Netflix Oct 10, 2019

Building High-Performance Mobile Applications at Netflix

Article Summary

Netflix hosted their first mobile engineering event to tackle a problem every mobile team faces: building performant apps on resource-constrained devices.

The Netflix engineering team shared three deep-dive talks covering Android optimization and smooth animation techniques across platforms. Engineering leaders from the Android Platform, Android Innovation, and Originals UI teams presented their battle-tested approaches to memory, network, battery, and animation performance challenges.

Key Takeaways

Critical Insight

Netflix's mobile teams revealed their strategies for maximizing performance across the wide range of devices they support, from resource management to buttery-smooth animations.

The talks dive into specific technical challenges that forced Netflix to rethink common mobile development assumptions.

About This Article

Problem

Netflix's mobile engineering teams faced real constraints when building for Android and iOS. They had to optimize performance while dealing with limited memory, network bandwidth, and battery life across many different devices.

Solution

Francois Goldfain's Android Platform team and Shiva Garlapati's Android Innovation team tackled this by applying mobile engineering best practices. They focused on resource optimization and improved how animations render on devices.

Impact

The work paid off. Netflix now runs smooth animations and performs well across their full range of supported devices. The teams shared what they learned on their YouTube channel so other mobile developers could benefit.