MobileDev-Bench: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Evaluating Language Models on Mobile Application Development

arXiv cs.LG / 3/27/2026

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Key Points

  • MobileDev-Bench is introduced as a new benchmark for evaluating LLMs on real-world mobile application development tasks, covering Android Native (Java/Kotlin), React Native (TypeScript), and Flutter (Dart).
  • The benchmark includes 384 issue-resolution tasks paired with executable test patches, allowing fully automated validation of model-generated fixes in mobile build environments.
  • The tasks are notably complex, averaging fixes across 12.5 files and 324.9 lines, with 35.7% of instances requiring coordinated multi-artifact changes (e.g., source and manifest files).
  • Evaluations of four code-capable state-of-the-art models (GPT-5.2, Claude Sonnet 4.5, Gemini Flash 2.5, Qwen3-Coder) show low end-to-end resolution rates of 3.39%–5.21%, highlighting substantial gaps versus other software-engineering benchmarks.
  • The study identifies systematic bottlenecks in fault localization for coordinated multi-file, multi-artifact changes, suggesting where future model improvements are most needed for mobile dev workflows.

Abstract

Large language models (LLMs) have shown strong performance on automated software engineering tasks, yet existing benchmarks focus primarily on general-purpose libraries or web applications, leaving mobile application development largely unexplored despite its strict platform constraints, framework-driven lifecycles, and complex platform API interactions. We introduce MobileDev-Bench, a benchmark comprising 384 real-world issue-resolution tasks collected from 18 production mobile applications spanning Android Native (Java/Kotlin), React Native (TypeScript), and Flutter (Dart). Each task pairs an authentic developer-reported issue with executable test patches, enabling fully automated validation of model-generated fixes within mobile build environments. The benchmark exhibits substantial patch complexity: fixes modify 12.5 files and 324.9 lines on average, and 35.7% of instances require coordinated changes across multiple artifact types, such as source and manifest files. Evaluation of four state-of-the-art code-capable LLMs, GPT- 5.2, Claude Sonnet 4.5, Gemini Flash 2.5, and Qwen3-Coder, yields low end-to-end resolution rates of 3.39%-5.21%, revealing significant performance gaps compared to prior benchmarks. Further analysis reveals systematic failure modes, with fault localization across multi-file and multi-artifact changes emerging as the primary bottleneck.