Your Android app needs more than bug fixes. Google's annual API level deadlines, Android Vitals ranking signals, and a device landscape spanning 24,000+ models make Android maintenance a full-time discipline. We keep your app compliant, visible in the Play Store, and working across the UK device base — from a rolling monthly retainer starting at £675/month.
Google's annual target API level requirement advances every August. Miss it and you can't ship updates. Lag two years behind and your app disappears from Play Store search for new users — a situation 700,000 apps found themselves in when Google enforced its 2025 policies. Android Vitals is the second clock: Google uses crash rate and ANR rate as ranking signals, with thresholds of 1.09% and 0.47%. The average ANR rate across all Android apps is 0.63%, meaning most are operating with a silent ranking penalty without knowing it. The third: from May 1, 2026, apps targeting Android 15 or higher with C++ native libraries must support 16KB memory page sizes. It requires a full native library audit and recompilation — it looks minor on paper and takes an experienced engineer a full sprint to do properly.
Layer on 24,000+ distinct Android device models in active use, with mid-range devices (Samsung A-series, Xiaomi Redmi) making up around 55% of the UK user base. Android maintenance costs 20–30% more than iOS: not an agency upsell, but a structural reality of the platform. A fix that works on the latest Pixel can fail silently on a Galaxy A53 running an older Android version.
Most Android maintenance clients come to us after a developer leaves, after a difficult offshore team experience, or after a Play Console compliance warning. We start with a code review: API level status, Android Vitals baseline, dependency health across the full Gradle tree, and anything structurally risky. We set up monitoring pipelines if they're not in place, document everything we find, and scope any remediation separately before the retainer begins. Apps from offshore teams often have deferred API level compliance, suppressed lint warnings, and dependency trees untouched since launch — we document all of it before committing. Onboarding takes 3 to 5 working days. From £675/month, 3-month minimum.
If you need broader cross-platform maintenance covering iOS alongside Android, our App Care retainer covers both under one agreement.
Written by Gareth Reese, Founder and CTO of Foresight Mobile. Gareth oversees App Care engagements and has personally managed Android maintenance transitions from offshore teams, departing developers, and compliance-critical recovery situations.
An actionable four-week plan with clear deliverables and an unbeatable £3,500 price point, credited against your first development sprint.
Total client time commitment: 5-7 hours across 4 weeks
We meet with your key stakeholders to understand your business goals, user needs, and technical constraints. You'll share any existing research, designs, or documentation you have.
Our engineering team assesses the technical feasibility, identifies integration points with your existing systems, and evaluates architecture options.
We determine whether Flutter, native development, or another approach makes the most sense for your specific requirements.
We create clickable prototypes so you can experience your app before it's built. You'll test navigation flows, validate the user experience, and gather feedback from stakeholders.
Alongside this, we prioritise features based on business value and technical complexity, mapping out a phased delivery plan with a detailed cost estimate.
You receive your complete Gameplan pack, plus a presentation walkthrough with Q&A. Your team walks away with everything needed to make a confident decision.
A named Android team who knows your codebase, tracks Google's compliance deadlines, and monitors your Vitals before they affect your ranking.
Taking over an Android app from an offshore team or a departing developer is one of the most common situations we handle. In our experience, apps coming out of offshore development typically have deferred API level compliance work, suppressed lint warnings treated as normal, dependency versions that haven't been touched in 18 months, and documentation that exists only in someone's head.
We start with a structured code review covering: current API target vs the live deadline, Android Vitals baseline (to know what we're inheriting), dependency health across the full Gradle tree, test coverage, and any structural risks. We document everything we find. If there's remediation work needed before we can safely maintain the app, we scope it separately so you know exactly what it costs and why.
The onboarding itself takes three to five days: codebase access, review, monitoring pipeline setup (Firebase Crashlytics, Play Console Vitals alerts), staging environment configuration, and handover of any active support tickets. We've taken over Android apps built in Java, Kotlin, and React Native with a native Android component.
Structured Code Review • Vitals Baseline Assessment • 3–5 Day Onboarding • Java and Kotlin Support • Same-Team Continuity
Play Store policy changes arrive on a rolling basis, and the consequences of missing them range from a blocked update submission to outright app removal. Common triggers include data safety section inaccuracies, permission policy changes (especially for sensitive permissions like location, contacts, and microphone), and new requirements for apps in regulated categories like finance and health.
We monitor Play Console policy notifications and pre-emptively review your data safety declarations whenever your dependency tree changes — because a third-party SDK update can change your app's data practices without anyone explicitly deciding that. We also handle the submission process itself: writing the changelogs, responding to review team queries, and managing any rejection resolution process.
For clients who've received a policy violation warning, we triage the issue, prepare the response to Google, implement the required change, and resubmit. Most violations have a clear remediation path; the challenge is navigating the Play Console support process efficiently, which we've done enough times to know the quickest routes.
Data Safety Declarations • Policy Change Monitoring • Rejection Management • Permission Compliance • Play Console Support
Kotlin and the Jetpack library ecosystem don't stand still. DataStore replaced SharedPreferences, Room and ViewModel have KMP-compatible versions, Jetpack Compose is now the standard UI toolkit, and Kotlin Multiplatform has matured to the point where sharing business logic with an iOS app is a practical engineering decision rather than an experiment.
Deferred migration creates compounding risk. Apps still on XML layouts accumulate deprecated API warnings that turn into hard build errors in future versions. We take an incremental approach: new screens and features are built in Compose from the start, and we progressively migrate high-traffic existing screens. Moving to Compose typically reduces lines of code by 45% and makes feature development 30% faster — which means future maintenance updates cost less and ship quicker.
On the dependency side, we maintain your entire Gradle dependency tree: Kotlin version, Jetpack libraries, Firebase SDKs, and third-party integrations. Security-critical updates are applied immediately; routine updates are batched monthly, tested across your device matrix, and released with a changelog.
Jetpack Compose Migration • KMP Readiness • Kotlin Version Management • Gradle Dependency Maintenance • DataStore Migration
There are over 24,000 distinct Android device models in active use. Samsung holds 30.8% of the UK market, but the actual usage base is dominated by mid-range devices — Samsung A-series, Xiaomi Redmi, and similar — running a spread of OS versions across several generations. A fix that works on the latest Pixel can fail silently on a Galaxy A53 running an older Android version.
Our testing approach for Android maintenance updates prioritises the UK device distribution: we cover the three most current OS versions in depth while maintaining a baseline regression suite for the previous two where your analytics show active users. We use Firebase Test Lab for automated coverage across device configurations we can't physically hold, combined with manual testing on the high-volume models that show up in your Play Console.
For apps with emerging form factor exposure — foldables, tablets — we validate adaptive layout behaviour, including compliance with Android's orientation mandates for large-screen devices introduced in recent releases.
Samsung One UI • Xiaomi MIUI • Three-Plus-One OS Strategy • Firebase Test Lab • Foldable Support
Google advances its target API level requirement every August. Miss the current year's deadline and you can't submit updates. Lag two years behind and your app stops appearing in Play Store search for new users on modern devices — a situation that 700,000 apps found themselves in when Google enforced its 2025 policies.
We track Google's compliance timeline and update your targetSdkVersion ahead of each deadline, not in response to a warning email. The work involved varies each year: recent releases have introduced mandatory orientation and resizability changes for large-screen devices, plus new memory management requirements for native libraries. We audit each release's impact on your app during the developer preview window, months before enforcement begins.
From May 2026, apps with native libraries targeting Android 15 or higher must support 16KB memory page sizes. This requires a full native library audit and recompilation from any vendors whose code touches your app. We handle the audit, coordinate with third-party SDK vendors where needed, and validate the change before submission.
Annual API Level Compliance • 16KB Memory Page Size Support • Developer Preview Testing • No Update Blocks
Your app's Play Store visibility depends on two numbers: crash rate and ANR rate. Google's thresholds are 1.09% for crashes and 0.47% for ANR rate — and apps that exceed them are demoted in search results and excluded from Recommended sections. The catch is that the average ANR rate across all Android apps currently sits at 0.63%, which means most apps are already over the threshold without their owners realising it.
We monitor your Android Vitals weekly through Play Console, tracking both the overall averages and the per-device breakdown. Google applies separate per-device thresholds of 8%, which means a globally healthy app can still be flagged if a single high-volume device (commonly the Samsung Galaxy A51 or Xiaomi Redmi series) has elevated crash rates. We identify and fix device-specific issues before they accumulate into a visibility problem.
When a new crash pattern appears — often after an OS update or backend change — we investigate using the full Play Console diagnostics and Firebase Crashlytics stack traces, fix the root cause, and push an update. Monthly health reports include Vitals trends, any anomalies we caught, and what we did about them.
Weekly Vitals Monitoring • Per-Device Crash Analysis • Firebase Crashlytics • Monthly Health Reports
Our standard Android onboarding takes three to five working days from when we have codebase access. The process covers: a code review for compliance status and dependency health, setting up Firebase Crashlytics and Play Console Vitals monitoring, configuring the staging environment and deployment pipeline, and documenting the architecture for the team.
There's a one-off onboarding fee of £500 to £1,000 depending on the complexity of the app and the state of the existing infrastructure. Apps coming from offshore teams or developers who've been the sole maintainer typically need more documentation work and sometimes require pipeline setup from scratch, which puts them at the higher end of that range.
After onboarding, the rolling monthly retainer begins. The initial period is three months, to make the onboarding investment worthwhile for both parties. After that, it's rolling monthly with no long-term commitment.
Yes. Taking over Android apps from other developers, agencies, and offshore teams is one of the most common situations we handle. The technology stack is rarely a barrier — we work across Java, Kotlin, and React Native with native Android modules.
We start every takeover with a structured code review covering API level compliance status, current Android Vitals baseline, dependency health, test coverage, and any structural risks. We document everything we find and, if there's remediation work needed before we can safely maintain the app, we scope it separately so you know what it costs before committing.
The onboarding itself typically takes three to five days: codebase access, review, monitoring setup (Firebase Crashlytics and Play Console Vitals alerts), staging environment configuration, and handover of any active issues. After that, the rolling monthly retainer begins.
Android fragmentation — the spread of your users across thousands of device models and multiple OS versions — is the primary reason Android maintenance costs more than iOS. Our approach is to test where your actual users are, not against an abstract "all devices" standard.
We start by analysing your Play Console analytics to identify the top device models and OS versions in your active user base. For UK-focused apps, this typically means prioritising Samsung Galaxy A and S series devices, Xiaomi Redmi series, and the most recent three Android OS versions. We use this profile to build a prioritised test matrix rather than trying to cover 24,000 device configurations equally.
For automated coverage, we use Firebase Test Lab to run regression suites across device configurations we can't physically test. For release testing, we focus manual effort on the high-volume devices that show up in your crash reports and Vitals dashboard. When a new OS version is released, we test on the developer preview before it reaches users — that's where fragmentation issues are cheapest to fix.
From 1 May 2026, any app update targeting Android 15 or higher that includes native code (C/C++ libraries, NDK code, or third-party SDKs with native components) must support 16KB memory page sizes. This affects apps using native libraries for tasks like image processing, audio, video, payment SDKs, and analytics tools.
The requirement exists because newer Android devices (starting with some Pixel models and expanding across the ecosystem) use 16KB memory page alignment for performance and efficiency. Apps compiled for the traditional 4KB alignment may crash or behave incorrectly on these devices.
Addressing this requirement involves auditing every native library in your dependency tree, recompiling any that don't already support 16KB alignment, and coordinating with third-party SDK vendors whose compiled libraries you can't directly change. It's one of those compliance tasks that looks minor on paper and takes a full sprint to do properly. We identify which libraries are affected and handle the remediation before the enforcement deadline.
Google's target API level policy requires that all Android apps target a minimum Android API level, which advances each year. The deadlines follow a consistent pattern: by 31 August each year, apps must target the API level of the Android version released the previous year.
The deadline advances each August to the API level of the previous year's Android release. Missing it doesn't immediately remove your app, but it blocks you from submitting any updates — including bug fixes. Once you're two years behind, new users on modern devices can no longer find or install your app through Play Store search.
Updating the targetSdkVersion isn't just a number change. Each new API level introduces behavioural changes that can affect your app: recent releases have changed how orientation locking works on large-screen devices, introduced new foreground service restrictions, and progressively tightened permission handling. We test and resolve each year's changes during the developer preview window, before the deadline arrives.
Android Vitals is Google's framework for measuring the technical quality of Android apps, and it directly affects your app's Play Store ranking and visibility. The two primary metrics are crash rate (how often the app crashes for users) and ANR rate (how often the app freezes and triggers an Application Not Responding error).
Google's bad behaviour thresholds are 1.09% for crash rate and 0.47% for ANR rate. Apps that exceed these thresholds are demoted in Play Store search results and excluded from the "Recommended" section. The problem is that the average ANR rate across all Android apps is currently 0.63% — meaning the majority of Android apps are already above the threshold and experiencing a ranking penalty they may not know about.
Google also applies per-device thresholds (8% for both metrics on a specific device model). This means an app can look healthy overall but be failing on a single high-volume device like the Samsung Galaxy A51. We monitor both overall and per-device Vitals weekly, and investigate any device-specific patterns before they accumulate into a broader visibility problem.
Android app maintenance covers the ongoing technical work required to keep a live app functional, visible in the Play Store, and compliant with Google's evolving requirements. At a minimum, this means tracking and meeting Google's annual target API level deadline (which advances each August), monitoring Android Vitals (crash rate and ANR rate), applying security patches and dependency updates, and handling Google Play policy changes.
A full maintenance retainer also typically includes: device fragmentation testing across the UK's most common Android device and OS combinations, Kotlin and Jetpack library version management, monthly health reports with Vitals trends, and a shared Slack channel with a named engineer who knows your app.
Some retainers also cover incremental feature development alongside maintenance. This is useful when you want the same team that maintains the app to build new features — it eliminates handover friction and reduces the risk of maintenance work accidentally breaking in-progress features.
Android app maintenance in the UK typically costs between £675 and £1,495 per month on a retainer, depending on app complexity, the number of platforms covered, and the SLA response times you need. Our App Care retainers for Android start at £675/month for a single-platform app on our Essentials plan.
The industry benchmark for annual maintenance is 15–25% of the original development cost. For an app that cost £60,000 to build, that's £9,000 to £15,000 per year just to maintain baseline functionality and compliance — before any new features or remediation work. A fixed monthly retainer is usually more cost-predictable than ad-hoc developer billing, especially when compliance deadlines create urgent, non-negotiable work.
Android maintenance typically costs 20–30% more than an equivalent iOS app, primarily because of fragmentation testing across device models and OS versions, the annual API level compliance cycle, and Android Vitals monitoring. If you cover both Android and iOS, our cross-platform App Care retainer may offer better value than two separate agreements.
You've got a working app and nobody reliable to look after it. Maybe your developer handed in their notice. Maybe the offshore team stopped responding. Maybe the freelancer who built it has gone quiet at the worst possible time.
App Care onboarding gets you from that situation to a UK-based team who knows your codebase inside out, with a shared Slack channel and agreed response times. The onboarding fee is typically £500 to £1,000 depending on complexity. After that, you're on a rolling monthly retainer from £675/month with no long-term lock-in after the initial three months.
We start with a short call to understand what your app does, what platforms it runs on, and what the handover situation looks like. Then we request access to the repository (GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket), your App Store Connect and Google Play accounts, and any backend infrastructure. If a departing developer is still available, we'll use some of that time to fill in gaps. If not, we work from the code.
We review the architecture, third-party dependencies, security posture, and anything that looks fragile. If there's technical debt that needs fixing before we can support the app properly, we scope that separately so you know what it'll cost. We also build internal documentation covering how the app is structured, where the critical logic lives, and how deployments work.
We instrument the app with Firebase Crashlytics and Sentry for crash reporting, and set up Datadog for backend API monitoring where applicable. We configure CI/CD pipelines, TestFlight distribution for iOS builds, and deployment processes that don't rely on a single developer's laptop. Snyk and SonarQube scans catch dependency vulnerabilities and code-level security issues before they become incidents.
Your retainer covers OS updates, security patches, App Store compliance, crash investigation, and proactive monitoring. Feature work is scoped and priced separately so you always know what you're paying for. The initial commitment is three months, then rolling monthly with no long-term lock-in. You stay because the service is good, not because you're contractually stuck.
Your app, your way. Here's how we make it happen.
Fixed price agreed upfront, with regular progress calls and live demos so you always know where your project stands.
From first build to App Store submission and beyond, we offer App Care retainers from £675/month so your app keeps pace with your business. We're with you all the way.
Real users from your target audience test your app throughout development, not just at the end. Their feedback shapes decisions before they become expensive to undo — so you launch with confidence rather than hope.
You know your business. We know how to build apps that succeed. The two together is where good products come from.
Our founder has been building mobile products since 2003, and our core team has been together since Foresight launched in 2017.
We're based in Manchester with offices in London and Birmingham, and believe face-to-face time makes better products. Drop in whenever you like.
