Android Search Performance Improvements (Part 2)

Yelp's Android team cut search render time nearly in half while slashing dropped frames by 48%. Here's how they did it.

This is part 2 of Yelp's deep dive into Android search performance optimization. After establishing baselines in part 1, the team tackled two core metrics: initial render time and scroll performance. They used CPU profiling and systematic testing to identify bottlenecks.

Key Takeaways

• Async view inflation during network requests saved 50-80ms on initial render
• View model caching cut dropped frames from 33% to 17% during scrolling
• RxJava offloaded non-critical work to background threads, freeing the UI thread
• P50 search performance improved from 350ms to 190ms, P90 from 656ms to 394ms

The team discovered that some common Android performance advice (like reducing overdraw) had surprisingly little impact on their actual metrics.