Android Dev Summit 2026

Android Dev Summit 2026 wrapped up last week. Some pretty interesting announcements, the team has obviously been busy.

Standouts for me:

• A2UI: Most interesting is that the agents can patch the UI and it's all very seamless with transitions, especially here: https://www.youtube.com/live/8Lmv7LGgL4E?t=1565
• Android MCP: App Functions were already in preview, but nice to see them finally evolving into a system wide MCP solution. An important boundary will be what goes to a server MCP vs what remains an app level MCP. Anything with offline function, like a local expense manager would probably opt for the latter.
• New Graphics APIs: Most important for me personally is the new backdrop APIs. A common UI pattern lately, hoping that the native implementation will bring better performance.
• Android CLI updates: My agents already work on top of the android cli now. Everything from rendering previews to running the app. android prototype seems like a great way to build a faster verification loop without having to go through e2e steps.

Still sifting through everything, I'm sure there's a lot more to unpack. Full playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQZJH-fZcZcc