Android Developers Backstage – Details, episodes & analysis

It can be a draw when setting up a new device. Some info transfers, while some don’t. Learn how developers can ensure the best user experience when people backup and restore an Android device. Hosts Tor and Chet are joined by Graham and Piyush on the Android Consumer Experience team  and Alon on the Android Studio team to discuss Android backup and restore.

 

Chapters:

0:00 - Introduction & the user pain point

1:38 - Why backup fails: Developer challenges

4:00 - Evolution of backup testing: From scripts to Android Studio

7:15 - Beyond testing: Backup for developer workflow

8:50 - Cross-device backup & GMS core integration

10:55 - Understanding backup types: Devices vs. Cloud

14:55 - Data categories & developer control

16:05 - System-level backup: Permissions & credentials

18:35 - Default backup pitfalls & key-value agents

28:15 - Database migrations & backup stress testing

32:04 - Automated testing framework

41:02 - Recap & feedback channels

Join Tor and Siva Velusamy and Sandhya Mohan from the Android Studio team to learn about the latest updates to Studio Bot (Gemini in Android Studio) that dropped at Google I/O 2025 including Agent Mode. Building on their conversation from two years ago about the Studio Bot, they explore Gemini’s role in every stage of development, from design to building, testing, and maintenance, the future of coding companions, and more.

Studio Bot podcast episode → https://goo.gle/3ZM0Wwx 

 

 

In this episode we talk with Kathy Korevec from the AIDA team at Google about AI assisted developer tools, such as Android Studio -- which is using Gemini AI models provided by AIDA.

Romain, Kathy, and Tor

Kathy:  twitter.com/simpsoka

Romain: @romainguy, threads.net/@romainguy, romainguy@androiddev.social

Tor: threads.net/@tor.norbye and tornorbye@androiddev.social

 

Check out → https://goo.gle/3wK4EM4 

 

Catch videos on YouTube → https://goo.gle/adb-podcast  

Subscribe to Android Developers  → https://goo.gle/AndroidDevs

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vTCYa5nGhoI/XTiibzWZmbI/AAAAAAAAKeY/RFagE7LC9AYB2VYv6xG5-waJyY1Y3U3OQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190710_150654.jpg Tor, Yigit, Sean, Romain and Chet doing their (co)routine. Coroutines are Kotlin's approach to asynchronous programming and they are making their way into various Jetpack libraries. In this episode Tor, Chet and Romain have a chat with Sean McQuillan from DevRel and Yigit Boyar from the Jetpack team to discuss what coroutines are, what problems do they solve and how to use them.

Subscribe to the podcast feed or download the audio file directly.

Links:

• Coroutines overview
• Sean's series of articles about coroutines on Android
• Coroutines for Android apps
• Jetpack

Sean: @objcode
Yigit: @yigitboyar
Chet: @chethaase
Romain: @romainguy
Tor: @tornorbye


Thanks to continued tolerance and support by our audio engineer, Bryan Gordon.

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8z1j8Ich3Dc/XRTSLMLWwXI/AAAAAAAAJgU/a6tWTQLFeH8BoYtS1X9XXm92xaJeKhzLgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190612_151412.jpg Chet, James, Vinit, and Tor, in reverse-polish notation. Tor and Chet talked with Vinit Modi and James Fung from the CameraX team. CameraX is a Jetpack support library that released in alpha form at Google I/O 2019. It offers developers an easier way to embed camera functionality while performing more consistently across Android versions (back to Lollipop) and across various devices.

Subscribe to the podcast feed or download the audio file directly.

Links:

• CameraX Overview
• CameraX presentation at I/O 2019
• CameraX Architecture
• Getting Started with CameraX code lab
• CameraX discussion group (the team is encouraging developers to reach out to this group with questions for the team)
• Jetpack

Chet: @chethaase
Romain: @romainguy
Tor: @tornorbye


Thanks to continued tolerance and support by our audio engineer, Bryan Gordon.

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CQH7tznC8kU/XO2W0DoECZI/AAAAAAAAJbc/aIXpC-QoAN0FfkB7qvx-FsM7kcVF462VACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190515_150559.jpg Tor, Chuck, Leland and Romain Jetpack Compose is an unbundled UI toolkit written in Kotlin and based on the reactive programming model that was recently introduced at Google I/O. Compose is not ready for production yet but is now being developed in the open on AOSP. In this episode Tor and Romain have a chat with Chuck and Leland to discuss how Jetpack Compose works and some of the goals and ideas behind its design.

Subscribe to the podcast feed or download the audio file directly.

Links:

• Jetpack Compose
• Google I/O talk about Jetpack Compose
• Compose from first principles by Leland
• How to get the source code
• Browse the source online

Chet: @chethaase
Romain: @romainguy
Tor: @tornorbye


Thanks to continued tolerance and support by our audio engineer, Bryan Gordon.

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iupJ-mbdbSs/XO8n3Te54wI/AAAAAAAAJb0/b7M_p9JM_tMESOyebB0C_kMYSyoj47RKACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190509_090331.jpg Romain, Philip, Ben, Tor, and Chet
(listed in alphabetical order) In this episode, Chet, Romain and Tor talk to Philip Simpson and Ben Trengrove from the cast of Pocket Casts. We talk about their app, coincidentally called "Pocket Casts," and how they implemented various features like Material, audio, and even how the company made a complicated weather app for a country where it's always sunny.
Oh, and we talked about some of the stuff happening at Google I/O 2019, because that's when we recorded this conversation.

Subscribe to the podcast feed or download the audio file directly.

Links:

• Pocket Casts on Google Play

Philip: @geekygecko
Ben: @bentrengrove
Chet: @chethaase
Romain: @romainguy
Tor: @tornorbye


Thanks to continued tolerance and support by our audio engineer, Bryan Gordon.

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s27GKV1hka4/XN7RmyvRtJI/AAAAAAAAI-0/uL_im029bj0Kg5tsnGDMJ9DM4uPuKOe8wCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190501_150630.jpg Tor, Romain and Chet In this episode, Chet, Romain and Tor discuss the Android-related announcements at Google I/O this year -- Android Q, Jetpack Compose, Project Marble, etc.

Subscribe to the podcast feed or download the audio file directly.

Links:

• Jetpack Compose

Chet: @chethaase
Romain: @romainguy
Tor: @tornorbye


Thanks to continued tolerance and support by our audio engineer, Bryan Gordon.

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YKNyrZi_iAM/XMzANe2aZbI/AAAAAAAAI1s/szuCMDMVsZwgzjimQSsRkjLiPz6pt06WACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190410_145602%2B%25281%2529.jpg Tor, Mel, Chet, and Romain
(shown in alphabetical order) In this episode, Chet, Tor, and Romain chat with Mel Goetz, an engineer on the Material team, about Material Design Components, the set of components for Android that implement Material Design.

Subscribe to the podcast feed or download the audio file directly.

Links:

• Material spec
• Material Design Components

Mel: @melaniemgoetz
Romain: @romainguy
Chet: @chethaase
Tor: @tornorbye
Thanks to continued tolerance and support by our audio engineer, Bryan Gordon.

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DajfF-JuTdI/XIrlBFQUaeI/AAAAAAAAHV8/QVI5E0WS98sF-t4u2D93-TODvwrsmokeACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190306_144427_1.jpg Romain, Frank and Tor in the Studio In this episode, Romain and Tor chat with Frank from the Android Studio team. Frank works on the Android emulator and in this episode he explains the differences between a simulator and an emulator, how snapshots work, how does GPU support is implemented and much more.

Subscribe to the podcast feed or download the audio file directly.

Links:

• Emulator release notes
• Source code of the emulator for the curious

Romain: @romainguy
Tor: @tornorbye
Thanks to continued tolerance and support by our audio engineer, Bryan Gordon.