Mastering Jetpack Compose & Android TV Architecture: 5 Projects That Will Transform Your Development Skills in 2025
As an Android developer passionate about creating intuitive and high-performing user experiences, I’ve undertaken several personal projects focused on Android TV development. These projects are designed as learning tools to help me improve my skills and deepen my understanding of modern development practices.
A key technology that has transformed my approach is Jetpack Compose. With its modern, declarative approach to UI design, I’ve been able to build user interfaces with fewer lines of code, making the development process more efficient and flexible. This approach is especially important for Android TV, where performance and user experience are critical due to the unique challenges of large-screen displays and remote-based interactions.
In 2025, Jetpack Compose continues to be a top choice for Android applications, particularly in TV development. Its features empower developers to build sleek, scalable, and maintainable apps that perform well on large screens.
If you’re an aspiring Android developer and want to dive deep into Android TV development, or if you’re looking to take your skills to the next level, hands-on projects are one of the best ways to learn. In this article, I’ll walk you through five personal Android TV projects that I’ve developed using Jetpack Compose. These projects are not commercial products but were created specifically to help me master essential skills like UI design, performance optimization, and architecture for Android TV.
Each project was built with the intention of honing my abilities in best practices such as clean architecture, state management, and Jetpack libraries. By working through these projects, I gained practical experience in building robust, scalable Android TV apps. This journey has been an excellent learning experience, and I hope these projects can also serve as a valuable resource for anyone looking to improve their Android TV development skills.
1. TvNexa — Exploring Android TV Development with Jetpack Compose
This personal project is an experiment to learn and deepen my understanding of Android TV app development. My goal is to build a streaming platform that delivers a smooth and optimized experience on Android TV devices while exploring modern technologies and best practices along the way.
For this, I’m using Jetpack Compose for TV, following Clean Architecture principles and the MVI (Model-View-Intent) UI pattern. Through this project, I aim to improve my skills in designing interfaces for large screens, managing complex states, and optimizing performance in streaming applications.
Additionally, I’ve been exploring backend architecture to enable real-time data processing and efficient content management. More than the final product, the most valuable part of this journey has been the learning experience at each stage of development.
TvNexa utilizes publicly available IPTV playlists from the IPTV-Org project for demonstration and testing purposes.
Backend Architecture: Service Integration and Content Management
TvNexa relies on a highly efficient and scalable backend infrastructure. The architecture is designed to handle a wide range of television content, from channels worldwide to services related to electronic programming. The main components of this architecture are:
- Quartz Jobs for EPG Integration:
Quartz Jobs are responsible for integrating the Electronic Program Guide (EPG) into TvNexa. These jobs automatically collect programming data from various sources and store it in a centralized database (MariaDB Galera Cluster). This ensures real-time access to updated channel programming information. - MariaDB Galera Cluster with JetBrains Exposed:
TvNexa uses a MariaDB Galera cluster for secure and efficient data storage. This solution provides high availability and consistency, while JetBrains Exposed, a Kotlin-based database access framework, facilitates interaction with the database. Exposed allows for efficient and simplified SQL query management. - API Development with Ktor:
For communication between the backend and the frontend, TvNexa uses Ktor, a highly efficient API development framework. Ktor enables fast and efficient handling of HTTP requests, resulting in quick response times and a smooth user experience. This API layer facilitates data retrieval from the MariaDB Galera cluster to the end-users. - Redis Cluster for Caching:
To optimize query performance and reduce latency in data retrieval, TvNexa employs a Redis Cluster caching system. Redis temporarily stores frequently accessed data, improving the speed at which channels and programming information are loaded. - Read and Write Clusters:
The system’s architecture is divided into two database clusters: one for reading (Read Cluster) and one for writing (Write Cluster). This segmentation optimizes data access, allowing users to interact with the read cluster while data ingestion and updates occur in the write cluster.
Application Architecture: MVI and Clean Architecture with Jetpack Compose for TV
TvNexa is built following modern architectural principles to ensure scalability, maintainability, and flexibility of the app. The combination of Clean Architecture and MVI (Model-View-Intent) provides a solid structure for the app’s development.
MVI (Model-View-Intent):
The MVI pattern is crucial to TvNexa’s design, ensuring a unidirectional data flow that enhances predictability and simplifies testing. Each screen in the app has a unified state model observed with StateFlow, which allows efficient state management of the UI. Additionally, Side Effects events are used to handle asynchronous tasks and events that do not have a direct representation in the UI.
- Model: Represents the application’s state.
- View: The UI that renders and receives user inputs.
- Intent: User actions or events that trigger state changes.
This pattern improves the app’s predictability and simplifies the management of complex interactions while minimizing unwanted side effects.
Clean Architecture:
TvNexa follows Clean Architecture principles to ensure a clear separation of concerns, making the app scalable and easier to maintain. This architecture divides the app into three layers:
- Presentation Layer: Responsible for rendering the UI and handling user interactions. Jetpack Compose is used to create a declarative and modern UI.
- Domain Layer: Contains the business logic and use cases of the app, remaining independent of frameworks and platforms, thus promoting reusability and testability.
- Data Layer: Manages data retrieval and manipulation, including interactions with external services such as backend APIs. Retrofit and OkHttp are used for efficient communication with backend services.
Integration with Jetpack Compose:
Jetpack Compose is integral to building the user interface for TvNexa. With its declarative approach, Compose enables the creation of intuitive and highly customizable UIs for the large-screen experience. Compose allows rapid iteration, making it easier to adapt the UI as user needs evolve.
User-Focused Features
TvNexa also emphasizes providing a personalized and user-friendly experience by implementing the following key features:
- User Profiles: Users can create multiple profiles within their account, offering a personalized experience based on individual preferences.
- Parental Controls: Parental control features, including blocking channels, filtering NSFW (Not Safe for Work) content, and imposing time restrictions, are available.
- Favorite Channel Management: Users can organize and quickly access their favorite channels, enhancing usability.
- Channel Search: Searching for channels is simplified, enabling users to find specific content effortlessly.
- Intuitive Navigation: TvNexa offers a simple, intuitive navigation experience, with channels categorized by type or country for easy browsing.
- Electronic Program Guide (EPG): Users can access live channel programming schedules via the EPG.
ExoPlayer Integration for Video Playback
To deliver a high-quality streaming experience, TvNexa uses ExoPlayer, a powerful media player library for Android. ExoPlayer efficiently handles HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) video streams, ensuring smooth playback even in variable network conditions.
Benefits and Outcomes
By integrating MVI, Clean Architecture, and Jetpack Compose, TvNexa has not only achieved a flexible and scalable architecture but also optimized app performance and maintainability. This ensures that TvNexa can adapt and evolve quickly as user demands and market trends change.
- Scalability: The combination of MVI and Clean Architecture ensures that TvNexa can scale smoothly as the app grows in complexity and functionality.
- Maintainability: The modular structure of Clean Architecture simplifies ongoing updates and maintenance.
- Flexibility: Jetpack Compose’s flexibility enables TvNexa to rapidly adapt its UI, delivering a tailored and immersive experience across various devices and platforms.
TvNexa stands out as a cutting-edge platform, integrating modern technologies and well-defined architecture to provide users with a seamless, high-performance streaming experience.
2. Learning Android TV Development with NimbusTV
This is a personal project focused on exploring M3U streaming on Android TV. I’m building NimbusTV as an intuitive platform aimed at transforming how users experience content on their Android TV devices. My goal is to create a flexible, organized, and maintainable system that makes streaming as seamless as possible.
Throughout this project, I’m experimenting with modern technologies to create a robust architecture. By following principles like Clean Architecture and the MVI (Model-View-Intent) UI pattern, I’m aiming to build a scalable, maintainable, and responsive app. My focus is on managing playlists, importing EPG data, and ensuring smooth media playback, all while creating a customizable experience for Android TV users. This project is a valuable learning opportunity to dive deeper into app architecture and the unique challenges of TV-based streaming.
Here is a detailed overview of NimbusTV’s architecture and features:
Playlist and EPG Sources: Integration and Management
NimbusTV utilizes publicly available IPTV playlists from the IPTV-Org project for demonstration and testing purposes. These playlists, provided in M3U format, offer users access to a wide range of international channels, giving them a rich content experience right from the app.
- M3U Playlist Parsing:
To efficiently parse and manage the IPTV M3U playlists, NimbusTV uses a customized M3u parser library. Modifications were made to extend the library’s capabilities, enabling NimbusTV to handle complex and inconsistent playlist formats found in the IPTV ecosystem. This ensures compatibility with various IPTV services and allows users to enjoy a broad spectrum of channels.
Key Features: Enhancing User Engagement
NimbusTV has been designed to cater to diverse user needs and provide a smooth, high-quality viewing experience. Some of the standout features include:
Multi-Playlist Management:
Users can manage multiple M3U playlists, creating custom channel groups by themes or preferences. This allows for a streamlined and organized experience, making it easy to access favorite channels without sifting through lengthy lists.
Diverse Playback Options:
NimbusTV supports a variety of streaming formats, including:
- HLS (HTTP Live Streaming)
- DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP)
- Internet radio These options ensure that users can enjoy live TV, on-demand content, and radio stations, with playback optimized for th quality of their internet connection.
EPG Importation:
The integration of Electronic Program Guides (EPGs) in NimbusTV allows users to import detailed programming data. Users can see current and upcoming shows for their favorite channels, improving content discovery and enhancing the user experience.
- Reminders:
NimbusTV enables users to set custom reminders for upcoming shows or events, ensuring they never miss their favorite content. Timely notifications based on personal schedules add convenience to content consumption. - User Profiles:
Each user can create a personalized profile, keeping their playlists, EPGs, and preferences separate. This feature supports multiple users within the same household, offering a tailored viewing experience for each family member. - Secure Access:
User profiles are stored securely with optional PIN protection, ensuring that personal data remains safe and enhancing user trust.
- Dynamic Viewing Modes:
NimbusTV allows users to toggle between different EPG viewing modes, such as “Channel Overview” and “Now and Schedule.” This gives users flexibility in how they view and interact with channel programming. - Enhanced Search Functionality:
With advanced search features, NimbusTV makes it easy for users to find channels, shows, and genres. This feature simplifies navigation and content discovery within the app.
Technologies Used: Ensuring a Smooth Streaming Experience
NimbusTV is powered by a combination of modern technologies that help deliver a robust and responsive user experience:
- Kotlin:
The primary programming language for NimbusTV, offering modern syntax and features to improve development productivity. - Room Database:
NimbusTV utilizes Room for local database management, storing M3U playlists, channels, and EPG data for each user profile. This ensures that content is preserved locally, even when the app is offline. - Jetpack DataStore:
A key part of NimbusTV’s data management, Jetpack DataStore is used to store application preferences that are shared across profiles. It supports user-defined settings like EPG viewing modes and channel search options. - Coil:
Coil is used for efficient image loading in NimbusTV, ensuring smooth handling of images such as channel logos or program thumbnails. - WorkManager:
WorkManager handles background tasks such as daily updates of EPG data and sending reminders for upcoming shows, ensuring that users’ content is always up to date. - Coroutines:
Kotlin Coroutines are employed to simplify asynchronous programming, making NimbusTV responsive and capable of handling background tasks without compromising user experience.
Architecture Overview: Clean and Scalable Design
NimbusTV follows a Clean Architecture approach to ensure the app is maintainable, scalable, and testable. The architecture is structured into multiple layers that separate concerns and improve modularity:
Presentation Layer:
Responsible for rendering the UI and handling user interactions using Jetpack Compose for TV, a modern UI toolkit tailored for large-screen experiences. It also integrates MVI (Model-View-Intent) architecture, ensuring a unidirectional data flow for predictable state management.
Domain Layer:
Contains business logic and use cases that define the core functionality of the app. The domain layer remains independent of external frameworks, which makes it highly reusable and testable.
Data Layer:
Handles interactions with external data sources (such as cloud APIs and local databases). The data layer manages data retrieval and storage through Room and Jetpack DataStore, abstracting data operations for improved maintainability.
Data Sources:
NimbusTV leverages two main data sources:
- Remote Data Sources: Interact with cloud services or external web APIs (e.g., Firebase Firestore).
- Local Data Sources: Handle local storage through Room and Jetpack DataStore, ensuring offline support and efficient data retrieval.
- Repository Pattern:
The Repository Pattern ensures a clean separation of concerns by providing a unified interface for data access. It simplifies testing and maintenance by abstracting how data is fetched and managed. - Use Cases:
Use cases in the domain layer encapsulate specific actions that interact with repositories to manipulate or retrieve data. They play a key role in organizing business logic and ensuring modularity. - Inversion of Control (IoC):
IoC promotes modularity by allowing dependencies to be injected into components rather than hardcoded. This reduces boilerplate code and improves the app’s flexibility.
Additional Design Considerations
- SOLID Principles:
NimbusTV adheres to SOLID principles to maintain clean, modular code. These principles guide the development of the app, ensuring maintainability and scalability over time. - Dagger Hilt:
Dagger Hilt is used for dependency injection, simplifying the management of dependencies and promoting modularity in NimbusTV’s architecture. - Mapper Pattern:
The Mapper Pattern is used to convert between different data models, ensuring consistency and correctness in the app’s data flow.
Media Playback: High-Quality Streaming
NimbusTV supports advanced media playback for an optimal viewing experience:
- Media3 and ExoPlayer:
The app utilizes Media3 ExoPlayer for efficient handling of HLS and DASH streams. ExoPlayer’s adaptive streaming capabilities ensure smooth playback across various network conditions. - Adaptive Streaming:
HLS and DASH provide adaptive streaming, adjusting video quality based on the user’s internet speed to minimize buffering and provide a seamless experience.
3. Building a Music and Video Streaming App for Android TV: MelodiqTV
For this personal project, I’m working on MelodiqTV, a music and video streaming platform designed to create a personalized, enjoyable listening experience on Android TV. My goal is to focus on customization and user-friendliness, ensuring that each listener’s preferences are at the forefront.
I’m using modern technologies like Clean Architecture, Firebase, Coroutines, and Jetpack Compose to build a modular, scalable, and maintainable platform. The main challenge and learning opportunity for me in this project is to create a seamless music and video experience, allowing users to easily curate playlists, explore new genres, and enjoy high-quality music videos. Ultimately, this project is an exploration of how to design a top-tier music streaming service while enhancing my skills in app architecture and performance optimization on Android TV.
Below is an in-depth look at the architecture and core features that make MelodiqTV a standout platform:
Key Features: Tailored for a Personalized Experience
Personalized Profiles:
MelodiqTV allows each user in a household to create their own profile. This way, family members can enjoy a tailored experience with saved favorite songs, playlists, and personalized music recommendations based on individual listening habits and preferences. This feature guarantees that everyone gets their own unique music feed.
Advanced Music Search:
MelodiqTV offers an advanced search functionality that lets users find songs based on various criteria:
- Genre: Explore different music styles, from rock to jazz to electronic.
- Mood: Discover tracks that match your current mood or desired vibe.
- Language: Filter songs by language, so you can enjoy music in your preferred language.
- Release Date: Find new hits or timeless classics with ease, based on release dates.
Customizable Preferences:
MelodiqTV empowers users to adjust their listening experience with these options:
- Default Video Quality: Set your preferred resolution for streaming music videos, ensuring the best visual quality for your connection.
- App Language: Choose the language of the app interface to make navigation more intuitive.
- Playback Options: Fine-tune playback settings such as shuffle, repeat modes, or even equalizer settings for a custom listening experience.
Technologies Used: A Robust and Scalable Platform
MelodiqTV leverages modern technologies and design patterns to ensure a smooth, user-friendly, and highly responsive experience:
Kotlin:
Kotlin is the preferred language for Android development, offering clean syntax, powerful features, and enhanced productivity for building a scalable and efficient app.
Firebase Platform:
- Firestore:
Firebase’s Firestore is a NoSQL cloud database that supports real-time data synchronization. It ensures fast and reliable data retrieval, even when offline, making MelodiqTV responsive and robust. - Firebase Auth:
Firebase Authentication simplifies the user authentication process, allowing users to securely sign in and manage their profiles using various sign-in methods. - Firebase Storage:
Firebase Storage is used for storing user-generated content, such as profile images and music videos, with secure and seamless integration for better media management.
Coroutines:
Kotlin Coroutines enable asynchronous programming, ensuring background tasks like media fetching or data synchronization happen smoothly without affecting the app’s responsiveness.
Clean Architecture:
The app follows Clean Architecture, which divides the code into distinct layers, making the app easier to maintain and test:
- Presentation Layer: Handles user interactions and UI components using Jetpack Compose for TV, ensuring an optimized experience for large screens.
- Domain Layer: Contains business logic and use cases, isolating app functionality from external dependencies.
- Data Layer: Manages data retrieval, storage, and synchronization via remote and local data sources.
MVI (Model-View-Intent):
MVI ensures a clear separation of concerns by maintaining a unidirectional data flow. It helps manage the app’s state predictably, improving the user interface and ensuring that changes are reflected correctly.
Jetpack Compose for TV:
Jetpack Compose for TV is used to create responsive UIs tailored for large screens, enhancing the app’s visual appeal and ensuring smooth navigation and interaction for users on TV displays.
Jetpack Compose Navigation:
This helps in managing app navigation, supporting deep linking and complex navigation flows, so users can move between screens effortlessly.
Material Design 3:
Material Design 3 ensures the app’s user interface is aesthetically pleasing and intuitive, applying modern design principles for a fresh, cohesive experience.
Fudge UI Kit:
Fudge, a Jetpack Compose UI Kit, is specifically designed for TV apps. It provides pre-built components and tools to craft engaging and consistent user interfaces for larger screens.
Jetpack DataStore:
Jetpack DataStore is used for storing key-value pairs and typed objects, ensuring efficient handling of app preferences, settings, and user data.
Media3 for Media Playback:
- ExoPlayer:
As part of the Media3 library, ExoPlayer provides support for various media formats, ensuring high-quality video and audio playback for music videos and streaming content. - Media3 UI Components:
These components allow for seamless integration of media playback controls, ensuring a smooth and interactive experience for users.
Dagger Hilt:
Dagger Hilt is a dependency injection framework that simplifies the management of dependencies, making the app more modular, scalable, and easier to maintain.
Mapper Pattern:
The Mapper Pattern ensures consistency across the app by facilitating the conversion between different data models, allowing for smooth data flow across components.
Architecture Overview: Scalable, Maintainable, and Testable
MelodiqTV is built with a flexible and scalable architecture to ensure long-term maintainability, easy testing, and high adaptability. The architecture follows best practices in app design:
Clean Architecture:
The app is divided into layers that manage distinct responsibilities:
- Presentation Layer: Manages UI rendering and user interactions.
- Domain Layer: Handles business logic and use cases.
- Data Layer: Manages data from both remote and local sources, abstracting data operations to make the app easily testable and maintainable.
Data Sources:
- Remote Data Sources: Handle interactions with cloud services or web APIs, such as Firebase Firestore, for real-time data updates.
- Local Data Sources: Use Jetpack DataStore to handle local storage of user settings, playlists, and preferences, ensuring offline support.
- Repository Pattern:
The Repository Pattern abstracts the logic for data retrieval and management, providing a unified interface for both local and remote data sources. This separation simplifies testing and maintenance. - Use Cases:
In the Domain Layer, Use Cases define specific business actions, ensuring that logic remains modular and separated from other layers. Use cases interact with repositories to manage data operations. - Inversion of Control (IoC):
IoC allows for better modularity by inverting the control flow, enabling dependencies to be injected rather than hardcoded. This reduces boilerplate code and promotes a clean codebase.
Additional Design Considerations
- SOLID Principles:
MelodiqTV follows SOLID principles to ensure that the app’s codebase remains clean, maintainable, and extensible: - Single Responsibility Principle (SRP): Each class has one specific responsibility.
- Open/Closed Principle (OCP): Classes can be extended without modifying their core logic.
- Liskov Substitution Principle (LSP): Subtypes can be used interchangeably with their base types.
- Interface Segregation Principle (ISP): Clients only depend on the interfaces they need.
- Dependency Inversion Principle (DIP): High-level modules depend on abstractions, not concrete implementations.
- MVI (Model-View-Intent):
MVI ensures a predictable flow of data and UI updates. With clear separation between UI, business logic, and state, it helps prevent bugs and ensures smooth, consistent updates to the user interface.
4. Learning Android Development with FitFlexTV: A Fitness Platform
For this personal project, I’m building FitFlexTV, a fitness platform designed for home workouts. The project allows me to explore modern Android development tools and practices while integrating various cutting-edge technologies to create a scalable, maintainable, and user-friendly app.
By working on FitFlexTV, I’m diving into a wide range of Android development techniques. This includes hands-on experience with technologies like Kotlin, Firebase, Jetpack Compose, and ExoPlayer, as well as adopting architectural patterns like Clean Architecture and MVI. Through this project, I’m learning how to build scalable UIs, manage asynchronous tasks, and implement media playback for a fitness app. It’s been an excellent opportunity to deepen my understanding of Android development and apply new skills in a practical way.
What You’ll Learn from Building FitFlexTV
1. Modern Android Development with Kotlin
Kotlin is the primary language used in FitFlexTV, which you’ll use to build the entire application. You’ll gain hands-on experience with Kotlin’s features like null safety, data classes, and lambdas, which help make your code more concise and robust. Additionally, Kotlin’s modern syntax promotes more readable and maintainable code, reducing boilerplate and enhancing productivity.
2. Architecture Best Practices: Clean Architecture
One of the key aspects of FitFlexTV is its use of Clean Architecture, which helps ensure that the app is well-structured, scalable, and easy to maintain. By following Clean Architecture principles, you’ll learn to separate concerns into distinct layers, including:
- Presentation Layer: This handles the UI and user interactions, and in FitFlexTV, it utilizes Jetpack Compose to build declarative UIs.
- Domain Layer: Contains business logic and use cases, ensuring that your app’s core functionality remains independent of external frameworks.
- Data Layer: Manages all data operations, abstracting the details of how data is fetched or stored, whether it’s local or remote.
This architectural approach promotes a testable and modular codebase, helping you develop robust and maintainable applications.
3. Unidirectional Data Flow with MVI
FitFlexTV adopts the Model-View-Intent (MVI) pattern to manage the state of the application. This pattern introduces a unidirectional flow of data, which simplifies state management and ensures consistency across the app. You will learn:
- Model: Represents the application’s data and business logic.
- View: Displays the UI and listens for changes in the model.
- Intent: Represents user actions or events that trigger state changes.
With MVI, you’ll get a clearer understanding of how to manage state changes in a predictable manner, leading to fewer bugs and more scalable UI designs.
4. Asynchronous Programming with Coroutines
Asynchronous programming is a critical skill when building modern apps, and Kotlin Coroutines play a central role in managing background tasks efficiently. In FitFlexTV, coroutines are used to handle tasks like:
- Fetching user data from Firebase in real-time.
- Uploading or downloading media files to/from Firebase Storage.
- Performing other time-consuming tasks without blocking the UI thread.
You’ll gain practical experience in launching, managing, and handling coroutines to keep your app responsive.
5. Working with Firebase Services
FitFlexTV integrates several Firebase services, and as a developer, you will gain hands-on experience with the following:
- Firebase Firestore: A NoSQL cloud database that enables real-time synchronization. This allows FitFlexTV to sync user data, such as workout history, in real time.
- Firebase Auth: Firebase Authentication simplifies the process of handling user sign-in and account management. You’ll implement social logins and email-based authentication, learning how to integrate third-party identity providers.
- Firebase Storage: Manages storing and serving media content like workout videos and images. By using Firebase Storage, you’ll learn how to work with cloud storage to upload and download files efficiently.
6. UI Development with Jetpack Compose
Jetpack Compose is the modern toolkit for building native UIs in Android, and FitFlexTV utilizes it to create responsive and dynamic user interfaces. With Jetpack Compose, you’ll learn:
- How to create flexible, state-driven UIs with minimal code.
- Best practices for building a TV-optimized interface, ensuring that elements scale properly on large screens.
- How to leverage Material Design 3 components for a clean, consistent UI across devices.
You’ll also explore how to optimize Compose layouts for TV displays, using features such as LazyColumn for efficient list rendering.
7. Media Playback with Media3 and ExoPlayer
To provide a seamless media experience, FitFlexTV uses ExoPlayer, part of the Media3 library. ExoPlayer supports adaptive streaming, a variety of media formats, and advanced features like DRM protection. You’ll learn:
- How to integrate ExoPlayer to stream workout videos in the app.
- How to handle media controls and playback using Media3 UI components.
- Techniques for implementing smooth media playback with features like buffering, adaptive bitrate switching, and more.
8. Dependency Injection with Dagger Hilt
Dagger Hilt is used in FitFlexTV to manage dependency injection (DI). DI helps decouple components and manage dependencies more efficiently. By using Hilt, you’ll learn:
- How to set up and use dependency injection in Android apps to simplify object creation and lifecycle management.
- How to annotate classes for Hilt to inject dependencies and make your app more modular.
This will help you follow the SOLID principles, especially the Dependency Inversion Principle, which ensures that your high-level modules don’t depend on low-level modules.
9. Data Management with Jetpack DataStore
FitFlexTV uses Jetpack DataStore, a modern data storage solution, to store user preferences and small amounts of data. This replaces older solutions like SharedPreferences, offering a more efficient and asynchronous way to manage key-value pairs and typed objects. You’ll learn how to:
- Store and retrieve settings, such as user preferences or workout history, with an asynchronous API.
- Ensure data consistency across different devices and sessions.
5. Building SaboryTV: A Cooking App for Android TV
For this personal project, I’m developing SaboryTV, a recipe-focused app designed to provide personalized cooking experiences for all family members. This project allows me to explore advanced Android development techniques while building an intuitive, scalable, and responsive platform.
By working on SaboryTV, I have the chance to apply a variety of modern Android development practices, including Clean Architecture, MVI, Firebase Integration, and Media Streaming. Throughout this project, I’m gaining hands-on experience with Kotlin, Jetpack Compose for TV, dependency injection, and real-time data management. The goal is to create a cooking app that offers a personalized and engaging experience for users while enhancing my skills in Android development.
With a focus on scalability, user customization, and high-quality media playback, SaboryTV is an excellent learning opportunity to expand my knowledge and improve my expertise in building Android TV applications.
What You’ll Learn from Building SaboryTV
1. Modern Android Development with Kotlin
Kotlin is the main language used to build SaboryTV, and by working with this project, you’ll become proficient in using Kotlin’s powerful features like:
- Null Safety: Kotlin’s built-in null safety ensures that you handle null references safely and minimize the risk of crashes.
- Coroutines: You’ll dive deep into asynchronous programming with Kotlin’s Coroutines to handle background tasks, such as loading data and streaming media, without blocking the UI thread.
- Extension Functions: These allow you to extend the functionality of existing classes, making your code cleaner and more expressive.
2. Architecture Best Practices: Clean Architecture
SaboryTV is built on Clean Architecture, which promotes a clear separation of concerns into distinct layers. You’ll learn how to implement:
- Presentation Layer: Manages UI components using Jetpack Compose for TV, which simplifies building modern, responsive interfaces for TV screens.
- Domain Layer: Contains business logic and use cases that represent the core functionality of your app. This layer interacts with repositories, ensuring that the UI is decoupled from business logic.
- Data Layer: Handles data operations, including interacting with remote and local data sources. This ensures that the app can scale with various back-end integrations, such as Firebase.
By adopting Clean Architecture, you’ll learn how to write modular, maintainable, and testable code.
3. State Management with MVI (Model-View-Intent)
MVI is a design pattern used in SaboryTV for managing UI state and events. You’ll gain hands-on experience with:
- Model: Represents the application’s data and state.
- View: Displays the UI based on the current state.
- Intent: User actions that drive changes in the model, triggering state transitions.
Using MVI ensures that your application has a predictable flow of data, making state management more reliable and simplifying UI updates.
4. User Authentication with Firebase Auth
SaboryTV allows users to create personalized profiles, and you’ll learn how to implement Firebase Authentication to manage user sign-ins securely. This involves:
- Handling email/password authentication.
- Supporting third-party sign-ins (e.g., Google, Facebook).
- Managing user sessions and profile data efficiently.
Firebase Auth ensures that user data is securely stored and managed, helping you understand modern authentication strategies.
5. Cloud-Based Data Management with Firebase Firestore
SaboryTV uses Firebase Firestore, a NoSQL database, to store user profiles, favorite recipes, and other app data. You’ll learn:
- How to design scalable database schemas.
- How to use Firestore’s real-time synchronization capabilities, allowing for instant updates across devices.
- How to manage offline data persistence for an uninterrupted user experience.
By integrating Firestore, you’ll gain experience in cloud data storage and syncing in real-time, critical for apps with dynamic content.
6. Optimized Media Playback with ExoPlayer and Media3
For recipe videos and cooking demonstrations, SaboryTV uses ExoPlayer, a powerful media player from the Media3 library. You’ll learn how to:
- Stream media content efficiently using adaptive bitrate streaming.
- Handle different video formats, such as MP4, HLS, and DASH.
- Use Media3 UI components to integrate media controls for a smooth playback experience.
Integrating ExoPlayer will give you experience in high-quality media streaming, which is essential for any modern media-based application.
7. Customizable User Preferences
SaboryTV offers users a high degree of customization, including the ability to:
- Set their default video resolution for recipe videos.
- Choose between Metric or Imperial measurement units.
- Adjust the app language to match personal preferences.
You’ll work with Jetpack DataStore to manage these preferences, learning how to store and retrieve settings asynchronously.
8. Jetpack Compose for TV
Building TV applications requires understanding specific UI requirements for large screens. Jetpack Compose for TV is used to build SaboryTV’s interface, and you’ll learn how to:
- Create responsive layouts that scale properly on TVs, including handling screen sizes and orientations.
- Use Material Design 3 to implement a visually appealing and consistent UI.
- Utilize the Fudge UI Kit for TV apps, which provides pre-built components tailored to large-screen experiences.
Jetpack Compose for TV simplifies the process of building engaging UIs with less code and greater flexibility.
9. Dependency Injection with Dagger Hilt
SaboryTV leverages Dagger Hilt to manage dependency injection (DI), which is crucial for decoupling components and managing object creation. With DI, you’ll learn:
- How to inject dependencies into activities, fragments, and view models.
- How to use Hilt modules and qualifiers to manage complex dependencies.
- The benefits of DI for testing and code modularity.
Dagger Hilt simplifies dependency management, reduces boilerplate code, and improves code maintainability.
10. Data Consistency with Mapper Pattern
SaboryTV uses the Mapper Pattern to handle the conversion between different data models, such as:
- Converting data transfer objects (DTOs) to business objects (BOs).
- Ensuring that data is correctly formatted and consistent when passed through various layers of the app.
This pattern simplifies data transformations and ensures consistency in how data is represented across different components.
Unlock Your Android TV Development Potential with These Projects 🚀📱
In this article, I’ve explored five personal Android TV projects that highlight the capabilities of Jetpack Compose for TV. Each project touches on different aspects of TV app development, from streaming and fitness to cooking and music. By working through these projects, I’ve gained hands-on experience while deepening my understanding of best practices, Clean Architecture, and modern UI design.
Whether I’m just starting out in Android TV development or looking to expand my skills, these projects have provided me with a strong foundation for building engaging, high-performance TV applications. Now, I’m diving into the code, experimenting, and continuing to develop my own Android TV apps as part of this exciting learning journey.
Happy coding! 🎉👨💻👩💻
— -
If you found these projects helpful, don’t forget to follow me for more updates and give a ⭐ to the repository! Your support helps me keep creating and sharing new resources with the community. Thank you! 🙏
