Aug 3, 2026 • 9 min read
I Patched an Android APK to Show How Fragile Client-Side Checks Can Be
When people talk about reverse-engineering resistance on Android, the conversation often jumps straight to obfuscation.
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The engineering notebook
Featured engineering articles
Android development, architecture, performance, security and the experience of building software.
25 featured articles
Jul 22, 2026 • 12 min read
How One Missing `return` Cut My Android Test Runtime by 72%
Android developers spend a lot of time thinking about build performance. I wrote previously about cutting Gradle build time by 50%, mostly through…
Jul 16, 2026 • 4 min read
What `adb` Can Teach You About Broken Android IPC Protections
When Android developers hear “permissions,” they usually think about camera prompts, location access, notifications, or storage. But some of the more…
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Jul 15, 2026 • 13 min read
How I Used a QA Agent Workflow to Reduce Manual Testing Pressure
Manual testing has a way of growing quietly. This QA agent workflow uses structured documentation, mappings, reports, and prompts to improve traceability…
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Jun 15, 2026 • 8 min read
Preview-Driven Screenshot Testing For Locales, Keys, And Font Scale
Preview-Driven Screenshot Testing For Locales, Keys, And Font Scale Some testing work starts with a bug. This one started with a client requirement. They…
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May 18, 2026 • 7 min read
Dejavu, Compose, And The Difference Between Performance Wins And Guardrails
Dejavu, Compose, And The Difference Between Performance Wins And Guardrails When I first decided to try Dejavu, I was hoping for a slightly dramatic…
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May 8, 2026 • 7 min read
Verifying Hardware-Backed Keystore on a Custom Android Build
Verifying Hardware-Backed Keystore on a Custom Android Build When people talk about Android Keystore, the conversation often becomes vague very quickly…
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April 20, 2026 • 9 min read
How I Used Perfetto to Separate Real Startup Improvements From Plausible Ones
How I Used Perfetto to Separate Real Startup Improvements From Plausible Ones By the time I opened Perfetto, the app was already faster. That was the…
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March 26, 2026 • 6 min read
Turning a Wear OS Complication Into a Launcher Shortcut
Turning a Wear OS Complication Into a Launcher Shortcut Wear OS apps often live in the background. Users install them, open them once or twice, and then…
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March 23, 2026 • 6 min read
Why HTTPS Alone Is Not Enough for Sensitive Android Payloads
Why HTTPS Alone Is Not Enough for Sensitive Android Payloads When most Android teams talk about securing data in transit, the conversation usually stops…
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Mar 16, 2026 • 10 min read
How I Found a 34% Startup Win in a Modern Compose App
How I Found a 34% Startup Win in a Modern Compose App It is easy to assume the big startup wins are already gone once an Android app is modern, uses…
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March 9, 2026 • 11 min read
ZeroMQ on Android: Bridging a Linux Service with PUB SUB
ZeroMQ on Android: Bridging a Linux Service with PUB SUB In a recent project, we had a deceptively simple requirement. We needed reliable, low latency…
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January 19, 2026 • 9 min read
Stop Using PlayerView in Compose: Media3 PlayerSurface Done Right
Stop Using PlayerView in Compose: Media3 PlayerSurface Done Right Modern Android development moves fast, especially around media playback. Libraries…
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January 14, 2026 • 16 min read
Goodbye AndroidView: A Real CameraX QR Scanner in Compose
Goodbye AndroidView: A Real CameraX QR Scanner in Compose In a recent project, we needed to add a QR scanner that allows users to quickly connect to a…
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May 9, 2025 • 5 min read
Fast Feedback: Winning Back 60% of Our CI Time
Fast Feedback: Winning Back 60% of Our CI Time Speeding up your build pipeline isn’t just about faster Gradle builds, though that’s a great place to…
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April 7, 2025 • 8 min read
How I Cut My Gradle Build Time by 50%
How I Cut My Gradle Build Time by 50% Android developers are no strangers to the occasional long build time. As projects grow in complexity, waiting on…
April 24, 2024 • 5 min read
Pip-Boy Perfect: Your Wasteland Survival Guide to Maestro UI Testing on Android
Pip-Boy Perfect: Your Wasteland Survival Guide to Maestro UI Testing on Android Ah, another themed article. This one’s about Maestro, an effective mobile…
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April 16, 2024 • 6 min read
Artifactory Secrets Unveiled: Maximizing Android Projects with Private Module Publishing
Artifactory Secrets Unveiled: Maximizing Android Projects with Private Module Publishing Android developers often find themselves in scenarios where…
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March 26, 2024 • 8 min read
Grit and Guts: Migrating from Groovy to Kotlin in Gradle
Grit and Guts: Migrating from Groovy to Kotlin in Gradle The journey of migrating your Gradle build scripts from Groovy to Kotlin in an Android project…
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February 14, 2024 • 7 min read
Android Symphony: A UX Melody with Tooltips, Popups, and Dialogs
Android Symphony: A UX Melody with Tooltips, Popups, and Dialogs Grab a cup of coffee and let’s embark on a journey into the captivating world of user…
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February 1, 2024 • 11 min read
Accessibility Amplified: A Journey to Inclusive Android Apps
Accessibility Amplified: A Journey to Inclusive Android Apps The pursuit of innovation frequently overshadows the requirement of inclusion. As our lives…
January 17, 2024 • 8 min read
Yo Ho Ho and a Heap of Memory Leak Woes: LeakCanary to the Rescue!
Yo Ho Ho and a Heap of Memory Leak Woes: LeakCanary to the Rescue! Have you ever asked, “But why is all the memory gone?” Fear not, for memory leaks may…
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January 11, 2024 • 8 min read
Compose and Conquer: A Tale of Effortless Android Navigation
Compose and Conquer: A Tale of Effortless Android Navigation In Android app development, efficient navigation is critical to offering a seamless user…
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December 4, 2023 • 13 min read
Stepping into the Alternative Universe of Automated Testing for Android & Mobile: Espresso, Maestro, and Sofy.ai Compared
Stepping into the Alternative Universe of Automated Testing for Android & Mobile: Espresso, Maestro, and Sofy.ai Compared As a developer, I vividly…
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November 10, 2023 • 8 min read
Challenge Accepted: Hacks for Effortless OAuth2 Login Testing on Android
Challenge Accepted: Hacks for Effortless OAuth2 Login Testing on Android Automated UI testing is a must-have tool for assuring the dependability and…
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