Android app development services: senior Kotlin and Compose teams

Senior Android teams that build Kotlin and Jetpack Compose apps for phones, tablets and managed devices, and keep them fast across the full spread of Android hardware.

By the Ryz Labs team · Updated October 2026

Ryz Labs provides Android app development services through senior teams that build Kotlin and Jetpack Compose apps and ship them through Google Play or your device management platform. Our Android engineers are in the top 1% of the tens of thousands we interview, work on US business hours, and handle new apps, Java-to-Kotlin modernization, and the yearly target SDK upgrades Google Play requires.

What we build

Android work is shaped by hardware variety: budget phones with little memory, foldables, tablets, rugged scanners and in-car screens. These are the Android deliverables our teams own.

New Jetpack Compose apps: Kotlin, coroutines and Flow, Hilt for dependency injection and a modular Gradle build, following Google's recommended app architecture.
Java and XML modernization: converting Java to Kotlin and XML layouts to Compose screen by screen, with interop so the app keeps shipping during the migration.
Target SDK upgrades: meeting Google Play's annual target API requirement, including edge-to-edge layouts, predictive back, foreground service types and new permission rules.
Offline and background work: Room databases, WorkManager jobs that survive Doze and app restarts, and sync with conflict handling.
Payments and security: Google Play Billing subscriptions with server-side verification, Play Integrity API checks, biometric login and Android Keystore storage.
Enterprise and rugged devices: apps for managed fleets using Android Enterprise managed configurations, kiosk mode, and barcode scanning on Zebra and similar devices.
Large screens and other form factors: adaptive layouts for tablets and foldables, Wear OS companions and Android Auto where the product needs them.

Building for iPhone too? See iOS app development, or cross-platform options under mobile app development.

How an engagement works

Talk. We review your app or designs, Android vitals in the Play Console (crash and ANR rates), Play reviews and your device mix.
Match. We propose Android engineers (plus back-end or QA if needed) with names and a monthly price.
Join. The team gets access to your repo, Play Console and signing setup, joins your standups on US hours and starts with fixes that prove the pipeline works.
Grow. Keep the team on a release cadence, add iOS or back-end engineers, or hand the app to your Android developers.

Week 1 covers a clean Gradle build locally and in CI, a review of the top crashes and ANRs, and a check of the app's target SDK against Play's deadline. Month 1 usually produces a release on an internal or closed testing track. By month 3, the team ships on a regular cadence with staged rollouts and owns the Android vitals numbers. Pace depends on scope and your onboarding.

The stack our teams work in

Layer	Tools we use	Notes
Language and UI	Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, Material 3, XML views where they remain	Compose for new screens, interop for existing ones
Architecture	ViewModel, coroutines, Flow, Hilt, Navigation	Modular Gradle builds with version catalogs
Data	Room, DataStore, Retrofit, OkHttp, WorkManager	Tested database migrations
Cross-platform options	Kotlin Multiplatform, Flutter, React Native	When sharing code with iOS is worth it
Testing	JUnit, Espresso, Compose UI tests, Robolectric, Firebase Test Lab	Real-device runs on low-end and recent phones
CI/CD	GitHub Actions, Bitrise, fastlane, Gradle Play Publisher	App Bundles signed through Play App Signing
Monitoring	Play Console Android vitals, Crashlytics, Sentry	Crash and ANR rates checked before widening a rollout

How we keep Android apps fast and stable

Google Play measures crash and ANR rates and can reduce an app's visibility when they cross its bad-behavior thresholds. A senior Android team treats those numbers as a release gate, the same way it treats failing tests, and reviews them after every rollout.

ANRs from main-thread work. Disk, network and heavy parsing run on coroutines with the right dispatchers, StrictMode flags violations in debug builds, and ANR traces from the Play Console get triaged every release.
Slow startup and janky scrolling. Baseline profiles, lazy initialization and Compose stability fixes (stable types, remembered state, keys in lazy lists) keep frame times down on mid-range devices.
Fragmentation. Automated tests run in Firebase Test Lab across OS versions, screen sizes and low-memory devices, including manufacturer builds with aggressive battery management.
Process death. Android kills background apps. Screens restore state through SavedStateHandle, and the team tests with "don't keep activities" so users don't lose half-filled forms.
Target SDK deadlines. Each new Android version changes permissions and background limits. Our engineers test on platform betas and upgrade before Play's deadline blocks your updates.
Risky releases. Staged rollouts with a halt rule, remote feature flags and R8 mapping files uploaded for every build mean a bad release reaches few users and gets diagnosed quickly.

Team shapes and cost

Typical Ryz cost is $7,000–$15,000 per engineer per month, mostly mid-level to senior: mid-level (comparable to Amazon L5) $7,000–$10,000, senior (comparable to Amazon L6) $10,000–$15,000, and leads $15,000+, quoted per team.

Android pair: 2 senior Android engineers on your existing app. 2 × $10,000–$15,000 = $20,000–$30,000 per month.
New app team: 2 senior Android engineers, 1 back-end engineer and 1 QA engineer. 4 × $7,000–$15,000 = $28,000–$60,000 per month, depending on seniority mix.
Modernization team: an Android tech lead plus 3 senior engineers for a Java-to-Kotlin and Compose migration. 3 × $10,000–$15,000 = $30,000–$45,000, plus the lead at $15,000+, so $45,000+ per month.

You get a scoped plan, a price and the names of the people before you start.

Dedicated team or staff augmentation?

A dedicated development team fits a new Android app, a rebuild or a migration that one team should own end to end. Staff augmentation fits when your mobile lead needs more senior capacity: Android developers and Kotlin developers who work on your team and follow your release process. Weighing languages for a legacy codebase? Read Java vs Kotlin.

When Ryz isn't the right fit

If you need a quick prototype from a self-serve freelance marketplace, or engineers on European or Asian hours, other providers fit better. If your Android work is low-level firmware or custom ROM development for hardware you manufacture, that is specialist firmware work to scope separately.

FAQ

How much do Android app development services cost with Ryz?

Typical cost is $7,000–$15,000 per engineer per month, mostly mid-level to senior, with leads at $15,000+ quoted per team. Total cost is team size × duration × monthly rate: two senior Android engineers for 6 months is 2 × 6 × $10,000–$15,000 = $120,000–$180,000.

How fast can an Android team start?

After the scoping call we propose a team with named engineers. Most of the timeline depends on scope and your onboarding, including access to your repo and Play Console.

Do you still work with Java Android code?

Yes. Many production apps are part Java. Our engineers maintain it, and convert to Kotlin incrementally where it pays off rather than all at once.

Can you build apps for managed or rugged devices?

Yes. Android Enterprise, managed Google Play distribution, kiosk mode and barcode scanning on rugged devices are part of what our Android engineers work with. We test on the actual device models your fleet uses, since scanner hardware and OS builds differ by manufacturer.

Should we build native Android or cross-platform?

Native Kotlin fits apps that rely on hardware, background work or Android-specific features. Cross-platform fits when iOS and Android share most screens and logic. We recommend after reviewing your features and team.

Questions we didn't answer? Email info@ryzlabs.com.