Building for the future at Snapchat
summary
Company rewrites Android app into a modular platform of 16 standalone apps and feature modules that must not preload, proving each module with a sample app. Core tech choices: SQLDelight + Retrofit + RxJava and Kotlin, Dagger 2 for injection, a custom navigation “deck”, a recycler framework and content URI handlers. Async layout inflation halves main‑thread inflation time. Migration involves ~90 DB tables, 90% of Android devs, APK ships old+new inside and an opt‑in of ~100k users to validate performance.
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chapters (10)
- 0:00Introduction and rewrite motivation
- 4:00Problem with old architecture
- 8:26Modularization approach
- 15:47Navigation and UI frameworks
- 22:54Network and data layer improvements
- 26:48Why a full rewrite was necessary
- 31:01Phased rollout strategy
- 35:35User feedback and launch challenges
- 41:57Team buy-in and prototyping
- 48:15Testing and engineering practices
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