Glossary · Web & App Development
Jetpack Compose
Overview
What Jetpack Compose is
Jetpack Compose is a declarative UI toolkit from Google for building native Android app interfaces using the Kotlin programming language. Rather than defining screens in XML and wiring them up imperatively, developers write composable functions that describe what the UI should look like for a given state.
It is part of Android Jetpack, Google's suite of libraries and tools, and reached its first stable release in July 2021. Compose is now Google's recommended toolkit for new Android UI work, though it fully interoperates with the older View system so teams can adopt it incrementally.
How Jetpack Compose works
UI is built from composable functions annotated with @Composable. When the state a composable reads changes, Compose automatically re-runs and updates only the affected parts of the screen, a process called recomposition. This removes much of the manual view-updating code that XML-based Android required.
Compose ships with Material Design components out of the box, a preview system in Android Studio, and tools for animation, theming, and state management. It can host classic Android Views and be embedded inside existing View hierarchies, making mixed codebases practical during migration.
Why Jetpack Compose matters
Compose typically reduces boilerplate and makes UI code easier to read, test, and maintain compared with XML layouts. Its state-driven model helps keep the interface in sync with app data, cutting a common class of UI bugs.
It is a strong default for new native Android apps and for modernizing older screens. Teams that need a single shared codebase across Android and iOS may instead consider Compose Multiplatform, Flutter, or React Native, each with different trade-offs in performance and ecosystem.
Where we use it
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How our team puts Jetpack Compose to work in real projects.
FAQ
Jetpack Compose — common questions
Is Jetpack Compose replacing XML layouts?
Compose is Google's recommended approach for new Android UI, but XML layouts remain fully supported. Compose interoperates with the View system, so existing XML-based screens can stay while new features use Compose.
What language does Jetpack Compose use?
Jetpack Compose is written in and used with Kotlin. It relies on Kotlin language features like extension functions and trailing lambdas, so a working knowledge of Kotlin is required.
Can Jetpack Compose build cross-platform apps?
Standard Jetpack Compose targets Android only. Compose Multiplatform, a related JetBrains project, extends the same programming model to iOS, desktop, and web, but it is a separate framework.
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