini Code Assist Standard or Enterprise editions.

#2 Build better apps faster with the latest stable release of Jetpack Compose

Compose is our recommended UI toolkit for Android development, used by over 60% of the top 1K apps on Google Play. We released a new version of our Jetpack Navigation library: Navigation 3, which has been rebuilt from the ground up to give you more flexibility and control over your implementation. We unveiled the new Material 3 Expressive update which provides tools to enhance your product’s appeal by harnessing emotional UX, making it more engaging, intuitive, and desirable for your users. The latest stable Bill of Materials (BOM) release for Compose adds new features such as autofill support, auto-sizing text, visibility tracking, animate bounds modifier, accessibility checks in tests, and more! This release also includes significant rewrites and improvements to multiple sub-systems including semantics, focus and text optimizations.

These optimizations are available to you with no code changes other than upgrading your Compose dependency. If you’re looking to try out new Compose functionality, the alpha BOM offers new features that we’re working on including pausable composition, updates to LazyLayout prefetch, context menus, and others. Finally, we’ve added Compose support to CameraX and Media3, making it easier to integrate camera capture and video playback into your UI with Compose idiomatic components.

#3 The new Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) shared module template helps you share business logic

KMP enables teams to deliver quality Android and iOS apps with less development time. The KMP ecosystem continues to grow: last year alone, over 900 new KMP libraries were published. At Google I/O we released a new Android Studio KMP shared module template to help you craft and manage business logic, updated Jetpack libraries and new codelabs (Getting started with Kotlin Multiplatform and Migrating your Room database to KMP) to help you get started with KMP. We also shared additional announcements at KotlinConf.

Learn more about what we announced at Google I/O 2025 to help you build better apps, faster.

Posted by Ben Trengrove – Developer Relations Engineer, Matt Dyor – Product Manager

Google I/O and KotlinConf 2025 bring a series of announcements on Android’s Kotlin and Kotlin Multiplatform efforts. Here’s what to watch out for:

Announcements from Google I/O 2025

Jetpack libraries

Our focus for Jetpack libraries and KMP is on sharing business logic across Android and iOS, but we have begun experimenting with web/WASM support.

We are adding KMP support to Jetpack libraries. Last year we started with Room, DataStore and Collection, which are now available in a stable release and recently we have added ViewModel, SavedState and Paging. The levels of support that our Jetpack libraries guarantee for each platform have been categorised into three tiers, with the top tier being for Android, iOS and JVM.

Tool improvements

We’re developing new tools to help easily start using KMP in your app. With the KMP new module template in Android Studio Meerkat, you can add a new module to an existing app and share code to iOS and other supported KMP platforms.

In addition to KMP enhancements, Android Studio now supports Kotlin K2 mode for Android specific features requiring language support such as Live Edit, Compose Preview and many more.

How Google is using KMP

Last year, Google Workspace began experimenting with KMP, and this is now running in production in the Google Docs app on iOS. The app’s runtime performance is on par or better than before¹.

It’s been helpful to have an app at this scale test KMP out, because we’re able to identify issues and fix issues that benefit the KMP developer community.

For example, we’ve upgraded the Kotlin Native compiler to LLVM 16 and contributed a more efficient garbage collector and string implementation. We’re also bringing the static analysis power of Android Lint to Kotlin targets and ensuring a unified Gradle DSL for both AGP and KGP to improve the plugin management experience.

New guidance

We’re providing comprehensive guidance in the form of two new codelabs: Getting started with Kotlin Multiplatform and Migrating your Room database to KMP, to help you get from standalone Android and iOS apps to shared business logic.

Kotlin Improvements

Kotlin Symbol Processing (KSP2) is stable to better support new Kotlin language features and deliver better performance. It is easier to integrate with build systems, is thread-safe, and has better support for debugging annotation processors. In contrast to KSP1, KSP2 has much better compatibility across different Kotlin versions. The rewritten command line interface also becomes significantly easier to use as it is now a standalone program instead of a compiler plugin.

KotlinConf 2025

Google team members are presenting a number of talks at KotlinConf spanning multiple topics:

Talks

• Deploying KMP at Google Workspace by Jason Parachoniak, Troels Lund, and Johan Bay from the Workspace team discusses the challenges and solutions, including bugs and performance optimizations, encountered when launching Kotlin Multiplatform at Google Workspace, offering comparisons to ObjectiveC and a Q&A. (Technical Session)
• The Life and Death of a Kotlin/Native Object by Troels Lund offers a high-level explanation of the Kotlin/Native runtime’s inner workings concerning object instantiation, memory management, and disposal. (Technical Session)
• APIs: How Hard Can They Be? presented by Aurimas Liutikas and Alan Viverette from the Jetpack team delves into the lifecycle of API design, review processes, and evolution within AndroidX libraries, particularly considering KMP and related tools. (Technical Session)
• Project Sparkles: How Compose for Desktop is changing Android Studio and IntelliJ with Chris Sinco and Sebastiano Poggi from the Android Studio team introduces the initiative (‘Project Sparkles’) aiming to modernize Android Studio and IntelliJ UIs using Compose for Desktop, covering goals, examples, and collaborations. (Technical Session)
• JSpecify: Java Nullness Annotations and Kotlin presented by David Baker explains the significance and workings of JSpecify’s standard Java nullness annotations for enhancing Kotlin’s interoperability with Java libraries. (Lightning Session)
• Lessons learned decoupling Architecture Components from platform specific code features Jeremy Woods and Marcello Galhardo from the Jetpack team sharing insights from the Android team on decoupling core components like SavedState and System Back from platform specifics to create common APIs. (Technical Session)
• KotlinConf’s Closing Panel, a regular staple of the conference, returns, featuring Jeffrey van Gogh as Google’s representative on the panel. (Panel)

Live Workshops

If you are at KotlinConf in person, we will have guided live workshops with our new codelabs from above.

• The codelab Get Started With Kotlin Multiplatform for Shared Business Logic, offered by Matt Dyor, Dustin Lam, and Tomáš Mlynarič, provides hands-on guidance for extracting business logic from native Android and iOS apps into a shared KMP module.
• The codelab Migrating Room to Room KMP, also led by Matt Dyor, and Dustin Lam, Tomáš Mlynarič, demonstrates the process of migrating an existing Room database implementation to Room KMP within a shared module.

We love engaging with the Kotlin community. If you are attending KotlinConf, we hope you get a chance to check out our booth, with opportunities to chat with our engineers, get your questions answered, and learn more about how you can leverage Kotlin and KMP.

Learn more about Kotlin Multiplatform

To learn more about KMP and start sharing your business logic across platforms, check out our documentation and the sample.

Explore this announcement and all Google I/O 2025 updates on io.google starting May 22.

¹ Google Internal Data, March 2025

Posted by Matthew McCullough – VP of Product Management, Android Developer

Today at Google I/O, we announced the many ways we’re helping you build excellent, adaptive experiences, and helping you stay more productive through updates to our tooling that put AI at your fingertips and throughout your development lifecycle. Here’s a recap of 16 of our favorite announcements for Android developers; you can also see what was announced last week in The Android Show: I/O Edition. And stay tuned over the next two days as we dive into all of the topics in more detail!

Building AI into your Apps

1: Building intelligent apps with Generative AI

Generative AI enhances apps’ experience by making them intelligent, personalized and agentic. This year, we announced new ML Kit GenAI APIs using Gemini Nano for common on-device tasks like summarization, proofreading, rewrite, and image description. We also provided capabilities for developers to harness more powerful models such as Gemini Pro, Gemini Flash, and Imagen via Firebase AI Logic for more complex use cases like image generation and processing extensive data across modalities, including bringing AI to life in Android XR, and a new AI sample app, Androidify, that showcases how these APIs can transform your selfies into unique Android robots! To start building intelligent experiences by leveraging these new capabilities, explore the developer documentation, sample apps, and watch the overview session to choose the right solution for your app.

New experiences across devices

2: One app, every screen: think adaptive and unlock 500 million screens

Mobile Android apps form the foundation across phones, foldables, tablets and ChromeOS, and this year we’re helping you bring them to cars and XR and expanding usages with desktop windowing and connected displays. This expansion means tapping into an ecosystem of 500 million devices – a significant opportunity to engage more users when you think adaptive, building a single mobile app that works across form factors. Resources, including Compose Layouts library and Jetpack Navigation updates, help make building these dynamic experiences easier than before. You can see how Peacock, NBCUniveral’s streaming service (available in the US) is building adaptively to meet users where they are.

Disclaimer: Peacock is available in the US only. This video will only be viewable to US viewers.

3: Material 3 Expressive: design for intuition and emotion

The new Material 3 Expressive update provides tools to enhance your product’s appeal by harnessing emotional UX, making it more engaging, intuitive, and desirable for users. Check out the I/O talk to learn more about expressive design and how it inspires emotion, clearly guides users toward their goals, and offers a flexible and personalized experience.

4: Smarter widgets, engaging live updates

Measure the return on investment of your widgets (available soon) and easily create personalized widget previews with Glance 1.2. Promoted Live Updates notify users of important ongoing notifications and come with a new Progress Style standardized template.

5: Enhanced Camera & Media: low light boost and battery savings

This year’s I/O introduces several camera and media enhancements. These include a software low light boost for improved photography in dim lighting and native PCM offload, allowing the DSP to handle more audio playback processing, thus conserving user battery. Explore our detailed sessions on built-in effects within CameraX and Media3 for further information.

6: Build next-gen app experiences for Cars

We’re launching expanded opportunities for developers to build in-car experiences, including new Gemini integrations, support for more app categories like Games and Video, and enhanced capabilities for media and communication apps via the Car App Library and new APIs. Alongside updated car app quality tiers and simplified distribution, we’ll soon be providing improved testing tools like Android Automotive OS on Pixel Tablet and Firebase Test Lab access to help you bring your innovative apps to cars. Learn more from our technical session and blog post on new in-car app experiences.

7: Build for Android XR’s expanding ecosystem with Developer Preview 2 of the SDK

We announced Android XR in December, and today at Google I/O we shared a bunch of updates coming to the platform including Developer Preview 2 of the Android XR SDK plus an expanding ecosystem of devices: in addition to the first Android XR headset, Samsung’s Project Moohan, you’ll also see more devices including a new portable Android XR device from our partners at XREAL. There’s lots more to cover for Android XR: Watch the Compose and AI on Android XR session, and the Building differentiated apps for Android XR with 3D content session, and learn more about building for Android XR.

XREAL’s Project Aura

8: Express yourself on Wear OS: meet Material Expressive on Wear OS 6

This year we are launching Wear OS 6: the most powerful and expressive version of Wear OS. Wear OS 6 features Material 3 Expressive, a new UI design with personalized visuals and motion for user creativity, coming to Wear, Android, and Google apps later this year. Developers gain access to Material 3 Expressive on Wear OS by utilizing new Jetpack libraries: Wear Compose Material 3, which provides components for apps and Wear ProtoLayout Material 3 which provides components and layouts for tiles. Get started with Material 3 libraries and other updates on Wear.

Some examples of Material 3 Expressive on Wear OS experiences

9: Engage users on Google TV with excellent TV apps

You can leverage more resources within Compose’s core and Material libraries with the stable release of Compose for TV, empowering you to build excellent adaptive UIs across your apps. We’re also thrilled to share exciting platform updates and developer tools designed to boost app engagement, including bringing Gemini capabilities to TV in the fall, opening enrollment for our Video Discovery API, and more.

Developer productivity

10: Build beautiful apps faster with Jetpack Compose

Compose is our big bet for UI development. The latest stable BOM release provides the features, performance, stability, and libraries that you need to build beautiful adaptive apps faster, so you can focus on what makes your app valuable to users.

Compose Adaptive Layouts Updates in the Google Play app

11: Kotlin Multiplatform: new Shared Template lets you build across platforms, easily

Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) enables teams to reach new audiences across Android and iOS with less development time. We’ve released a new Android Studio KMP shared module template, updated Jetpack libraries and new codelabs (Getting started with Kotlin Multiplatform and Migrating your Room database to KMP) to help developers who are looking to get started with KMP. Shared module templates make it easier for developers to craft, maintain, and own the business logic. Read more on what’s new in Android’s Kotlin Multiplatform.

12: Gemini in Android Studio: AI Agents to help you work

Gemini in Android Studio is the AI-powered coding companion that makes Android developers more productive at every stage of the dev lifecycle. In March, we introduced Image to Code to bridge the gap between UX teams and software engineers by intelligently converting design mockups into working Compose UI code. And today, we previewed new agentic AI experiences, Journeys for Android Studio and Version Upgrade Agent. These innovations make it easier to build and test code. You can read more about these updates in What’s new in Android development tools.

13: Android Studio: smarter with Gemini

In this latest release, we’re empowering devs with AI-driven tools like Gemini in Android Studio, streamlining UI creation, making testing easier, and ensuring apps are future-proofed in our ever-evolving Android ecosystem. These innovations accelerate development cycles, improve app quality, and help you stay ahead in a dynamic mobile landscape. To take advantage, upgrade to the latest Studio release. You can read more about these innovations in What’s new in Android development tools.

And the latest on driving business growth

14: What’s new in Google Play

Get ready for exciting updates from Play designed to boost your discovery, engagement and revenue! Learn how we’re continuing to become a content-rich destination with enhanced personalization and fresh ways to showcase your apps and content. Plus, explore powerful new subscription features designed to streamline checkout and reduce churn. Read I/O 2025: What’s new in Google Play to learn more.

15: Start migrating to Play Games Services v2 today

Play Games Services (PGS) connects over 2 billion gamer profiles on Play, powering cross-device gameplay, personalized gaming content and rewards for your players throughout the gaming journey. We are moving PGS v1 features to v2 with more advanced features and an easier integration path. Learn more about the migration timeline and new features.

16: And of course, Android 16

We unpacked some of the latest features coming to users in Android 16, which we’ve been previewing with you for the last few months. If you haven’t already, make sure to test your apps with the latest Beta of Android 16. Android 16 includes Live Updates, professional media and camera features, desktop windowing and connected displays, major accessibility enhancements and much more.

Check out all of the Android and Play content at Google I/O

This was just a preview of some of the cool updates for Android developers at Google I/O, but stay tuned to Google I/O over the next two days as we dive into a range of Android developer topics in more detail. You can check out the What’s New in Android and the full Android track of sessions, and whether you’re joining in person or around the world, we can’t wait to engage with you!

Explore this announcement and all Google I/O 2025 updates on io.google starting May 22.