I’m trying to connect my Android app to Airtable to read and write data but running into some issues. I added the Airtable Java library to my project but keep getting errors when I try to use it.
In my app/build.gradle file I have these dependencies:
The app builds fine but crashes when I try to actually use the Airtable methods. I found there’s supposed to be an Android-specific version of this library but I can’t find it in the Maven repository.
Has anyone successfully integrated Airtable with Android? What’s the best way to resolve these compatibility issues?
The Airtable Java library has dependency conflicts with Android’s runtime environment, particularly with HTTP client libraries. I encountered similar crashes when attempting to use it directly in my projects last year. The issue stems from Android’s built-in HTTP handling conflicting with Apache HttpComponents that the library requires. Instead of fighting these compatibility issues, I recommend using OkHttp with direct REST API calls to Airtable. You’ll need your API key and base ID, then construct HTTP requests manually. While it requires more boilerplate code compared to the Java library’s convenience methods, it’s much more reliable and gives you better control over error handling. The Airtable REST API documentation is comprehensive and the endpoints are straightforward to work with once you get the authentication headers configured properly.