Android Setup

Android support for expo-ai-kit is coming soon. Here's what to expect and how to prepare.

Android Beta

Current Status

Android support for expo-ai-kit is in active development. We're working on integrating with Android's on-device AI capabilities to provide the same seamless experience as iOS.

Development Progress

We're evaluating multiple Android AI frameworks to determine the best approach. Our goal is to provide a unified API that works identically on both platforms.

Current API calls on Android:

import { isAvailable } from 'expo-ai-kit';

// Currently returns false on Android
const available = await isAvailable();
// available === false

Planned Features

When Android support launches, it will include all core features available on iOS:

Feature	Status
Availability detection	Planned
Session management	Planned
Message sending	Planned
Streaming responses	Planned
Multi-turn conversations	Planned
System prompts	Planned

Potential Native Frameworks

We're evaluating these Android AI frameworks:

Gemini Nano — Google's on-device LLM, available on select Pixel and Samsung devices
ML Kit — Google's cross-device ML framework with various on-device models
MediaPipe LLM Inference — Supports running various LLMs on-device
TensorFlow Lite — For running optimized models on Android devices

Device Limitations

Android on-device AI may have different hardware requirements than iOS. Initial support will likely be limited to newer flagship devices with sufficient NPU capabilities.

Preparing Your App

While waiting for Android support, you can prepare your app to handle both platforms gracefully:

import { isAvailable, createSession, sendMessage } from 'expo-ai-kit';
import { Platform } from 'react-native';

interface AIConfig {
  onDeviceAvailable: boolean;
  platform: 'ios' | 'android' | 'web';
  fallbackEnabled: boolean;
}

export async function getAIConfig(): Promise<AIConfig> {
  const onDeviceAvailable = await isAvailable();

  return {
    onDeviceAvailable,
    platform: Platform.OS as 'ios' | 'android' | 'web',
    fallbackEnabled: !onDeviceAvailable,
  };
}

export async function sendAIMessage(
  message: string,
  options?: { preferOnDevice?: boolean }
): Promise<string> {
  const config = await getAIConfig();

  // Use on-device AI when available
  if (config.onDeviceAvailable && options?.preferOnDevice !== false) {
    const session = await createSession();
    try {
      const response = await sendMessage(session, { message });
      return response.text;
    } finally {
      await session.close();
    }
  }

  // Fallback to cloud AI
  if (config.fallbackEnabled) {
    return await cloudAI.complete(message);
  }

  throw new Error('No AI provider available');
}

UI Considerations

Design your UI to handle the "not yet available" state on Android:

import { isAvailable } from 'expo-ai-kit';
import { Platform } from 'react-native';

function AIFeatureStatus() {
  const [status, setStatus] = useState<'checking' | 'available' | 'unavailable'>('checking');

  useEffect(() => {
    isAvailable().then((available) => {
      setStatus(available ? 'available' : 'unavailable');
    });
  }, []);

  if (status === 'checking') {
    return <Text>Checking AI availability...</Text>;
  }

  if (status === 'unavailable') {
    if (Platform.OS === 'android') {
      return (
        <View>
          <Text style={styles.title}>Coming Soon to Android</Text>
          <Text style={styles.subtitle}>
            On-device AI will be available in a future update.
            In the meantime, you can use cloud-based features.
          </Text>
          <Button title="Use Cloud AI" onPress={useFallback} />
        </View>
      );
    }

    return (
      <View>
        <Text>On-device AI requires iPhone 15 Pro or newer.</Text>
      </View>
    );
  }

  return <AIChat />;
}

Expected Requirements

While not finalized, here are the anticipated requirements for Android support:

Requirement	Expected
Android Version	Android 14+ (API 34+)
Hardware	Devices with NPU/AI accelerator
Google Play Services	Latest version required
RAM	6GB+ recommended

These requirements are estimates based on current Android AI frameworks. Final requirements will be announced when Android support is released.

Stay Updated

To get notified when Android support is available:

Watch the GitHub repo — github.com/expo/expo-ai-kit
Join the discussion — Participate in GitHub Discussions to share feedback and feature requests
Follow Expo on X — @expo for announcements

Want to Help?

We welcome community contributions! If you have experience with Android ML frameworks and want to help bring expo-ai-kit to Android, check out our contribution guidelines.

In the meantime, check out the Platform Support guide for current iOS support details.