After five and a half years as the sole Android developer for the official Tomorrowland Radio app, my assignment ends. It’s the perfect time to reflect on the accomplishments during this period.
Over these five and a half years, the app’s scope expanded greatly:
- Expanded from one to three live radio streams.
- Integrated an archive of hundreds of DJ sets and radio shows.
- Enabled timetable and video streams during live festivals.
- Introduced support for Android Auto.
Internally, the app underwent a complete metamorphosis:
- Migrated all code from Java to Kotlin.
- Replaced the classic XML-based UI with Compose.
- Implemented two major visual redesigns.
- Added smart caching to reduce network traffic.
- Performed numerous significant third-party library updates, especially AndroidX Media3.
I also squeezed in a number of Android-specific features:
- An app widget to quickly see the recent episodes of your favorite radio shows.
- Shortcuts on the launcher icon.
- Integration in Google Assistant.
Unfortunately these Android-specific features were never promoted in the app nor in any marketing material, so it was left to the user to discover these Easter eggs.
All this time, the focus remained on delivering a high-quality native app. The app consistently achieved a 4.8-star rating on the Play Store (from nearly 8000 reviewers), maintained a 99.9% crash-free session rate, and offered a lean 9.6 MB installation size.
This was a truly rewarding project, and I hope users enjoyed the app as much as I enjoyed building it.
Live Today, Love Tomorrow, Unite Forever!
