Android

Build Android Apps using Proton!

Proton apps run on Android through Gio's native Android support. The same code that runs on your desktop runs on Android — no rewrites, no separate UI layer.

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What works

Every Proton widget, layout, and theme works on Android exactly as it does on desktop. Touch events map to pointer events. The soft keyboard integrates with Input and TextArea. Invalidate() works correctly on mobile. The one restriction from Gio's side: Android supports only one window per app.

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Install the build tool

You need gogio, Gio's cross-compilation tool:

go install gioui.org/cmd/gogio@latest

You also need the Android SDK and NDK. The easiest path is Android Studio: developer.android.com/studio

Set the environment variables so gogio can find the SDK:

export ANDROID_HOME=$HOME/Android/Sdk
export ANDROID_NDK_HOME=$ANDROID_HOME/ndk/<version>

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Build an APK

From your project root:

gogio -target android -appid com.yourname.yourapp .

This produces yourapp.apk. Install it on a connected device:

adb install yourapp.apk

Or run directly on a connected device:

gogio -target android -appid com.yourname.yourapp -run .

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Build an AAR (embed in an existing Android project)

gogio -target android -buildmode archive -appid com.yourname.yourapp .

Then include the .aar in your Android project's libs/ folder and add it to build.gradle:

dependencies {
    implementation fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.aar'])
}

Declare the Gio activity in AndroidManifest.xml:

<activity
    android:name="org.gioui.GioActivity"
    android:theme="@style/Theme.GioApp"
    android:configChanges="orientation|keyboardHidden"
    android:windowSoftInputMode="adjustResize">
</activity>

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Android 15+ (16kB page sizes)

Google Play requires 16kB page-size compatible APKs from November 2025. gogio handles this automatically — just keep it up to date:

go install gioui.org/cmd/gogio@latest

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Logo / app icon

Set your app icon through the standard Android mechanism (in your AndroidManifest.xml via android:icon), or use Proton's logo feature to draw it inside the UI itself:

//go:embed assets/logo.png
var logoBytes []byte

func main() {
    a := proton.New("myapp")
    a.SetLogoBytes(logoBytes) // load once

    a.Window("My App", 480, 800, func(ctx proton.Context) {
        proton.Logo(ctx, 64, 64) // draw it in the layout
        proton.H4(ctx, "My App")
    })
    a.Run()
}

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Minimum SDK

Gio supports Android SDK 16+ (Android 4.1, Jelly Bean). In practice, anything below SDK 21 (Android 5.0) is under 1% of active devices, so targeting 21 is a reasonable minimum.

Set it in your AndroidManifest.xml:

<uses-sdk
    android:minSdkVersion="21"
    android:targetSdkVersion="35" />

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A full example

package main

import "github.com/CzaxStudio/proton"

type UI struct {
    btn proton.Clickable
    count int
}

func main() {
    u := &UI{}
    a := proton.New("counter")
    a.ApplyPalette(proton.NordPalette)
    a.Window("Counter", 480, 800, func(ctx proton.Context) {
        proton.Center(ctx, func(ctx proton.Context) {
            proton.H2(ctx, fmt.Sprintf("%d", u.count))
            proton.Gap(ctx, 24)
            proton.Pad(ctx, 8, func(ctx proton.Context) {
                if proton.Button(ctx, &u.btn, "Tap me") {
                    u.count++
                }
            })
        })
    })
    a.Run()
}

Build for Android:

gogio -target android -appid com.example.counter .
adb install counter.apk

That's it. The same binary you run with go run . on your laptop becomes an Android APK with one command.