Android Jetpack Compose Migration Checklist
A migration checklist for moving an Android UI from XML Views to Jetpack Compose. It covers interop, incremental rollout order, unidirectional state, recomposition performance, accessibility, and UI testing.
When to Use This Checklist
Use this checklist before migrating an Android app's UI from the XML View system to Jetpack Compose, the declarative toolkit for building native Android interfaces. Compose simplifies UI code and improves reuse, but it changes how state and rendering work. The migration is incremental, so this list focuses on doing it safely without regressions.
How to Use This Checklist
Start with an inventory of screens, custom views, and fragments, and confirm the minimum SDK and dependencies support Compose. Then set up View-Compose interop using ComposeView and AndroidView, which lets the two systems coexist so you migrate screen by screen rather than all at once.
Get state and performance right. Adopt a unidirectional data flow so composables read predictable state, and profile recomposition early, because unnecessary recompositions are the most common Compose performance problem. Stable parameters and remember help keep redraws minimal.
Protect quality. Set accessibility semantics on composables rather than assuming they carry over, add Compose UI tests and screenshot tests for migrated screens, and verify navigation works across the mixed View and Compose surface. Roll out behind a flag and watch the crash-free rate.
What Good Looks Like
View-Compose interop lets old and new UI coexist, screens migrate in a sensible low-risk order, and state follows a unidirectional flow. Recomposition is profiled and minimized, accessibility semantics are explicit, and UI plus screenshot tests guard migrated screens. Navigation works across the mixed surface, and rollout is monitored.
Common Pitfalls
The biggest pitfall is unmanaged recomposition that quietly degrades performance. Teams also attempt a big-bang rewrite instead of using interop, blocking releases. Accessibility semantics are often forgotten because Compose does not infer all of them. Skipping screenshot tests lets visual regressions slip through on migrated screens.
Related Resources
Pair this with component-driven development, mobile-first design, and the strangler-fig pattern for incremental rollout. WCAG 2.2 and visual regression testing protect quality. See the Android Views-to-Jetpack Compose migration.