Migrating App to Navigation 3: Pain, Overtimes, and Hotfixes
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A first-hand account of migrating a 170+ screen Android app from Navigation 2 to Navigation 3 in early 2026. The author details the two-week solo migration effort, key motivations (adaptive layouts, MVI alignment, Google's large-screen push), and unexpected challenges including the lack of incremental migration support, missing Bottom Sheet support in Nav3, deeplink restructuring, and a post-release serialization crash requiring a hotfix. The post also reflects on how Claude Code's later Nav3 migration support would have halved the effort, and closes with practical advice on when not to migrate and lessons learned around serialization, Bottom Sheet stack management, and stabilization time.
