Building a Modern Android Music Player with Jetpack Compose and ExoPlayer

Creating a modern Android music player application has become more streamlined and efficient with the use of Jetpack Compose and ExoPlayer. These tools allow developers to build visually appealing, high-performance apps that are easy to maintain and scale. Whether you’re new to Android development or looking to upgrade your existing skills, building a music player using these technologies is an excellent way to explore modern Android development practices .

Why Use Jetpack Compose?

Jetpack Compose is Google’s recommended toolkit for building native Android UI. It simplifies the process of creating user interfaces by replacing the traditional XML-based layouts with declarative Kotlin code. This approach allows developers to write less boilerplate code, visualize UI components in real-time, and quickly iterate on designs .

For a music player app, Jetpack Compose enables a clean and dynamic interface that can easily adapt to different screen sizes and orientations. Its reactive nature also makes it ideal for handling state changes, such as updating playback controls or displaying current track information .

Leveraging ExoPlayer for Media Playback

ExoPlayer is a powerful media playback library developed by Google, designed specifically for Android applications. Unlike the older MediaPlayer framework, ExoPlayer offers greater flexibility and control over media playback, including support for advanced formats like DASH and HLS, custom renderers, and adaptive streaming .

In a music player app, ExoPlayer handles background audio playback, buffering, and media session management seamlessly. It integrates well with Jetpack Compose, allowing developers to build a responsive UI that syncs with the audio playback state—showing play/pause buttons, seek bars, and metadata about the currently playing track .

Architecture and Design Considerations

When building a modern Android music player, it’s important to follow best practices in architecture design. Using the MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) pattern helps separate concerns and improves testability and maintainability. With Jetpack Compose, ViewModel and LiveData integration becomes straightforward, enabling the UI to react to changes in the underlying data model without tightly coupling components .

Additionally, dependency injection frameworks like Koin can be used to manage dependencies across different layers of the app, making the codebase cleaner and easier to scale .

Practical Implementation Tips

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when developing your music player:

1. Media Session Management: Implement MediaSession to handle media playback controls from external sources like Bluetooth devices or lock screen widgets.
2. Background Playback: Ensure your app supports background audio by running playback logic in a foreground service.
3. UI Responsiveness: Use Compose’s LaunchedEffect, remember, and mutableStateOf to manage UI state efficiently.
4. Theming and Material Design: Follow Material 3 guidelines to ensure your app looks modern and consistent across devices .
5. Testing: Leverage Compose’s built-in testing APIs to verify UI behavior and interactions.

Conclusion

Building a modern Android music player with Jetpack Compose and ExoPlayer is not only a great learning experience but also a practical way to create a high-quality, production-ready application. These tools empower developers to create robust, scalable apps with beautiful interfaces and smooth media playback. As the Android ecosystem continues to evolve, adopting these modern practices ensures your app remains future-proof and user-friendly .