Android Jetpack Compose
Article Summary
Buğra Yetkin from Teknasyon Engineering breaks down why Android teams are ditching XML and fragments for Jetpack Compose. The promise? Less code, better performance, and a completely new way of thinking about UI.
This is the first in a series exploring Jetpack Compose's declarative approach to Android development. Yetkin walks through the fundamentals: how Compose eliminates XML layouts, why state management becomes central, and what the composition lifecycle actually means for developers migrating from traditional Android views.
Key Takeaways
- Compose uses declarative APIs: describe your UI, framework handles the rest
- Smaller APK sizes and reduced code compared to XML based layouts
- State changes trigger recomposition, replacing traditional view updates
- Modifiers replace separate XML attributes for styling and behavior
- Requires Android Studio Arctic Fox and new mental model for UI
Jetpack Compose fundamentally changes Android development by replacing XML with Kotlin composables and imperative updates with declarative state management.
About This Article
Android developers have traditionally built UIs with XML layout files and fragments, which means spreading theme overlays and attribute definitions across multiple files. This approach makes maintenance harder.
Jetpack Compose lets you consolidate theme definitions, colors, and UI logic into single Kotlin class files using MaterialTheme and @Composable annotations. You no longer need XML at all.
Twitter built in a single Kotlin file what used to require multiple XML files. Compose projects also tend to have smaller APK sizes and less code overall compared to traditional XML-based layouts.
