Top 13 Android Development Libraries to Consider

Introduction

Libraries are an essential and integral part of Android development, offering ready-made functionalities and solutions that save time and reduce costs. Android libraries can assist with tasks such as image loading, UI design, data handling, and networking. By using libraries for common tasks, developers can minimize manual errors and improve the reliability of the app.

Developers can utilize the Android library to design a unique app feature, accelerate development, and create a more robust product. Let’s check on some of the top app library for Android that will help you accelerate app development while maintaining security and scalability of the app.

Top 13 Android Development Libraries to Consider in 2025

Let's check the best Android libraries list that you can consider to build your next Android project.

1. Jetpack Compose

Jetpack Compose is a UI toolkit from Google that uses a declarative approach, letting developers replace XML layouts with Kotlin-based composable. It makes Android app UI creation quicker and easier to work with.

Key Features:

• Declarative code reduces unnecessary repetition by 40% when compared to XML.
• Works with ViewModel and Material Design 3 to build modern user interfaces.
• Rendering speed increases by 30% creating smoother and more responsive designs.

Category: UI Development

GitHub Popularity: 21.9K Stars

2. Retrofit

Retrofit is an HTTP client designed specifically for Android, allowing developers to handle REST APIs more easily. It remains a popular tool for reliable and scalable networking tasks.

Key Features:

• Declarative API definitions help cut down on coding mistakes.
• It works with OkHttp to enable caching and handle errors better.
• It pairs with Gson or Moshi to make JSON parsing easier.
• Around 80% of developers rely on it when handling tricky API calls.

Category: Networking

GitHub Popularity: 43.6K Stars

3. Glide

Glide, a library backed by Google, simplifies loading images, GIFs, and videos on Android. It focuses on handling media and helps manage memory well in apps that use a lot of media.

Key Features:

• Its automatic caching system helps reduce memory and data use.
• Handles bitmaps to avoid OutOfMemory errors.
• Works with animated GIFs and video thumbnails.
• Performs 20% better in memory usage compared to options like Picasso.

Category: Image Loading

GitHub Popularity: 34.9K Stars

4. Picasso

Picasso created by Square, is another image-loading library for Android that focuses on being light and easy to use. It lets developers load and cache images with very little setup.

Key Features:

• Provides an easy API to load and edit images.
• Saves memory and boosts performance with auto disk and memory caching.
• It is not great compared to Glide, but the learning curve is easier for beginners.

Category: Image Loading

GitHub Popularity: 18.8K Stars

5. Room

Room included in Android Jetpack, helps developers use SQLite in a simpler way. It makes working with local data easier and fits well with real-time UI updates.

Key Features:

• Annotation-based entities cut down setup time by half.
• Works with LiveData and ViewModel to provide reactive updates.
• Provides great support for database schema modification.

Category: Database Management

6. Dagger 2

Dagger 2 serves as a compile-time dependency injection tool built for Android. It allows developers to create modular and testable apps. While it offers great flexibility, it is more challenging to learn compared to Hilt.

Key Features:

• Validation at compile time boosts reliability.
• Offers extensive customization to suit even complex app designs.
• Large-scale projects can be highly supported with modular components.

Category: Dependency Injection

GitHub Popularity: 17.6k Stars

7. Lottie

Airbnb created Lottie to run Adobe After Effects animations in Android apps. It helps developers add lightweight and fun animations without much effort.

Key Features:

• It uses JSON format to produce smooth visuals.
• Works across platforms to keep the user experience consistent.
• Developers can tweak it with code to make interactive designs.
• Improves how users interact with e-commerce and gaming apps.

Category: Animation

GitHub Popularity: 35.4k Stars

8. Material Components

Google’s Material Components helps build apps using Material Design on Android. It gives tools to customize UI elements and create a uniform and modern look.

Key Features:

• Supports Material Design 3 to create attractive interfaces.
• Works with Jetpack Compose or XML layouts.
• Provides customizable themes and components for branding purposes.

Category: UI Components

GitHub Popularity: 16.9k Stars

9. Hilt

Hilt makes it easier to manage dependencies in modern Android and Kotlin apps. It's built on Dagger 2 but cuts down on extra code. This helps apps grow without getting messy.

Key Features:

• Hilt needs 30% less setup code than Dagger 2, making it simpler to start using.
• It checks dependencies when you compile, so your app runs without injection errors.
• It works well with Jetpack tools like ViewModel and Room.

Category: Dependency Injection

10. LiveData

LiveData, a component of Android Jetpack, acts as an observable data container designed for reactive UI updates. It accounts for lifecycle changes and keeps data consistent by sending updates to observers when the app is in an active state. This reduces memory leaks and keeps apps running by stopping unnecessary updates.

Key Features:

• Works well with Jetpack Compose Room and ViewModel to keep UI updates in real-time.
• Cuts down repetitive coding needed to observe data by almost 40 percent when compared to custom methods.
• Used in 60 percent of Android apps in 2025 to manage reactive data better.

Category: Data Observation

11. Coil

Coil (short for Coroutine Image Loader) is an Android library focused on loading images written in Kotlin. It uses coroutines to process images.

Key Features:

• The library is lightweight and fits with both Jetpack Compose and XML layouts.
• It includes around 2000 methods in an APK. This is much fewer compared to libraries like Glide or Picasso.
• Works with GIFs, SVGs, and video frames while supporting caching and transformations.

Category: Image Loading

GitHub Popularity: 11.4k Stars

12. Kotlin Coroutine

Kotlin Coroutines acts as an effective tool to manage async programming in Android making it easier to handle background tasks. It replaces older choices such as AsyncTask with scalable and lightweight concurrency.

Key Features:

• Structured concurrency allows better error management and makes code easier to understand.
• You can use it with Compose through AsyncImage to write less repetitive code.
• Boosts runtime performance by 25-40 percent with lower memory usage.
• Uses lightweight threading to reduce resource consumption.

Category: Asynchronous Programming

GitHub Popularity: 13.5k Stars

13. Mockito

Mockito is a well-known tool for creating mock objects during Android unit testing. It allows testing app logic without worrying about real dependencies.

Key Features:

• Writing mocks and stubs is straightforward with its syntax.
• It lets users verify behaviors to ensure tests are dependable.
• Mockito works with JUnit and Espresso making testing more thorough.
• It saves about 25% of time compared to building manual mocks.

Category: Unit Testing

GitHub Popularity: 15.2k Stars

How to Choose the Best Android Development Library?

When selecting a top Android development library for your project, certain criteria should be considered. This will ensure the chosen library serves the desired prospect and delivers value for your project. Let’s check on the key criteria for selecting an Android development library.

Project Purpose:

First, define the goal of your project and identify potential functionality you require, be it networking, testing, or database management. List your features and based on those, match the library to accomplish the tasks.

Evaluate Library Features:

An important factor is to assess the features of the Android library. Check for their performance, scalability for large-scale apps, and compatibility with other Android frameworks or tools.

Check Community and Support:

Libraries with a wide adoption rate are highly likely to have better community support. You can count on Retrofit that is widely used among developers for API calls. Explore GitHub and Stack Overflow for its maintenance and activity.

Documentation:

Ensure the libraries you have chosen provide comprehensive documentation, clear guides, examples, and up-to-date references for ease of usage and rapid troubleshooting.

Versatility:

Top Android development libraries should be flexible and provide solutions to more than just one problem, making them valuable in multi-kinds of projects. This way, you can build the best app for Android and iOS. 

Conclusion

In the end, align your chosen library with your project goal, team expertise, and reliability of the tool to select the best Android library to build your app in 2025. Start small and test the libraries based on your use cases. In this blog, we explored some of the best Android development tools and libraries that programmers can utilize to build their next project.

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