Droidcon Italy 2025, held in Turin on November 19–20, once again proved to be a key event for anyone developing in the Android ecosystem. As every year, Nextome joined with enthusiasm, sending two of our developers to closely follow the innovations shaping the future of mobile apps and, consequently, the future evolution of our location-intelligence and indoor-navigation solutions.

This year’s agenda was particularly rich and closely aligned with our technological focus. Among the most notable sessions:

Pamela Hill — Kotlin Developer Advocate, JetBrains 

Her talk “Kotlin Multiplatform on iOS: Gotchas” highlighted how Kotlin Multiplatform has become a popular framework for sharing code across platforms (particularly Android and iOS). She focused on common “gotchas” developers might encounter when working with a single codebase across multiple platforms and how to resolve them quickly and correctly. A topic of great relevance for Nextome, as we aim to make our mobile indoor-navigation solution increasingly scalable and modular.

Marco Gomiero — Senior Android Engineer, Airalo 

Marco’s session also focused on Kotlin Multiplatform. He shared hands-on insights from real development experiences — for example, why sharing less code can sometimes save more time, how managing the iOS Keychain from background services turned into a debugging odyssey, and how placing a database in the wrong Windows directory can silently wipe data during app updates. His discussion of the expect/actual mechanism was particularly interesting.

Alex Zhukovic — Senior Mobile Engineer, Postcode Loterij 

Alex covered the foundations of effective UI testing, presenting an overview of how to build natural-language UI tests using Android Journey (currently in beta), with the goal of catching bugs before they reach end users. The talk provided a solid foundation for introducing UI testing — whether through generative, natural-language-based tools or the traditional industry-standard approaches — without imposing a steep learning curve.  It was a highly valuable session for teams and developers looking to structure a more mature and effective quality-assurance workflow.
He also previewed the release of his new book — expected in 2026 — focused on best practices for integrating UI testing into development pipelines, a highly anticipated resource for the community.

 

 

Jetpack Compose & Accessibility — Vanessa Johnson (The New York Times) 

One of the most impactful sessions we attended was delivered by Vanessa Johnson, Associate Android Engineer at The New York Times, who explored app development in Jetpack Compose with a strong focus on accessibility. She explained why accessibility is now an essential component of modern development, introduced Compose Semantics, and offered practical guidance for implementing truly accessible navigation. The talk also highlighted common accessibility mistakes developers make when integrating these features into their apps.

Cybersecurity & Mobile Protection 

Several sessions were dedicated to mobile cybersecurity, covering a wide spectrum of topics, from cryptography fundamentals to more hands-on approaches such as reverse-engineering techniques and the adoption of passkeys for safer data management on mobile devices.

 

 

Voices from Our Developers 

To make our experience even more authentic, here are some “hot-take” reactions from our developers who attended the event:

Pasquale Guida: “Pamela Hill’s talk was one of the most useful we’ve seen in recent years. We’re entering a new era of mobile development where shared logic across platforms is essential to speed up development and maintain a single codebase, but this often leads to inevitable integration challenges between Android and iOS. Pamela gave us new insights and strategies to better handle these situations.”

Giacomo Cuccovillo: “Two intense days at Droidcon 2025 allowed us to connect with the international Android community and explore the latest innovations in the field. A unique opportunity to exchange ideas, grow professionally, and return with fresh inspiration to put into practice right away.”

Giacomo & Pasquale: “Droidcon isn’t just about talks, it’s about connecting with people who tackle challenges similar to ours. The exchanges we had here are more valuable than any manual.”

 

 

What We’re Bringing Back to Nextome 

After two inspiring days in Turin, our team returns with: 

• New ideas to optimize the performance of our RTLS apps 

• Possible integrations of low-power AI to enhance indoor navigation 

• Innovative architectural approaches enabled by Compose Multiplatform 

• Potential collaborations with other Android professionals 

• New inspiration to elevate the user experience of our solutions 

 

Looking Ahead 

For Nextome, Droidcon Italy 2025 was far more than a tech event—it was a catalyst for ideas, relationships, and new perspectives. We’ll be back next year — as we are every year — with even more motivation and an even clearer vision for the future of location intelligence.