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Jetpack Compose is an open-source reactive UI framework developed by Google for cross-platform development in Kotlin. The first preview was announced in May 2019, and the framework was made ready for production in July 2021.

In Compose, a user interface is defined using functions that have been annotated with the @Composable annotation, which are known as composable functions and define the screen’s state. Jetpack Compose uses a Kotlin compiler plugin to transform composable functions into UI elements.^[2] For example, the following code defines a simple UI element:

@Composable
fun Greeting(name: String) {
    Text(text = "Hello $name")
}

The first preview of Jetpack Compose was announced at the Google I/O conference in May 2019.^[3] The developer preview was released in October 2019,^[4] and the alpha release occurred in August 2020.^[5]

Compose entered its beta phase in February 2021, with its first production release taking place that July.^[6]

Jetpack Compose supports Android 5.0 and later.^[7] It uses the Kotlin programming language, and provides a reactive programming model similar to other UI frameworks such as Flutter, Vue.js, and React Native.^[3] Compose is designed to integrate seamlessly with existing Android apps and libraries, allowing developers to gradually migrate their apps to Compose.^[6]

In Compose, a user interface is defined using functions that have been annotated with the @Composable annotation, which are known as composable functions and define the screen’s state.^[8][9] The annotation is used by the Compose compiler to generate the UI boilerplate code.^[9] When the state is updated, composable functions are called again with new data, which causes the widgets they emit to be redrawn in a process known as recomposition. Recomposition is only performed for composable functions that need to be updated, which improves UI efficiency.^[10]

The 1.0 release introduced Compose Preview, which is built into Android Studio starting with Arctic Fox. It allows composables to be previewed using different configurations without deploying the app to a device.^[11]

Jetpack Glance is a Jetpack Compose-based framework for developing widgets for Android.^[12] Glance’s first stable release occurred in September 2023.^[13]

In September 2024, the 1.0 stable version of the Jetpack Compose APIs for building adaptive UIs with Material 3 was released.^[14]

At the time of Jetpack Compose’s 1.0 release, Google said, “There are already over 2,000 apps in the Play Store using Compose – in fact, the Play Store app itself uses Compose.”^[8] As of October 2022, 16% of the top 1000 apps on the Play Store included Compose. The apps included those from companies such as Airbnb, Lyft and Square.^[15] In May 2024, this number had grown to 40%.^[16]

In 2022, Google detailed how it utilized Jetpack Compose as part of its rewrite of the Play Store app, stating that “writing UI requires much less code, sometimes up to 50%” and that the developers were able to improve the app’s performance.^[17][18] Google rewrote parts of Android’s Settings app using Jetpack Compose in Android 14.^[19] Meta Platforms developed its Threads social media app in five months using Jetpack Compose.^[20][21] The Instagram for Android app has also been written using Jetpack Compose.^[22]

Compose Multiplatform is a multi-platform UI framework developed by JetBrains and based on Jetpack Compose. It is a port of Jetpack Compose for Windows, macOS, Linux and the web.^[23][24][25] Version 1.0 alpha was released in August 2021.^[8] iOS support was added in May 2023.^[26]

• List of Kotlin software and tools

• Official website