Use the Honeycomb OpenTelemetry Android SDK to collect telemetry data from your Android application and send it to Honeycomb. Instrumenting your application lets you measure how it behaves on actual devices, detect performance issues, and better understand how users experience your application.
This guide walks you through the process of instrumenting an Android application in your local development environment and verifying that telemetry is successfully flowing to Honeycomb.
Before getting started, make sure you have:
A Honeycomb account If you don’t already have an account, sign up for one. Honeycomb stores your data in either a US-based or EU-based location, depending on your account region:
Required Tools
A Honeycomb Ingest API Key
For this guide, you’ll need a Honeycomb Ingest API Key with the Can create services/datasets permission. This key lets your application send telemetry to Honeycomb and create a dataset for your service.
Add the required SDK dependencies. The Honeycomb Android SDK relies on the OpenTelemetry Android SDK, so both are required. When adding OpenTelemetry dependencies, make sure the library is compatible with the Honeycomb Android SDK.
In your build.gradle.kts, add these dependencies:
dependencies {
implementation("io.opentelemetry.android:android-agent:0.11.0-alpha")
implementation("io.honeycomb.android:honeycomb-opentelemetry-android:0.0.10")
}
If your application’s minSDK version is lower than 26, enable core library desugaring to support Java 8+ features:
android {
// ...
compileOptions {
isCoreLibraryDesugaringEnabled = true
sourceCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
targetCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
}
kotlinOptions {
jvmTarget = "1.8"
}
}
dependencies {
coreLibraryDesugaring(libs.desugar.jdk.libs)
}
If your application’s minSdk version is below 24, then running instrumentation tests or debug application builds requires that you:
android.useFullClasspathForDexingTransform=true to your gradle.properties. To start collecting telemetry, configure the SDK early in your application’s lifecycle.
This ensures that events such as startup time and early view loads are captured.
We recommend setting it up in the onCreate() method of your Application class, so configuration happens at application start.
Here’s a basic example configuration:
import io.honeycomb.opentelemetry.android.Honeycomb
import io.honeycomb.opentelemetry.android.HoneycombOptions
import io.opentelemetry.android.OpenTelemetryRum
class ExampleApp: Application() {
var otelRum: OpenTelemetryRum? = null
override fun onCreate() {
super.onCreate()
val options = HoneycombOptions.builder(this)
// Uncomment the line below to send to EU instance. Defaults to US.
// .setApiEndpoint("https://api.eu1.honeycomb.io:443")
.setApiKey("YOUR-API-KEY")
.setServiceName("YOUR-SERVICE-NAME")
.setServiceVersion("0.0.1")
.setDebug(true)
.build()
otelRum = Honeycomb.configure(this, options)
}
}
In this example, key configuration options include:
unknown_service.true to enable debug logs, which can help troubleshoot configuration issues during development. The OpenTelemetry Android Agent provides automatic instrumentation for common Android application components like activities, fragments, crashes, and rendering performance.
To enable all OpenTelemetry automatic instrumentations by default,include these dependencies:
dependencies {
implementation("io.opentelemetry.android:android-agent:0.11.0")
implementation("io.honeycomb.android:honeycomb-opentelemetry-android:0.0.9")
}
To be more selective, add only the modules you need:
| Feature | Dependency |
|---|---|
| Activity navigation | io.opentelemetry.android:instrumentation-activity |
| Application Not Responding (ANR) | io.opentelemetry.android:instrumentation-anr |
| Crash (uncaught exception) | io.opentelemetry.android:instrumentation-crash |
| Fragment navigation | io.opentelemetry.android:instrumentation-fragment |
| Slow rendering | io.opentelemetry.android:instrumentation-slowrendering |
Once your application is instrumented, check that telemetry data is reaching Honeycomb:
Confirm that debugging is enabled by setting .setDebug(true) in your SDK configuration.
Build and run your application.
Check your logs for output like this:
🐝 Honeycomb SDK Debug Mode Enabled 🐝
Honeycomb options: HoneycombOptions(...)
Not sampling, emitting all spans
serviceName value.If you don’t see any data, visit Troubleshooting.
Take a look at the data that you have generated using automatic instrumentation through the Android Launchpad or a custom Board.
If you’re using Honeycomb for Frontend Observability, the Android Launchpad provides a starting point for reviewing the telemetry from your Android application. The Launchpad helps you:
It’s a great place to start exploring how your application behaves in real-world conditions.
You can also explore your data by creating a Board from a pre-configured Board template. Our specialized template for mobile Android data includes a curated set of ready-made queries and visualizations based on the fields collected by the Honeycomb OpenTelemetry Android SDK.
This template gives you an immediate, actionable view into common mobile metrics, like application start times, cold launches, crashes, and session flows, without needing to build anything from scratch. You can use it as-is or customize it to fit your needs.
To learn more, visit Use Board Templates.
Running into issues? Here are some common problems and ways to fix them.
Make sure that you:
"YOUR-API-KEY" with a valid Ingest API Key.The Honeycomb OpenTelemetry Android SDK uses the value passed to .setApiKey() to send your telemetry data.
This must be set correctly for data to reach Honeycomb.
Check the value passed to .setServiceName().
This value determines the name of your dataset in Honeycomb.
If you leave it blank, the default will be unknown_service, which can make identifying your application harder later on.