Lycana on Android: What We're Building

Lycana Is Coming to Android

Since launching on iOS, the most frequent question we have received is: "When is it coming to Android?" The honest answer: it is being built now, and it is not ready yet.

This is not a quick port or a web wrapper. Lycana for Android is a fully native app built with Jetpack Compose and Material 3, designed to feel at home on Android while sharing the same core logic that powers the iOS app through Kotlin Multiplatform. That takes longer than wrapping the iOS app, and we would rather take the time.

We will not put it in front of people until the storage layer is finished and encrypted to the same standard as the iOS build. Below is what we are building, so you can judge whether it is worth waiting for. It describes the finished app, not the current build — custom symptoms, for one, are still a fixed set on Android today.

What Is Being Built

Symptom Tracking

The same comprehensive symptom tracking system from iOS, adapted for Android:

• Daily check-ins — log your symptoms, energy level, mood, and medications in under a minute
• Body map — the 16-zone interactive body map for pinpointing where symptoms are hitting
• Custom symptoms — track what matters to you, not just a pre-set list
• Severity scales — consistent 0-10 scales for tracking changes over time

Flare Risk Score

Lycana's signature feature — a 0-100 flare risk score that learns your personal patterns and helps you see flares approaching before they hit. The score is calculated using your symptom history, trends, and the pattern recognition engine in our shared Kotlin Multiplatform core.

Luna AI Coach

Luna's greetings, alerts and cards come from the same template system on every Android device — that is what ships, and it draws on the same medical knowledge base as iOS. Gemini Nano through ML Kit GenAI is wired to three auxiliary explanations on supported devices, not to the coach itself.

Luna can help you:

• Understand your symptom patterns
• Prepare for doctor appointments
• Make sense of your trends over time
• Answer common lupus questions with evidence-based information

Nutrition Tracking

Log meals, track anti-inflammatory foods, and see how your diet correlates with your symptoms over time. The nutrition module includes lupus-specific guidance on foods that may help or worsen inflammation.

Lab Tracking

Enter your blood test results and track trends in key lupus markers over time — ANA titers, complement levels, anti-dsDNA, CBC, and more. Visualize how your labs correlate with how you feel.

Doctor-Ready Reports

Generate PDF summaries of your symptoms, medications, and trends to bring to your rheumatologist. No more walking into appointments and trying to remember what happened over the last three months.

Health Connect Integration

On Android, Lycana integrates with Health Connect — Google's centralized health data API. This means Lycana can read data from your fitness tracker, smartwatch, or other health apps (with your permission) to incorporate:

• Step count and activity data
• Sleep duration and quality
• Heart rate trends

This data feeds into your overall health picture and contributes to the flare risk score.

Health Connect uses a polling-based model, so Lycana checks for new data periodically rather than receiving real-time updates. You control exactly what data Lycana can access through Health Connect's granular permissions.

Built for Android, Not Ported From iOS

We took a platform-native approach to the Android app:

• Jetpack Compose — modern declarative UI that follows Android design patterns
• Material 3 — Material You design language with a custom Lycana color scheme
• Dark theme — designed dark-first for photosensitivity-friendly viewing, matching our iOS approach
• Android navigation patterns — bottom navigation bar, back gesture support, and system integration that feels natural
• Adaptive layouts — works across phones and tablets

The app shares its core domain logic with iOS through Kotlin Multiplatform — the flare risk engine, SLEDAI estimation, schedule optimization, pattern recognition, and achievement system are all shared code backed by over 300 tests. The UI and platform integrations are fully native.

Privacy: The Standard We Have to Meet First

The commitment does not change by platform, and neither does the bar for release:

• All AI processing is on-device — Gemini Nano runs locally, no cloud calls
• No account required — no sign-up and no login. Setup does ask for a first name and a few details that shape your schedule, and they are kept on the device and never sent to us
• No analytics tracking — we do not track your behavior or sell your data
• Your health record stays on the device — there is no server holding an Android user's health data. Weather and clinical-trial lookups do reach out, the same as on iOS, and neither carries your health information. Android backs app data up to your Google account by default; that is a device-wide setting you can turn off in your backup settings, not something you switch off for Lycana alone

Encrypted storage is the piece that matters most, and it is not finished: the Android build's database is not yet encrypted at rest. On iOS, health data lives in the Keychain and a local database the system protects; the Android equivalent — SQLCipher over Room — is what we are completing first.

It is not the only gap. Data export still writes a placeholder file rather than your real records, and editing your profile is not wired up yet. Those go in before release too.

Lupus data is sensitive. It includes your medications, your symptoms on your worst days, your fears about the future. That data deserves infrastructure built around respect, regardless of which phone you use — which is exactly why we are not shipping the Android build until its storage matches that claim.

Planned Requirements

• Android 9 (API 28) or later
• Health Connect support requires Android 14+ for the best experience (available as a separate app on Android 9-13)
• Gemini Nano on-device AI requires supported devices with Android 14+ (Luna's template system works on all supported Android versions)

What Happens Next

There is no Google Play listing yet and no date we are willing to promise, because the remaining work is the kind that should not be rushed. When the storage layer is encrypted and tested, the Android build goes to Play — and this post will be updated to say so.

If you have been managing your lupus without structured tracking tools because you are on Android: we know, and it is being worked on.

Lycana for iPhone is available today on the App Store