Understanding MVI Architecture in Android with Orbit

As the complexity of modern mobile applications increases, finding the right architecture pattern becomes crucial for ensuring scalability, maintainability, and testability. Among the prominent architectural patterns is MVI (Model-View-Intent), which emphasizes a unidirectional data flow.

Orbit, an MVI library for Kotlin Multiplatform, further simplifies this pattern by providing a clean and structured approach to state management.

In this article, we will explore the basics of MVI, its key principles, and how Orbit integrates with Android development.

What is MVI?

Model-View-Intent (MVI) is a reactive architecture that facilitates clear separation between the state, UI, and user actions. MVI enforces a unidirectional flow that helps manage complex UI states while keeping the business logic decoupled from the UI

Core Components of MVI

• Model: Represents the state of the uI. It’s immutable and updated based on the user’s interactions of data from external sources.
• View: The UI layer that renders the model. It observes the state and updates itself when the model changes.
• Intent: Describes the user’s actions or events that interact with the View and produce new states.

The interaction works like a cycle:

1. The View observes the Model.