jetc.dev Newsletter Issue #276
Published: 2025-08-05
This week, we look at our new Compose and Wear Compose RC releases. We morph shapes on
watches, play with AnimationSpec, and set up our common Compose Multiplatform previews.
Plus, we look at a sweet library for animating text changes via automatic diffing.
Ooooo… What Did We Get?
Reviewing the release notes for the latest Jetpack Compose update!
The Compose alpha and beta BOMs got bumped to 2025.07.01. The main Compose libraries
are now at 1.9.0-rc01, as we get nearer to a stable 1.9.0 release. This mostly
contains bug fixes, but do note that
TextFieldState.edit() no longer clears the undo history.
Wear Compose is up to 1.5.0-rc01. This too is focused on bug fixes, notably in
how locales impact DatePicker() and TimePicker().
We also got the following Compose-adjacent updates:
androidx.activity:activity-compose:1.12.0-alpha05androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-runtime-compose:2.10.0-alpha01androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-runtime-compose-android:2.10.0-alpha01androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-runtime-compose-desktop:2.10.0-alpha01androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-runtime-compose-iosarm64:2.10.0-alpha01androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-runtime-compose-iossimulatorarm64:2.10.0-alpha01androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-runtime-compose-iosx64:2.10.0-alpha01androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-runtime-compose-js:2.10.0-alpha01androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-runtime-compose-linuxarm64:2.10.0-alpha01androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-runtime-compose-linuxx64:2.10.0-alpha01androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-runtime-compose-macosarm64:2.10.0-alpha01androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-runtime-compose-macosx64:2.10.0-alpha01androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-runtime-compose-mingwx64:2.10.0-alpha01androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-runtime-compose-tvosarm64:2.10.0-alpha01androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-runtime-compose-tvossimulatorarm64:2.10.0-alpha01androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-runtime-compose-tvosx64:2.10.0-alpha01androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-runtime-compose-wasm-js:2.10.0-alpha01androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-runtime-compose-watchosarm32:2.10.0-alpha01androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-runtime-compose-watchosarm64:2.10.0-alpha01androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-runtime-compose-watchosdevicearm64:2.10.0-alpha01androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-runtime-compose-watchossimulatorarm64:2.10.0-alpha01androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-runtime-compose-watchosx64:2.10.0-alpha01androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-viewmodel-compose:2.10.0-alpha01androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-viewmodel-compose-android:2.10.0-alpha01androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-viewmodel-compose-jvmstubs:2.10.0-alpha01androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-viewmodel-compose-linuxx64stubs:2.10.0-alpha01androidx.media3:media3-ui-compose:1.8.0androidx.navigation:navigation-compose:2.9.3androidx.navigation:navigation-compose-android:2.9.3androidx.navigation:navigation-compose-jvmstubs:2.9.3androidx.navigation:navigation-compose-linuxx64stubs:2.9.3androidx.navigation:navigation-fragment-compose:2.9.3androidx.navigationevent:navigationevent-compose:1.0.0-alpha05androidx.navigationevent:navigationevent-compose-android:1.0.0-alpha05androidx.navigationevent:navigationevent-compose-jvmstubs:1.0.0-alpha05androidx.navigationevent:navigationevent-compose-linuxx64stubs:1.0.0-alpha05androidx.paging:paging-compose:3.4.0-alpha02androidx.paging:paging-compose-android:3.4.0-alpha02androidx.savedstate:savedstate-compose:1.4.0-alpha01androidx.savedstate:savedstate-compose-android:1.4.0-alpha01androidx.savedstate:savedstate-compose-desktop:1.4.0-alpha01androidx.savedstate:savedstate-compose-iosarm64:1.4.0-alpha01androidx.savedstate:savedstate-compose-iossimulatorarm64:1.4.0-alpha01androidx.savedstate:savedstate-compose-iosx64:1.4.0-alpha01androidx.savedstate:savedstate-compose-js:1.4.0-alpha01androidx.savedstate:savedstate-compose-linuxarm64:1.4.0-alpha01androidx.savedstate:savedstate-compose-linuxx64:1.4.0-alpha01androidx.savedstate:savedstate-compose-macosarm64:1.4.0-alpha01androidx.savedstate:savedstate-compose-macosx64:1.4.0-alpha01androidx.savedstate:savedstate-compose-mingwx64:1.4.0-alpha01androidx.savedstate:savedstate-compose-tvosarm64:1.4.0-alpha01androidx.savedstate:savedstate-compose-tvossimulatorarm64:1.4.0-alpha01androidx.savedstate:savedstate-compose-tvosx64:1.4.0-alpha01androidx.savedstate:savedstate-compose-wasm-js:1.4.0-alpha01androidx.savedstate:savedstate-compose-watchosarm32:1.4.0-alpha01androidx.savedstate:savedstate-compose-watchosarm64:1.4.0-alpha01androidx.savedstate:savedstate-compose-watchosdevicearm64:1.4.0-alpha01androidx.savedstate:savedstate-compose-watchossimulatorarm64:1.4.0-alpha01androidx.savedstate:savedstate-compose-watchosx64:1.4.0-alpha01
One Off the Stack, One Off the Slack
You’ve got questions. That’s understandable!
How Can I Add a Trailing Icon to Text?
TextView has drawableEnd, which specifies an image to append to the text, wrapping
with the text. The equivalent in Compose comes from AnnotatedString, rather than a
composable like BasicText(), as we see in this week’s highlighted Stack Overflow
question.
Why Do We key()?
While we tend to think of key() for use in lazy containers, it has wider use… though
sometimes it is hard to understand the scenarios in which it benefits us. Learn how
it replaces positions with identities, and what that means, in this week’s highlighted
Kotlinlang #compose Slack thread.
Composable Commentary
Posts, videos, and other new information related to Jetpack Compose!
Video: WearOS Material 3 shape morphing
Google’s Chiara Chiappini walks us through using ButtonGroup() and FilledIconButton()
from Wear Compose Material 3 to tie size and shape of buttons to click interactions.
Video: The Easing Symphony: AnimationSpec in detail!
Nicole Terc
(Bluesky)
delivered a KotlinConf 2025 presentation exploring AnimationSpec and
its various types, including customizing their easing curves.
Setting up Compose Multiplatform previews
Márton Braun
(Mastodon, Bluesky)
shows us how to implement Compose previews for common composables
in a Compose Multiplatform project, when using Android Studio or IntelliJ IDEA on
macOS, with an alternative solution for Windows and Linux users.
Medium: Previewing retain{} API: A New Way to Persist State in Jetpack Compose
Jaewoong Eum
(Mastodon, Bluesky)
explores the work-in-progress retain() API. This is a way for a composable
to hold onto state that outlives its composition — by contrast, remember() only
works until the composition is removed. While this can also be handled by ViewModel,
retain() might prove to be better for UI data that is not ready to be handed off
to repositories and the like, such as in-flight user input.
Medium: Auto-sizing Text in Jetpack Compose with BasicText
Oğuzhan Aslan examines the autoSize parameter to BasicText() and composables
that wrap it (e.g., Text()). Oğuzhan explores many of the auto-sizing rules and options,
supplied via the TextAutoSize value supplied for autoSize, including minimum and
maximum font sizes to use.
Some thoughts on keyboard shortcuts on Android
Thomas Künneth
(Bluesky)
explains how to respond to keyboard shortcuts, whether doing so
in an Activity via onProvideKeyboardShortcuts() and onKeyShortcut(), plus
how to represent the keyboard shortcuts in a Compose-powered menu.
Medium: Deform the canvas
Alex Volkov shows how to stretch, twist, and otherwise morph the Canvas() that backs
our composables, via the graphicsLayer() modifier and various bits of helper code.
Other Interesting Links
- Introducing TourCompose: The Easiest Way to Add Interactive Tours to Your Android Compose App (Without Losing Your Sanity)
- Medium: Google Maps in Jetpack Compose: The Complete Developer’s Guide
- Medium: Mastering Horizontally Scrolling Videos in Android with ExoPlayer and Jetpack Compose
- Medium: Navigation 3: Finally, Android Navigation That Just Works
- Medium: Optimizing Jetpack Compose Recomposition with Lazy Grids
- Medium: Top 10 Must-Know Kotlin Extension Functions: Turn Jetpack Compose Code from Mundane to Magical
- Medium: Why
Modifier.scrollable()Doesn’t Scroll in Jetpack Compose — And What To Use Instead
Resource Roundup
100% pure code!
GitHub: Aghajari / AnimatedTextDiff
GitHub user Aghajari created a Compose for Android library (not yet published on an artifact repository) that animates changes between portions of text, using a text diffing algorithm coupled with configurable animation rules.
GitHub: ferPrieto / TimelineView
Fernando Prieto Moyano brings us a TimelineView() for synchronized scrolling of
composables in a row, considered as “past content” and “future content”. This was
originally created for visualizing audio waveforms and is implemented for Compose
for Android.
GitHub: AJIEKCX / DeclarativeSnackbar
Alex Panov brings us SnackbarBox() and SnackbarComponent, for showing snackbars
without a Scaffold() in your Compose Multiplatform project. This includes support
for “global” snackbars, defined once for your entire UI.
GitHub: KvColorPalette / KvColorPicker-Android
GitHub user KvColorPalette offers us a KvColorPickerBottomSheet(), for choosing
a color from a pre-defined roster or from RGB or HSL pickers. As the library name
suggests, this is for Compose for Android.
Other Interesting Links
- GitHub: VoirDev / formica (form management)
- Wild (unstyled UI components)
Notable Releases
Horologist is up to 0.7.15,
with bug fixes and dependency updates.
Circuit has reached 0.30.0,
with bug fixes and dependency updates. It also moves ViewModelBackStackRecordLocalProvider
to a different module, has it backed by the multiplatform ViewModel implementation, and
now is used by default.
Compose Unstyled marched ahead to 1.39.0,
adding TriStateCheckbox() and a focusRing() modifier, plus other changes, bug fixes,
and dependency updates.
Redwood released 0.18.0,
with greater support for internal composables, plus other changes, bug fixes,
and dependency updates.
Finally, Vortex has a 0.2.6 release,
with improved support for custom transitions.
Or, you can subscribe to the Atom feed or follow Mark Murphy in the Fediverse.
Recent Issues:
- 2025-07-22: Compose BOM and beta! Canvas benchmarking! PausableComposition! AnnotatedString wrapper! And... why does my timetable seem lazy?!?
- 2025-07-15: Android Makers! Accessibility focus *and* keyboard focus! FABs and FAMs! PWAs!
- 2025-07-08: Compose BOMs! Wear Compose and Compose Multiplatform updates! Nav3! ExoPlayer! Datatables! And... can we transmogrify Compose for Android into Compose Multiplatform?!?