Bring your own model - Android Developers Backstage
Summary
Android Studio engineers discuss the new Bring Your Own Model feature, allowing developers to use local or remote AI models like Anthropic and OpenAI alongside Gemini. They explain technical details including multimodal support, thinking modes for better reasoning, and planning features to keep agents on task. The episode also covers the Model Context Protocol for extending agent capabilities with custom tools, such as GitHub integration, and addresses challenges like context management and varying model capabilities.
Topics discussed
Introduction and Bring Your Own Model (BYOM) feature
Rebranding StudioBot to Gemini in Android Studio
Configuring third-party models and API integration
Local models, privacy, and offline capabilities
Multimodal support and the OpenAI protocol
Thinking mode and reasoning steps in models
Context management, history, and compression
Planning mode to keep agents on track
Streaming responses and UI indicators
Model capabilities, testing, and provider support
Token limits, context windows, and error handling
Model metadata, sorting, and benchmarking
Tool calls, agents, and code completion limitations
Model Context Protocol (MCP) and external tools
Figma integration via MCP and OAuth
Using agents.md for project context and verification
Agent behavior in large codebases and code search
Developer workflows: Kickstarting tasks and parallel tracks
Future features: Code execution and sandboxing
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