# New Features in Android (Kotlin) SDK


This section highlights the new and improved features in the Android (Kotlin) SDK compared to the Android (Java) SDK.

## New features

The Android (Kotlin) SDK introduces several features not available in the Android (Java) SDK.

### Modern Kotlin concurrency

The Android (Kotlin) SDK leverages Kotlin coroutines and structured concurrency for non-blocking, main-thread-safe operations. Reactive state management ensures predictable state updates and thread-safe data access.

### Custom plugins

Custom plugins let you intercept and transform events at any point in the analytics pipeline. With this feature, you can:

- Enrich events with device context
- Filter out sensitive data or drop specific information (for example, `Application Opened` and `Application Backgrounded` events) before it leaves the device.

The new plugin system lets you add, remove, or modify custom plugins at runtime.

```kotlin
// Create custom plugins
class CustomEventFilter : Plugin {
    override val pluginType: Plugin.PluginType = Plugin.PluginType.OnProcess

    override suspend fun intercept(event: Event): Event? {
        // Custom filtering logic
        return event
    }
}

analytics.add(CustomEventFilter())
```

See the [Custom plugins]({{< ref "sources/event-streams/sdks/client-side-features/plugin-architecture/_index.md#custom-plugins" >}}) guide for more information.

### Multiple analytics instances

You can create and manage multiple analytics instances with different configurations.

Each instance maintains its own independent state, storage, and configuration — this is particularly useful for multi-tenant applications or tracking different data streams.

See the [Multiple Instance Support]({{< ref "sources/event-streams/sdks/client-side-features/multiple-instance-support.md" >}}) guide for more information.

### Custom logger

Allows custom logger implementations so you can route SDK logs to crash reporters, remote services, or your app's existing logging system.

See the [Logging APIs in Mobile SDKs]({{< ref "sources/event-streams/sdks/mobile-sdk-apis/logging-apis.md" >}}) guide for more information.

### Custom plugins in integrations

You can add custom plugins to any [supported integration]({{< ref "sources/event-streams/sdks/kotlin-sdk/device-mode-integrations.md" >}}) to enhance event handling and processing.

See [Add custom plugins to integrations]({{< ref "sources/event-streams/sdks/device-mode-integrations/usage.md#add-custom-plugins-to-integrations" >}}) for more information.

### Automatic screen tracking with `NavController`

The Android (Kotlin) SDK now supports automatic screen tracking for Jetpack Navigation. The legacy Android (Java) SDK had no built-in support for this — you had to manually call `screen` API for each navigation destination.

See the [Automatic Screen Tracking]({{< ref "sources/event-streams/sdks/client-side-features/automatic-screen-tracking.md#navigation-destination-tracking" >}}) guide for more information.

### Shutdown API

You can explicitly shut down the `analytics` instance to terminate all ongoing operations. The SDK automatically removes all registered plugins and releases allocated resources. All events recorded before shutdown are persisted and processed on the next startup.

```kotlin
analytics.shutdown()
```

See the [Shutdown API]({{< ref "sources/event-streams/sdks/mobile-sdk-apis/shutdown.md" >}}) guide for more information.