Last week Google hosted the 16th edition of I/O, their long-running developer conference. I/O is now old enough to drive and if Google realizes their ambitions in AI – which they were not shy about bringing up, using the words Gemini or AI every 30 seconds during their hour-long keynote — it may soon become sentient and start doing so. AI is in your tooling. AI is in your app (well, not yet, you do still have to use Google’s templates to add it there). AI is even protecting your phone from thieves.
One thing AI doesn’t do is write the Flight Deck. Each and every month we (as in, the humans of Runway) bring you looks at how other mobile teams manage their releases, links to mobile engineers ruminating on how they continue to improve their craft, explorations of exactly how much giant technology companies love AI, and lists of happy hours where we bring mobile folks together for drinks, snacks and good company.
Read on for this month’s highlights.
Posts we liked
The hitchhiker's guide to Kotlin/Compose Multiplatform samples and libraries
This isn’t a post we liked, but is instead a talk we liked from Android Makers. John O’Reilly gives a guided tour of the libraries and patterns within the Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) samples he’s been working on over the last 5+ years. It also covers samples that were developed using SwiftUI (on iOS, watchOS, and macOS), Jetpack Compose (on Android and Wear OS), and Compose Multiplatform on Desktop, Web (using Wasm).
David Smith talks about why he’s so excited to spend a week at Apple’s upcoming WWDC learning how to improve his craft and be more considerate in his designs, and spending time with others who feel the same way. WWDC makes him feel like he’s part of something truly special and he explores exactly why that is. (It’s David’s 16th WWDC in a row – the man should get himself a non-WWDC lottery ticket as well!)
How to effectively A/B test power consumption for your Android app’s features
The new Power Profiler in Android Studio shows the power consumption on devices when your app is in use. Running A/B tests using the Profiler can help you compare the power consumption of different algorithms, features, or even entirely different versions of your app so you can make adjustments to anything that may be causing your users to desperately search for the nearest power outlet.
The difference between try, try? and try! and when to use them in swift
The try keyword in Swift is an error handler, but do you know when to try, try!, or try?? Chase explains the key differences between the three and after reading his excellent explanation, you’re guaranteed to get it wrong only once every 10th time you use it in your own code.
Posts we wrote
At Google I/O, AI is the future of Android and the future is now
At I/O 2024, Google announced substantial updates to Jetpack Compose and Kotlin Multiplatform, as well as the second beta of Android 15. But if there was anything Google really wanted to get across, it’s that AI is the future, this future is right now, and you love this and are thrilled it’s happening. Find out just how much Gemini that Google is stuffing into Android. Â
Why fully automated releases aren’t the answer
In this post, we rise against the machines to explain why no amount of automation can completely take over the complex array of decisions and actions your team needs to make as part of every release. It’s important that you find the right mix of tooling and processes to support your human team members, instead of assuming you can automate their (and your) troubles away.
Creating and invalidating signing credentials in Swift using the App Store Connect API
In part two of this two part series, Jared Sorge builds on the progress he made in part one (where he fetched provisioning profiles and signing certificates) and implements more of the functionality fastlane match provides: actually creating and invalidating those provisioning profiles and signing certificates.
How Runway helped Jobber build a mobile release process that can be run by anyone
We talked to Morgan Wilson, Erica Jefferies, and Konstantin Rakitin to hear how Runway helped the Jobber mobile team evolve their release process from one that relied on a small number of (very reliable, practically superhuman, but stressed out) people to a mature, redundant release cycle that automates manual tasks away and provides a single source of truth accessible to any and all stakeholders. A classic combination of tooling and processes right there! Â
Featured feature
Spend even less time in App Store Connect and Play Console, with the ability to view and edit preview videos and additional metadata fields from right within Runway.
App Store Connect and Play Console are not the friendliest of platforms, and they’re  two of the worst offenders when it comes to the “switching” in context-switching. That’s why we bring as much of their functionality as possible directly into Runway.
Our most recent additions let you view, edit, and upload new preview videos for both Android and iOS, while on the metadata front, you can now edit promotional text, subtitle, and app name alongside the other fields Runway was already surfacing.
Runway’s user roles and scoped access make this an easy and safe way to let more people on your team, like marketing or product folks, interact with these items without accidentally lighting your app on fire. And remember, we don’t charge per seat, so giving them this access doesn’t cost you anything. Â
Upcoming events
Where to find Runway over the next several weeks:
- ‍SwiftCraft (Right now!) ‍
- droidcon San Francisco (June 6th to 7th)‍
- One More Thing Conf (June 10th to 11th)‍
- droidcon Berlin (July 3rd to 5th) ‍
- Chain React (July 17th to 19th) Â
We’re hosting happy hours at most of these events. Our next one is coming up in San Francisco on June 5th and right after that we’re co-hosting one alongside the fine folks from Emerge Tools in Cupertino on June 8th. Our Cupertino happy hour is sold out, but there’s still room in SF. RSVP to join in.
You’ve arrived at the end of this newsletter. Want to keep reading? Go through the archive of our nine other Flight Decks or maybe ask an AI to summarize them for you.
