Let's talk about Android Development

... what you enjoy most about working as an Android Developer at XING.

The best thing about working at XING as an Android Developer is, without a doubt, XING’s Android community. Even though we are spread amongst several teams and locations, we meet every week to discuss Android-specific topics. Every Android developer has an active voice in shaping our tech stack, as well as our coding standards and our processes. We have even had occasional Android off-sites, where we all traveled to meet in person, organized and participated in workshops together, attended developer conferences and grew closer. I believe that the Android community is the brightest reflection of XING’s culture of teamwork.

How would you describe the working atmosphere within your mobile development team?

Our team is a fun bunch. We appreciate getting the job done while also having a good time, so I would say the atmosphere is focused but also very light. We can also be very accommodating when it comes to processes. Because we’ve been working on a feature that’s very innovative and different than most, we were not afraid to take a step back and decide on a different approach to how we work, like having less meetings throughout the week and relying more on async communication whenever possible, so that everyone has more freedom to work at their pace.

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced during this Android project?

One of the biggest challenges on Android specifically was getting the custom animations just right. We had more animations than usual in this feature and, personally, I was a bit rusty when it comes to implementing complex animations. Fortunately, Android’s Compose toolkit makes animations even easier than before and we had the full support of our designer, who, at one point, even coded one of the animations in JavaScript before bringing it to us, to help get us started a bit faster.

What role does collaboration play in mobile development at XING?

At XING, we work in multi-discipline teams, so we are in contact with people from all other disciplines daily (iOS, backend, frontend, data science, designers, and more). When implementing Google Sign-In, for example, I was in constant communication with the backend developers responsible for authentication and security at XING. Not only we were able to implement this feature smoothly for our users, but it was also a great opportunity for me to learn about how our backend handles authentication underneath and also about security in general, all due to our many syncs.

Are there initiatives in place that allow team members to pitch new mobile features or improvements?

Yes, ideas from developers and other team members are always well received and there are also specific moments when they are encouraged. On a team level, whenever we start a big new feature, we usually have a brainstorm session where everyone can pitch their ideas for that feature. On a company level, we also have yearly Innovation Weeks and HackWeeks. On Innovation Weeks we usually work on out-of-the-box ideas that were proposed and then voted on by the whole company. During a HackWeek, we have a whole week to work individually or in groups on anything we want, be that a new feature for our users, a new internal tool for developer productivity, or even just study a new technology. On a previous HackWeek, I worked on a custom plugin for Android Studio that adds a few shortcuts for navigating between related class files as well as instantly creating the necessary boilerplate code for adding a new screen to our Android app. Since then, several other Android developers have added a few more features to the plugin. It was a great chance to learn a bit more about how Android Studio works and to contribute to the whole Android community at the same time.

What tools and technologies do you use for version control, collaboration, and mobile development?

We use git for version control, with repositories in GitHub. For collaboration, we have several tools like Microsoft Teams, Miro and Jira. In terms of tools for development, the company offers paid subscriptions to some AI tools, like ChatGPT and Copilot, including its Android Studio plugin which is a big boost to productivity thanks to its powerful auto-complete feature and a few other perks.