Animations in Jetpack Compose: evolution, performance, and testing
Published: 2023-08-24 16:13:02

Animations play a key role in improving the user experience on digital platforms. They combine visuals with functionality, giving life to an app's interface. Simple effects, like a button's ripple, or complex loading animations add energy and make the app feel more interactive compared to a static display.

Though, achieving the right balance with animations is really important. When done right, they can guide a user's attention, signal transitions, or provide feedback on specific actions, making interactions feel fluid and intuitive. For example, an effective animation might just be a subtle visual signal, showing movement from one screen to the next or verifying a task's completion.

If animations aren't carefully incorporated, they might hinder the overall user experience. Overly complex, lengthy, or redundant animations can become sources of distraction and annoyance. They might also contribute to making an app feel cumbersome or laggy, leading users to potentially abandon tasks or the app altogether.

So, while good animations serve to enhance and clarify, poor ones can clutter and confuse. Understanding the distinction between these two can be the difference between an app that feels polished and one that feels unrefined.

## Animations in Views

View animations have long been a fundamental part of Android development, allowing for visual changes within app interfaces. With them, developers could easily add effects like rotation, scaling, and fading to views, making apps more dynamic.

Yet, these animations had their drawbacks. For one, there were too many ways to do the animation. We had Transitions, Object Animators, Value Animators, View Property Animators and it was really hard to pick which one to use. Additionally, with Views based animations developers have to handle state changes by them selves and there is no common approach for it.

## Compose API

Jetpack Compose, Android's modern toolkit for UI development, offers a fresh approach to animations, moving past some of the challenges associated with view animations.

Out of the box, Compose provides straightforward animation solutions. Without diving too deep into custom configurations, developers can easily animate changes in Compose components, making app interfaces feel lively and responsive.

Diving deeper, the high-level APIs in Compose allow for more controlled and refined animations. With functions designed to handle common animation patterns, these APIs simplify tasks like animating size, position, or color. The built-in tools also ensure that animations remain smooth and consistent across a variety of situations.

For those needing even more control and precision, the low-level APIs come into play. These grant developers the freedom to create bespoke animations tailored to specific needs. While they require a more detailed understanding of the animation mechanics, the trade-off is unmatched customization and adaptability.

Thus, Jetpack Compose, with its range of animation tools from basic to advanced, provides developers with a versatile framework to bring their UI visions to life.

## Performance

When it comes to performance, it's essential to compare the traditional view-based animations with the newer Compose animations to gain clarity on their efficiency.

View-based animations, while being a staple for Android development for years, and it is well known mechanism. Android OS exists for over a decade, and all of challenges with animations is already solved. Views based animations provide high performance even on low end devices.

In contrast, Compose animations are built with modern Android UI in mind. Using the benefits of the Compose framework, these animations are designed to adapt to various device specifications, resulting in smoother transitions. Since Compose operates with a more unified approach to UI elements, it ensures a tighter integration between animations and their corresponding components, reducing the chance of performance hiccups.

Both methods have their strengths, but initial findings suggest that Views animations tend to perform more reliably and efficiently, particularly in demanding situations.

## Tests

Testing is vital for every app, and with animations, it's key to ensure they work as planned. Jetpack Compose simplifies this testing journey.

Jetpack Compose comes with a specific testing tool, streamlining the validation of animations. With it, developers can mimic and check different animation stages in their Compose designs.

Take a button that shifts color when clicked. Through Compose's testing resources, developers can create a test where this button is clicked virtually. After that, they can check if the button changed color as anticipated.

Similarly, think about a loading animation active during data retrieval. Using the test tool, this data pull can be imitated, verifying the animation runs and stops appropriately.

These tests check the animation's accuracy and help spot possible issues with performance or display that might come up in real use. This, Jetpack Compose's testing features provide solid ways to ensure animations both look and perform well.

## Conclusion

Animations are key to improving user experience, and the techniques behind them constantly change. While past Android projects relied heavily on view-based animations, Jetpack Compose offers a more cohesive and convenient method. It gives developers a spectrum of tools, from simple ready-made solutions to in-depth low-level APIs.

With its performance advantages and strong testing features, Jetpack Compose stands out for modern Android UI work. As the digital space grows, smooth animations for a better user experience will probably become even more important.