Monday, 19 October 2026

Five things that changed in Android on 19 Oct.

2 min read

1. Google brings Gemini 4 Argon to Android Studio and the Android CLI
Agents that can build and fix Android apps by themselves are now an official part of Google's toolchain.
Google's newest model, Gemini 4 Argon, is now available to Android developers. You can use it in Android Studio Canary, in Google's Antigravity agent app, or in any terminal agent through a new Android command line plugin. Google says it reads Gradle and Kotlin build errors and fixes them on its own. It needs a paid Google plan.
Android Developers Blog · OfficialRead the source
2. Kotlin Multiplatform plugin drops Swift editing support
Teams sharing Kotlin code with iOS should plan for Swift work to move back to Xcode.
The details
JetBrains is removing Swift language features from its Kotlin Multiplatform plugin, starting with IntelliJ IDEA 2026.3 and Android Studio Rabbit 2. That means no Swift editing, highlighting or jumping between Swift and Kotlin code. Kotlin Multiplatform lets one codebase run on Android and iOS, so teams that edited Swift files inside Android Studio will need to use Xcode for that work.
Kotlin blog · OfficialRead the source
3. Late AOSP source drops push developers to disassemble libraries
If you build devices or debug the platform, open Android source is getting harder to rely on.
The details
A widely discussed post on Hacker News says Google now publishes Android's open source code so late that developers disassemble compiled libraries to find and report bugs. AOSP is the open source base of Android. The thread drew about 500 points and 250 comments, many from people who build on Android below the app layer.
HN · Android · CommunityRead the source
4. Google's Android skills for coding agents top GitHub's Kotlin list
Adding Google's official skills is a cheap way to make your coding agent better at Android.
The details
Google's android slash skills repository is the top trending Kotlin project on GitHub today, with about nine thousand stars. Skills are packaged instructions that coding agents load to do a task the right way. An official set for Android helps agents write current Android code instead of guessing from old examples.
GitHub Trending · CommunityRead the source
5. Haze 2.0 adds a glass effect and native Android blur
Frosted glass UI in Compose is now faster and can use Android's own blur underneath.
The details
Chris Banes released Haze 2.0, a blur library for Compose Multiplatform. Compose is Android's UI toolkit. The new version adds a glass effect, a new effects API, speed improvements and experimental support for Android's built-in backdrop blur. In a second post he explains when Compose's new progressive blur is enough on its own.
Chris Banes · ExpertRead the source