Android Engine Overhaul: X Drops Ground-Up Code Rewrite After Year-Long Grind
Nearly a year after promising a complete overhaul, X officially released its rebuilt Android app. The new version replaces a legacy client that lagged behind its Apple counterpart for years. Existing Android users can grab the fresh update right now directly from the Google Play Store.
Engineering teams built this new release from scratch using Kotlin and Jetpack Compose instead of applying temporary patches to the old framework. The company promises faster load times, cleaner scrolling, quicker notifications, and better overall stability across different phone models. Head of product Nikita Bier called the rewrite one of the largest technical projects in company history.
The project kicked off last August when Bier assembled an internal team to fix glaring performance issues. For a long time, the Android client suffered from severe bugs. At its worst point last year, the app frequently failed to open posts when users clicked direct links. Fixing these flaws became an urgent goal after Android download numbers surged last October.
On the technical side, developer Serdar Dogruyakar asked X engineer Grok account how much AI generated the new codebase. The account clarified that human engineers wrote the full app. While Grok assists developers with daily coding tasks, human programmers executed the entire Kotlin rewrite from the ground up.
Starting over with a clean codebase allows engineering teams to ship new updates much faster. Over recent months, X launched features like X Money and X Chat as separate apps. A stable Android app helps the platform retain users in global markets where Android dominates mobile phone usage.
The current build still has some rough edges that need polish. Engineers are still tuning performance on older hardware and bringing back audio Spaces support. Upcoming updates will add a new video editor, video replies, cashtags, and custom feeds. Moving away from legacy code gives X a clean foundation to roll out those features quickly.
