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How Duolingo Adopted MVVM on Android

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Posted by Kateryna Semenova, Android Developer Relations Engineer

illustration of hand holding up a chart with the Duolingo bird sitting on top

Govt Abstract

Duolingo’s app started to expertise rising pains attributable to scalability points of their Android software program structure. They have been capable of resolve these efficiency issues and regain developer productiveness, by refactoring to a Mannequin-View-ViewModel structure and utilizing Android Jetpack’s Dagger and Hilt for dependency injection. To study extra about how this impacted their enterprise, learn the accompanying article right here.

Introduction

Duolingo is the world’s hottest language studying app, with over ten million every day learners, as a result of they’ve managed to make one thing individuals discovered daunting really feel straightforward and enjoyable. This continued success depends on a continuing stream of improvements and updates — and a smooth-running app that may ship all of them. To Duolingo, a single unresponsive app in a tool anyplace on the planet may imply a learner doubtlessly discouraged. This commits them to app excellence, significantly on the Android units utilized by sixty p.c of their learners, together with their CEO, who retains observe of the app from an entry-level cellphone. And so, when Duolingo’s Android improvement workforce registered a rise in “App not Responding” errors, dropped frames — and even obtained a hand-written criticism — they took motion instantly.

Their state of affairs wasn’t that unusual. Apps that lack scalable structure and clear greatest practices usually carry out nicely in the beginning however present indicators of technical debt as they develop. Duolingo’s Android codebase was designed to permit them so as to add and launch new options quickly, however the lack of an agreed-upon structure was manifesting in more and more frequent efficiency regressions. It was beginning to undergo from unreliable body charges, visually inconsistent or damaged interactions, and a rising assortment of latest bugs. These regressions not solely inconvenienced learners but additionally value the workforce substantial improvement effort to diagnose and restore. Duolingo’s Android improvement workforce realized that in the event that they needed to maintain transport new options whereas offering the goal degree of consumer expertise, a brand new method to their codebase was wanted.

Discovery

First, they needed to unravel what precisely was happening. A deep dive into the numbers uncovered that, as they added new performance, the app’s rendering efficiency was regressing 5-10% each month. The truth is, one significantly unwieldy launch had elevated crashes by 10%, slowed body renders by 25%, and noticed classes beginning 70% slower on entry-level units.

Additional evaluation of their code led them to the conclusion that many of the app’s points could possibly be traced again to a single bottleneck: a world state object referred to as DuoState, which was liable for sustaining state throughout totally different options of the app. Quite a lot of widespread options (like expertise factors and every day streak monitoring) have been utilizing it to entry very important data. Centralizing their knowledge on this approach had as soon as enabled the workforce to iterate quickly. They merely added properties to DuoState each time a brand new characteristic wanted to share data throughout the app. However now the unoptimized and frequent entry to the item was inflicting rising efficiency regressions.

DuoState was so tightly coupled to your entire codebase that even small adjustments may impression the remainder of the app. The workforce feared {that a} minor new characteristic may have the unexpected aspect impact of triggering many inside updates to the app, inflicting your entire launch to be too sluggish for a lot of units. These efficiency regressions grew to become extra frequent because the app grew, and the workforce onboarded new engineers to maintain up with the accelerating product roadmap. In 2020, as they added extra builders, they have been beginning to see vital regressions cropping up as usually as each 90 days. Upon nearer inspection, the probability of a regression in a given launch was proportional to the variety of adjustments it applied. At this fee, these regressions would fully derail the product roadmap inside just a few years.

This outdated structure had turn into a bottleneck for each the efficiency of the app and the rate of the workforce. After a lot inside debate, they stopped improvement of latest options, together with some intently tied to their backside line. For 2 full months, Duolingo’s improvement workforce went all-in on refactoring their Android app in an effort they referred to as the “Android Reboot”.

The Android Reboot

One of many workforce’s first key takeaways was that their code lacked clear boundaries. The DuoState object was available at any level within the code, inviting builders to entry it incessantly in inefficient methods. They wanted to create a larger separation of considerations inside the codebase. They determined to tease aside every characteristic into its personal, clearly-defined module, utilizing the Mannequin-View-ViewModel architectural sample. MVVM allowed them to take away calls to the monolithic DuoState object, letting many modules work in separate threads.

Diagram showing before and after implementing the Model-View-ViewModel architectural pattern

The workforce’s familiarity with MVVM, and Google’s assist for it, made it an apparent selection. It allowed them to obviously doc what logic ought to go into what recordsdata (together with views, view fashions and repositories). This helped make their characteristic structure extra constant. With a transparent path to comply with, the workforce shortly started refactoring their monolithic code into units of courses with clear boundaries and tasks.

Together with MVVM, the workforce used Dagger and Hilt (additionally included in Android Jetpack) to implement repository patterns to interchange DuoState. Dagger generates clear readable code that gives verbose error logging designed to assist builders perceive precisely what their code is doing, eliminating lifeless stack traces to mirrored properties; and Hilt reduces the quantity of boilerplate code wanted to put in writing for this.

This new structure allowed the workforce to separate DuoState into smaller objects. This instantly lowered pointless coupling between domains. For instance, the code liable for monitoring a consumer’s progress may now entry their expertise factors however not the variety of instances they’ve logged in throughout a month. These new structure pointers meant that whereas no single factor was too troublesome to vary, it took coordination and planning to vary it throughout the app. Implementing the brand new structure throughout the code base drove vital efficiency positive factors in combination.

MVVM structure facilitates a separation of considerations between the area knowledge, the interface the learners see, and the logic for a way these two realms work together. It gave Duolingo’s builders a extra deliberate option to management how the app responds to inside state updates. They might now develop extra advanced consumer experiences with out the chance of triggering regressions, or affecting the underlying enterprise guidelines.

Developer Productiveness

Prior to now, inconsistent software of improvement patterns made totally different elements of the codebase more durable to grasp and keep. With out consensus, every developer applied code as they noticed match.

MVVM, Dagger, and Hilt, offered the workforce with a extra detailed understanding of how new options needs to be applied. Following these greatest practices made the code simpler and extra predictable. Builders may now help in debugging options that they hadn’t initially labored on. And new builders could possibly be onboarded extra effectively; so long as they understood the structure, they might contribute meaningfully instantly. This new readability considerably boosted the workforce’s improvement velocity.

Making certain High quality

Crucially, the brand new structure additionally revealed that sure animation options within the app have been underperforming on entry-level units. Accordingly, the opposite core focus of the Android Reboot was the discount of jank, dropped frames, and “App Not Responding” (ANR) errors. The workforce used repository patterns to assist streamline the sharing of information between threads. These patterns ensured that they might extra effectively use machine assets with a number of threaded modules. Shifting work off the principle thread improved responsiveness, general body fee, and led to smoother animations on entry-level units. Efficiency on flagship units improved as nicely.

A Higher General Android Expertise

Within the six months working with the brand new structure, Duolingo’s Android workforce has continued to ship new options with out recording vital efficiency regressions. The times the place they needed to halt characteristic manufacturing to hunt and repair bugs are safely behind them.

The app’s every day ANR fee dropped 41%. The proportion of time that the app’s body fee fell under goal decreased by 28%. And importantly, customers skilled a 40% enhance in velocity when scrolling via classes, the leaderboard, and tales within the app.

The reboot allowed Duolingo to persistently present their trademark enjoyable, efficient, and pleasant language studying expertise on a a lot wider vary of Android units.

Conclusion

Duolingo’s dedication to their mission made them the world’s prime app within the language studying area. Their dedication to app excellence — creating leading edge academic experiences with out compromising accessibility — is what stored them there.

If you happen to’re concerned with getting your workforce on board in your personal Android Reboot, take a look at our condensed case examine for product house owners and executives linked right here.



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