Issue with Jetpack Compose, and Kotlin 2.2

Question

Issue with Jetpack Compose, and Kotlin 2.2

Peter Liang 3,286

Hi,

To the fact like

//

Developers should migrate to alternatives like GitHub Actions, Sentry, or CircleCI. This is not a retirement of Android development itself, which in 2026 is stable, focused on Jetpack Compose, and Kotlin 2.2

\\

Can we use VS 2026 using Jetpack Compose, and Kotlin 2.2, to have the strong/good Android app?

Since VS2026 is not the good way/option for developing Android app, is it still considered to be good way to link to IIS server for retrieving the data/files, using whatever Android developer apps?

AgaveJoe 31,186 Reputation points

2026-03-30T10:26:42.6333333+00:00

No, you cannot effectively use Kotlin 2.2 and Jetpack Compose inside Visual Studio 2026. If you want to use Kotlin 2.2 and Jetpack Compose, you need to download Android Studio. That is Google's official IDE for native Android development. Visual Studio does not have the compilers, UI previews, or tooling required to build Android apps with Kotlin and Compose.

Visual Studio does not link to an IIS server for retrieving data/files in that context. However, you can use Visual Studio to create a Web API application hosted by IIS. See your many recent threads on this subject.
Peter Liang 3,286 Reputation points

2026-03-31T10:09:02.1533333+00:00

Yes, such features are not supported by VS but it is still a popular option, due to the following, right?

//

.NET MAUI (Multi-platform App UI) is a rising cross-platform framework, used by roughly 3.1% to 5.5% of developers globally as of 2025, officially surpassing its predecessor, Xamarin, in popularity

. It dominates in scenarios requiring enterprise-grade, native-performance applications for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android from a single codebase.

\
AgaveJoe 31,186 Reputation points

2026-03-31T10:56:46.5033333+00:00

Hi Peter,

You are touching on a really common crossroads for developers right now. To answer your first question directly: No, you cannot use Kotlin 2.2 and Jetpack Compose inside Visual Studio 2026. They belong to two completely different ecosystems.

Depending on what you want to achieve, you have two distinct paths for the frontend:

Path 1: The Google Toolchain (Native) If you specifically want to build using Kotlin 2.2 and Jetpack Compose (which is the modern standard for native Android), you need to download and use Android Studio. Visual Studio 2026 does not have the tooling or compilers for Kotlin/Compose.

Path 2: The Microsoft Toolchain (Cross-Platform) If your goal is to stay inside Visual Studio 2026 to build your Android app, your path is to use .NET MAUI (using C#). This allows you to build mobile apps using the Microsoft tools you are likely already familiar with.

Regarding your IIS Server Backend: To answer your second question: Yes, absolutely. Whether you choose Android Studio (Kotlin) or Visual Studio (.NET MAUI) for your mobile app, using Visual Studio 2026 to build a Web API hosted on an IIS server is a rock-solid, enterprise-standard way to retrieve your data and files.

Your mobile app will simply make standard HTTP web requests to your IIS server. The backend doesn't care which tool you used to build the phone app!

Hopefully, this helps you decide which frontend path you want to take!

1 answer

Your answer

AgaveJoe 31,186 Reputation points

2026-03-30T10:26:42.6333333+00:00

No, you cannot effectively use Kotlin 2.2 and Jetpack Compose inside Visual Studio 2026. If you want to use Kotlin 2.2 and Jetpack Compose, you need to download Android Studio. That is Google's official IDE for native Android development. Visual Studio does not have the compilers, UI previews, or tooling required to build Android apps with Kotlin and Compose.

Visual Studio does not link to an IIS server for retrieving data/files in that context. However, you can use Visual Studio to create a Web API application hosted by IIS. See your many recent threads on this subject.
Peter Liang 3,286 Reputation points

2026-03-31T10:09:02.1533333+00:00

Yes, such features are not supported by VS but it is still a popular option, due to the following, right?

//

.NET MAUI (Multi-platform App UI) is a rising cross-platform framework, used by roughly 3.1% to 5.5% of developers globally as of 2025, officially surpassing its predecessor, Xamarin, in popularity

. It dominates in scenarios requiring enterprise-grade, native-performance applications for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android from a single codebase.

\
AgaveJoe 31,186 Reputation points

2026-03-31T10:56:46.5033333+00:00

Hi Peter,

You are touching on a really common crossroads for developers right now. To answer your first question directly: No, you cannot use Kotlin 2.2 and Jetpack Compose inside Visual Studio 2026. They belong to two completely different ecosystems.

Depending on what you want to achieve, you have two distinct paths for the frontend:

Path 1: The Google Toolchain (Native) If you specifically want to build using Kotlin 2.2 and Jetpack Compose (which is the modern standard for native Android), you need to download and use Android Studio. Visual Studio 2026 does not have the tooling or compilers for Kotlin/Compose.

Path 2: The Microsoft Toolchain (Cross-Platform) If your goal is to stay inside Visual Studio 2026 to build your Android app, your path is to use .NET MAUI (using C#). This allows you to build mobile apps using the Microsoft tools you are likely already familiar with.

Regarding your IIS Server Backend: To answer your second question: Yes, absolutely. Whether you choose Android Studio (Kotlin) or Visual Studio (.NET MAUI) for your mobile app, using Visual Studio 2026 to build a Web API hosted on an IIS server is a rock-solid, enterprise-standard way to retrieve your data and files.

Your mobile app will simply make standard HTTP web requests to your IIS server. The backend doesn't care which tool you used to build the phone app!

Hopefully, this helps you decide which frontend path you want to take!

Answer 1

Yes. Visual Studio 2026 (like Visual Studio 2022) supports modern Android development and can be part of a strong Android app toolchain, including when the app itself is built with Jetpack Compose and a recent Kotlin version.

From the context:

Visual Studio provides tools for Android development using .NET, C#, C++, Unity, and Unreal, and integrates with the Android SDK and NDK for mobile workloads.
Visual Studio setup can install the Android SDK and API levels needed for mobile development, and additional API levels can be added via the Android SDK Manager.

For Jetpack Compose + Kotlin 2.2 specifically:

Jetpack Compose apps use the Android toolchain (Gradle, Android Studio or compatible build system) plus libraries like the Microsoft Clarity Android SDK.
For Compose-based apps, the Clarity SDK provides a dedicated artifact com.microsoft.clarity:clarity-compose and Compose modifiers such as clarityMask() and clarityUnmask() to integrate analytics and masking into composables.

A strong Android app in this stack typically looks like:

Android app codebase: Kotlin (including Kotlin 2.2) + Jetpack Compose UI.
Analytics/telemetry: Optional integration with Clarity using clarity-compose:
```
   repositories {
       mavenCentral()
   }
   
   dependencies {
       implementation 'com.microsoft.clarity:clarity-compose:3.+'
   }
```
And initialization in the startup activity using Clarity.initialize(...) as shown in the Android SDK docs.
Development environment:
- Visual Studio 2026 for .NET backends, APIs, and related tooling.
- Android SDK/NDK and Compose/Kotlin toolchain for the Android client.

So Visual Studio 2026 can absolutely be used in a modern 2026 Android development workflow, while Jetpack Compose and Kotlin 2.2 remain the primary stack on the Android side, with optional integration of Microsoft Clarity for analytics.

References:

Share via

Issue with Jetpack Compose, and Kotlin 2.2

1 answer

Your answer