Adopting Jetpack Compose for Etsy’s Android App
Article Summary
Etsy just rewrote major parts of their Android app with Jetpack Compose and saw conversion rates climb. Here's how they pulled off the migration without breaking production.
The Etsy Android team spent months methodically adopting Compose, starting with internal training and design system components before tackling user-facing screens. Their structured approach culminated in a full Shop screen rewrite that served as the ultimate validation test.
Key Takeaways
- Built internal curriculum and trained entire Android team before major adoption
- Shop screen rewrite improved rendering by 5% and boosted conversion metrics
- Compose Previews eliminated entire categories of bugs before production
- Paired Compose with Macramé architecture for testable, stateless components
- Interoperability enabled gradual migration without disrupting existing features
The Shop screen rewrite delivered measurable wins: 5% faster rendering, higher conversion rates, and significantly improved developer satisfaction scores.
About This Article
The Shop screen code was hard to understand and made it difficult to run experiments. This limited Etsy's ability to help sellers improve their virtual storefronts.
John Kalmi's team rebuilt the Shop screen with Jetpack Compose and the Macramé architecture. This approach enabled unidirectional data flow and stateless components, which made testing and feature development simpler.
Engineers found the work more satisfying. They wrote less code and achieved much better test coverage of business logic compared to the old XML-based system.