What life is really like on the Bending Spoons Android team (2024)

I’m biased, of course, but Bending Spoons truly is an incredible place to work. We just won the title of Italy’s Best Place to Work for the second year in a row — we’re proud of that!

By Marco Uberti, Head of Android Engineering at Bending Spoons

We’re a new team, and we’re hiring at a rapid rate. That means I often get asked questions like, “Can you describe some challenges your team faces?” “What technologies do you use?” “Why should I consider joining you?”

They’re good questions, and they deserve comprehensive answers. So, instead of throwing out something quick off the top of my head, I figured I’d compile a document addressing the questions we get asked the most by candidates. Our Recruiting team will share it with some candidates, and I figured why not post it on LinkedIn too?

Out of respect for your time, I couldn’t cover absolutely everything without turning this into a Tolkein-esque epic. Still, if there’s anything missing that you’d like me to address, I’d be delighted to hear from you.

I’m biased, of course, but Bending Spoons truly is an incredible place to work. We just won the title of Italy’s Best Place to Work for the second year in a row — we’re proud of that! Our sights are set on being one of those rare, all-time-great companies. That means we’re always taking on massive projects.

But here’s the thing: massive projects involve an awful lot of challenges. Here are some that the Android team regularly wrestles with:

Tens of millions of people all over the world use our apps. It’s our job to ensure they work properly in any location and on any device.

Ours aren’t standard catalog apps. Each one has its own super-complex logic, with numerous engineering challenges. Also, our fantastic designers push for top-class UI and animations. Amazing for the UX, but tricky for us engineers!

It’s a bit of a cliche, but at Bending Spoons, good enough never is. We’re constantly striving to push things further, relentlessly refining app architecture and best practices.

We pride ourselves on being pioneers — and that means mastering the latest and greatest cutting-edge technologies. There’s a lot to keep up with! For example, we don’t hesitate to use immature or complex technologies like Jetpack Compose, Android Media Codec API, and OpenGL ES.

We heavily A/B test our apps to push them beyond where we thought the limit was. That means we ensure they’re designed to be flexible and maintainable.

We develop several internal libraries and tools to boost our productivity and performance.

TL;DR: there’s never a dull moment!

Splice

Splice is one of the world’s most beloved mobile video editors. Our iOS version has been a Photo & Video Editors category leader on the App Store for several years. Now, it’s our team’s mission to make the new Android version similarly user-friendly, popular, and successful. No pressure!

Video editing on Android is tougher than on iOS because the underlying technology is far more limited. This requires us to write a lot of low-level code.

As it’s not a standard catalog app, there’s extremely complex device-side logic and a deep, feature-rich domain.

We’re building a rendering engine that’s right at the limit of what’s currently present on Android, using technologies like Android Media Codec API, OpenGL ES, and GLSL shaders.

Performance issues and memory constraints also make it a challenge to ensure a media app works properly on any device.

Remini

Remini leverages AI to restore damaged, blurry, or pixelated photos. Quick as a flash, old memories are turned into high-resolution masterpieces.

There’s no technology as advanced as Remini available in research labs or on the market right now. We’re at the forefront of bringing the most cutting-edge AI technology and putting it in the hands of the regular user. Pretty mindblowing!

30 Day Fitness

Like Splice, 30 Day Fitness has been an iOS category leader for years (this time in Health & Fitness). Expectations for the Android version are similarly sky-high — both internally and from our audience. In January 2021, it was the world’s second most downloaded fitness app on Android, so we’re on the right path.

Once again, the fact that this isn’t a standard catalog app means we have a complex device-side logic to contend with.

30 Day Fitness is uber-customizable. Users can adjust every aspect of their in-app experience and receive a tailored fitness plan immediately.

There are thousands of exercises, workouts, fitness challenges, meal plans, and recipes. All of these contain a frankly frightening number of options that mustn’t confuse or confound the user. Translation: Massive complexity for us!

The live view contains incredibly complex interactions, animations, and audio feedback.

Internal libraries and tooling

We don’t want to start from scratch every time we build something new — we believe in crying once, and only once. That means we bust a gut on every internal library and tool. It’s an enormous challenge, going all-out to invent things that are impeccably robust and super-scalable. But it’s always worth it: When the time comes to build a new app, we know that we can build it on the strongest possible foundations.

Related: Our commitment to using proprietary libraries and tools unlocks our app developers and boosts their productivity. Hiding boilerplate code and sharing general-purpose logic across apps means we front-load the work.

We fine-tune our CI, tools, and processes to make for the most effective testing and QA.

We use and teach the following: Kotlin, Coroutines and Flows, Jetpack Compose, Room, Retrofit, Moshi, OkHttp, Architecture Components, LiveData, Android Media Codec API, OpenGL ES and GLSL, Gradle, and Koin or Hilt/Dagger (depending on the project size). Although we use Kotlin exclusively, knowing Java is always a plus.

Until recently, Bending Spoons has been all about iOS. We stand behind that decision — such laser-focus helped us become one of Europe’s leading app developers. But there’s a whole wide world of Android out there, and we’re just starting to explore it. Our brand new Android team has a massive role to play. Not only in our attempts to make a mark on planet Android, but also in the ultimate success of Bending Spoons at large. It’s ambitious, it’s daunting, but most of all, it’s terribly exciting!

Our Android team participates in every element of product development, working with non-engineering disciplines like product and design, as well as adjacent engineering teams.

As well as being a do-er, every Spooner is a seeker (and we spare no expense on education, btw). The Android team members are responsible for sharing their knowledge and teaching other engineers.

That (partly) takes the form of PRs and code reviews, which are crucial ways to learn from each other and improve our code quality.

Team members hold each other accountable for being pragmatic, while also using best practices and delivering testable, top-notch code.

As we share and share alike, the Android team members are also tasked with creating libraries that help other developers to be more productive.

Finally, team members are responsible for contributing to the continuous improvement of the Bending Spoons Android ecosystem.

And I’m gonna leave out the obvious stuff like the office environment, perks, and so on.

The Android team is in its earliest stages. You can join it, shape it, and play your part in leading it to massive global success. (I know lots of companies say that, but our track record on iOS shows we can walk the talk!)

Everything is 100% transparent. From day one, you have a vital voice in technical decisions as well as in design and strategic discussions.

You can use cutting-edge technologies, and you’ve got the freedom to introduce new ones at your own discretion. Nobody is gonna be peering over your shoulder, questioning every decision you make.

You get to learn new, unusual things, like Android Media Codec API or OpenGL ES.

You have complete visibility over every aspect of an app, from conceptualization to execution to performance (and everything in between).

Simply, be a key part of a lean, friendly, and unspeakably talented team. I’d bet that this is the most harmonious working environment you ever experience.

You get to lead a team of supremely talented engineers, while guiding their growth and supporting them through every challenge.

Make a major contribution to every single technical decision. We couldn’t be further from a “do as you’re told” company.

Bending Spoons is a geek’s paradise. You have the freedom to study, test, and evaluate every new technology under the sun to improve your team’s happiness and performance.

As the reference for Product, Design, and other teams, you get to riff with some seriously inspiring people — helping you learn non-engineering concepts at the speed of light.

To misquote Stan Lee, With great responsibility comes great opportunity: Use your leadership skills to peacefully resolve technical disagreements and get everyone on the same page — bringing their knowledge up a notch or two in the process.

But we don’t just ask you to lead — we ask you to learn every day. We deny no reasonable request and spare no expense to help you become more than you ever thought you could be.

Train new engineers and help them reach our quality standards in no time. From day one, you play a key role in every team member’s development.

Ultimately, Bending Spoons is a tech company. As a tech lead, your contribution will be more than just appreciated — it will be absolutely integral to the company’s success.