LLMs in Mobile Apps: Practices, Challenges, and Opportunities

TL;DR

This paper explores how large language models are integrated into mobile apps, analyzing a dataset of 149 Android applications to identify practices, challenges, and opportunities for future development.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of LLM integration in mobile apps, highlighting prevalent strategies and challenges faced by developers.

Findings

Identification of common LLM integration practices in mobile apps.

Insights into challenges like device constraints and API management.

Guidance for future research and tooling development.

Abstract

The integration of AI techniques has become increasingly popular in software development, enhancing performance, usability, and the availability of intelligent features. With the rise of large language models (LLMs) and generative AI, developers now have access to a wealth of high-quality open-source models and APIs from closed-source providers, enabling easier experimentation and integration of LLMs into various systems. This has also opened new possibilities in mobile application (app) development, allowing for more personalized and intelligent apps. However, integrating LLM into mobile apps might present unique challenges for developers, particularly regarding mobile device constraints, API management, and code infrastructure. In this project, we constructed a comprehensive dataset of 149 LLM-enabled Android apps and conducted an exploratory analysis to understand how LLMs are deployed and used within mobile apps. This analysis highlights key characteristics of the dataset, prevalent integration strategies, and common challenges developers face. Our findings provide valuable insights for future research and tooling development aimed at enhancing LLM-enabled mobile apps.