Performing Due Diligence As Android Engineers
Article Summary
Ishan Khanna from Tinder shares a hard-earned lesson: that shiny third-party SDK could be a ticking time bomb for your app. Here's the framework his team uses to avoid disaster.
After multiple vendor SDK integrations at Tinder, Senior Android Engineer Ishan Khanna developed a systematic approach to evaluating third-party libraries. This framework helps teams avoid performance hits, security breaches, and legal headaches before they happen.
Key Takeaways
- Security vetting includes SOC 2 compliance, PII handling, and data encryption checks
- Performance impacts span build time, APK size, startup time, and battery drain
- Customization gaps in localization or dark mode can break user experience
- Documentation quality predicts future troubleshooting pain and integration success
- Integration details like min-SDK bumps and permissions affect user adoption
Critical Insight
A five-category due diligence framework (Security, Documentation, Customization, Integration, Performance) acts as insurance against vendor SDKs that could harm your app, business, or customers.
