What Is New in Jetpack Compose: Autofill, Auto-Sizing Text and More

Jetpack Compose is the toolkit most new Android apps use to draw their screens. Google releases it several times a year, and each release is a mix of speed improvements, new building blocks and small breaking changes. You do not need to read release notes, but you should know which changes help your customers and which ones create upgrade work. This tour covers the releases from April 2025 to August 2026.

Where things stand in November 2026

Compose is published as a set of libraries that move together. According to Google's release page, updated on 21 October 2026, the latest stable version of the core libraries is 1.12.1, and the latest beta is 1.13.0-beta02. The Material 3 components library has its own numbers: 1.4.0 is stable and 1.5.0-beta02 is the latest beta. Developers usually pick versions through a "bill of materials" (BOM), a single version number that keeps all the pieces compatible. The August 2026 release came as BOM 2026.08.00.

Compose 1.8 (April 2025): autofill and text sizing

Google's April 2025 post introduced autofill in Compose. Autofill is the service that fills in saved logins, addresses and other details on your customer's phone. A developer marks a text field with what it expects, such as a username or password, and the phone's credential provider can then offer saved values. For a business app this means faster sign-ups and logins and fewer abandoned forms.

The same release added an autoSize setting for basic text, so text can shrink or grow to fit its box. That is handy for product names, amounts on a billing screen and labels that must stay on one line in Tamil, Hindi or English alike. The Material text component gained the same ability in Material 3 version 1.4. The release also added visibility tracking, new ways to animate a composable's size and position, and stabilised many experimental APIs.

Compose 1.9 and 1.10: speed and smoother screens

Compose 1.9 (August 2025) brought advanced shadows, two-directional scrolling and better list performance. Compose 1.10 (3 December 2025) made pausable composition in lazy list prefetch the default, which lets the system spread drawing work across frames to reduce stutter in long lists. It also added a state tool called retain that keeps values alive across screen rotation. For apps with long product or invoice lists on low-cost phones, these are the quiet upgrades that matter most.

Compose 1.11 (April 2026): testing and layout tools

The April 2026 release moved to a newer set of test tools, added trackpad support, and introduced preview wrappers so a developer can see screens in the correct theme. It also previewed, as experimental, a Grid layout, a FlexBox layout, a Styles system and a media-query tool for adapting to the device. Experimental features can change, so they are not ready for client apps yet.

Compose 1.12 (August 2026): passkeys and graphics

Google's August 2026 post lists several additions. A new credential request setting lets a text field trigger passkey or saved-credential prompts, which needs Android 14 (API 34) or newer. There is a mesh gradient painter for richer backgrounds, wide colour and HDR rendering support, and more text-editing features. The Grid layout gained named areas, but it remains experimental.

Upgrade notes that cost time

• Build tools. The 1.12 notes say the compile SDK moves to API 37 and the minimum Android Gradle Plugin (the tool that assembles the app) is 9.1.1. Older projects may need a build-tool upgrade first.
• Deprecated visibility call. Modifier.onFirstVisible is deprecated; its replacement is onVisibilityChanged.
• Effect order. The new keyed SideEffect runs before other effects, so screens that depend on the old order need a review.
• Password fields. BasicSecureTextField now defaults to the system's obfuscation mode.
• Tests. The version 1 test tools are deprecated in favour of version 2.

Which of these matter for a typical business app

For most owners the useful short list is small. Autofill and passkey prompts shorten login and checkout. Auto-sizing text keeps long names and amounts from being cut off in different languages. Faster list drawing helps older, cheaper phones, which many customers still use. The graphics, trackpad and layout additions are mostly for games, tablets and design-heavy products, so you can leave them for later without any loss.

What to do

If your app is two or more Compose versions behind, plan one upgrade pass rather than many small ones. Ask your developer for a short written plan covering the build tools, the BOM version, any deprecated calls and a test run on real phones. Do not adopt experimental features in a live business app.

Our team at VS Tech Builders builds client apps in Compose and keeps them on stable releases. Read more about our Jetpack Compose development, the meaning of Jetpack Compose, the design side in Material 3 Expressive, and ongoing costs in app maintenance in India. More articles are in our tech news section.

Sources

Checked on 3 November 2026. Technology changes quickly; always confirm details with the official source before you act on them.

• Compose | Jetpack | Android Developers — Android Developers
• What's new in the Jetpack Compose April '25 release — Android Developers Blog
• What's new in the Jetpack Compose December '25 release — Android Developers Blog
• What's new in the Jetpack Compose April '26 release — Android Developers Blog
• What's new in the Jetpack Compose August '26 release — Android Developers Blog

Frequently asked questions

What is the latest stable version of Jetpack Compose?

As of November 2026, Google's release page lists 1.12.1 as the latest stable version of the core Compose libraries, with 1.13.0-beta02 as the latest beta. Material 3 is versioned separately: 1.4.0 is stable and 1.5.0-beta02 is the latest beta. Your developer normally selects all of these through one bill-of-materials version.

Do I need to upgrade my Compose app every release?

No. Skipping a release is fine, but falling many versions behind makes the eventual upgrade larger and riskier. A sensible rhythm for a live business app is one planned upgrade a year, timed with the Google Play target-version update, with extra upgrades only for a specific fix or feature you need.

Does autofill really help a business app?

Yes, where users type credentials or details often. Compose autofill lets the phone suggest saved logins and addresses, so sign-in and checkout forms take fewer taps. Gains depend on the user having a credential provider set up, and on your developer labelling each field correctly. It does not replace OTP login flows.

Are Compose experimental features safe to use?

Not for a live client app. Google marks features such as Styles, Grid and FlexBox as experimental, and its August 2026 post says breaking changes are still expected in Styles. They are fine for prototypes and learning, but production apps should stay with stable APIs to avoid rework when names or behaviour change.