Moving From Glide To Coil

Android Native

For many years, Glide has been a popular library for loading images in Android apps. However, in recent times, Coil has emerged as a powerful alternative that promises to offer better performance, more features, and improved flexibility. If you are still using Glide in your Android app, it may be time to consider moving to Coil.

I have successfully translated current working “legacy” app to Coil from Glide and it went quick and well because I used a “helper” code in everyplace where I needed the image manipulation, so, it was cool enough.

What is Glide?

Glide is an open-source library that provides an easy way to load and display images in Android applications. It is a widely used library with over 35,000 stars on Github, and it offers features such as caching, resizing, and error handling. Glide is well documented, and it has a large user community, which means that you can easily find support and help when you need it.

What is Coil?

Coil is a relatively new image loading library for Android applications. It was released in 2019 and has been gaining popularity ever since. Coil is designed to be a fast, lightweight, and modern library for loading images. It offers many features similar to Glide, such as caching, resizing, and error handling, but it also provides some unique features such as support for loading SVGs, and a Kotlin-first API.

Why move from Glide to Coil?

There are several reasons why you may want to consider moving from Glide to Coil. Here are some of the most significant:

1. Performance: Coil is designed to be lightweight and fast, which means that it can load images quicker than Glide. This can lead to better user experiences and reduced loading times in your app.
2. Kotlin-first API: Coil was designed with Kotlin in mind, which means that it offers a more concise and intuitive API for developers using Kotlin in their projects. As my app was already in Kotlin — it was a natural solution.
3. Better memory management: Coil is designed to be memory efficient, which means that it can load images without consuming excessive amounts of memory. This can be a significant advantage, especially for devices with limited memory.
4. Improved flexibility: Coil offers more flexibility than Glide, with support for customizing caching, resizing, and error handling. This makes it easier to integrate into your app and tailor it to your specific needs.

How to move from Glide to Coil?

Moving from Glide to Coil is relatively straightforward, and there are several resources available online to help you make the transition. Here are some general steps you can follow:

1. Replace Glide with Coil in your build.gradle file: You will need to add the Coil dependency to your app’s build.gradle file and remove the Glide dependency. Of course this can be done one by one.
2. Replace Glide’s ImageLoader with Coil’s ImageLoader: You will need to update your code to use Coil’s ImageLoader instead of Glide’s ImageLoader.
3. Update your caching and resizing options: Coil offers different options for caching and resizing images, so you will need to update your code to use Coil’s options.
4. Test and debug: Finally, you will need to test and debug your app to ensure that everything works as expected.

Conclusion

Moving from Glide to Coil may require some effort, but it can be a worthwhile investment for the performance and flexibility benefits it offers. Coil is a modern and lightweight library for loading images in Android applications, and it has gained popularity in recent times. If you are considering a switch, make sure to research and understand the differences between the two libraries, and plan your migration carefully to avoid any issues. I see that this translation made my app quicker and more perfomant, so it was a good thing to do.