Testing Android UI Performance Part 2
Article Summary
You found the jank in your Android app. Now what? Most teams stop at identifying the problem—but that's only half the battle.
In Part 2 of Glance's performance testing series, engineer Rishi dives into the diagnostic tools that pinpoint exactly where UI jank originates. This guide moves beyond detection into root cause analysis using Systrace, Perfetto, and custom trace events.
Key Takeaways
- Systrace color codes frames to highlight slow renders and shows work across threads
- Custom Trace.beginSection() events reveal which specific methods cause UI delays
- Perfetto supports SQL queries to analyze trace data and automate performance testing
- Zoom into inflate events to identify exact UI components taking too long
- Integrate Perfetto logs into CI/CD to catch regressions before production
Critical Insight
Combining Systrace's visual timeline with Perfetto's SQL querying turns performance debugging from guesswork into a systematic, automatable process.
