Testing Android UI Performance
Article Summary
Glance's engineering team serves 100M+ users where visual experience is everything. When UI performance drops, users notice immediately—and they leave.
Rishi from Glance breaks down their systematic approach to Android UI performance testing. This is part 1 of a 3-part series that moves from high-level metrics to granular debugging.
Key Takeaways
- The benchmark: 60 fps consistently, anything less creates visible jank
- Three-level approach: 1000 ft view (gfxinfo), 100 ft (Systrace), 10 ft (CPU Profiler)
- Automated tests wired to PR merges give instant performance feedback to developers
- 99th percentile frame time reveals what 99% of users actually experience
- Profile HWUI rendering shows exactly which screens cross the 16ms threshold
Critical Insight
Glance automated their entire UI performance testing pipeline to catch regressions before merge, moving from manual testing to continuous performance monitoring.
