mDevCamp 2026: "Mobile development is stalling"

With Pavel Měsíček, who selects and orchestrates mDevCamp's speakers, on what was discussed out loud this year, and in the hallways too

If you had to name one theme that ran through the entire mDevCamp, whether planned or not, what would it be?

Cybersecurity. AI is everywhere of course, and the closing panel Beyond the Prompt underscored that nicely, but security was THE thing that connected everyone present, no matter which platform was their "home turf." It's simply a topic that concerns, and I'd dare say even unsettles, pretty much everyone in the tech community.

Which talks stuck with you the most, personally?

I'll stay on security for a moment. Cyril Čermák and his look at a "secured" iOS app through an attacker's eyes was, for a lot of people, the cherry on top of the whole mDevCamp. Cyril came prepared with a live analysis on a jailbroken device, and that's simply a different experience and a different kind of lesson than any slide deck can deliver. He won over pretty much everyone in the room.

Then there was Ben Freiband, who gave a great talk on the iOS Keychain, breaking the topic down all the way from login flows to multi-target apps, without any unnecessary workarounds. He was still standing in the middle of a crowd answering questions two hours after the talks ended, which to me is a clear sign the topic really struck a chord.

And of course the closing panel already mentioned, Beyond the Prompt. It was framed quite broadly, covering everything from the real costs of AI within companies, through open-source models, to the EU AI Act. I think that's exactly what people enjoyed. The world has stopped being closed off, and the mindset of "I just code here and nothing else concerns me" no longer cuts it.

What got discussed in the hallways, outside the official program?

The relevance of the whole field, and where mobile development is actually heading. Right now, more than ever, it's necessary to keep an eye on trends. The world is changing fast, and people working in tech sit right at the center of that change.

Did anything controversial come up? Anything that opened a debate without a clear conclusion?

A few things did. In the panel, for instance, I enjoyed the debate about the EU AI Act. Is it just another regulatory burden, or actually a tool developers can finally use to push back against constant pressure from clients, stakeholders, and management calling for "ship it as soon as possible"?

And then there's the question of open-source models versus subscriptions, and how that will affect pricing down the line, market structure, and how companies hire junior developers. Nobody has an answer to these yet, but everyone has them on their radar.

Where do you think mobile development is heading? Is it evolution, or is something fundamentally new coming?

Honestly, the world of mobile development is kind of stalling right now. Foldable devices have been around for a few years, but they're still a marginal share of users. There's talk about local AI right on the phone, about how apps might communicate with each other, or conversely, how it might become possible to pull information out of apps without the user ever having to open them. For users, that sounds appealing. But the question is whether companies want that too, since their apps are tied directly to their business, meaning their revenue. Wouldn't that cost apps their traffic, their sales, and their ad visibility? That's something the whole industry will need to figure out before too long.

What from this year's event will you keep following as a topic that still doesn't have an answer?

Cybersecurity, again. With the rise of AI, this topic shot up fast, and I think it's only going to climb further. Vibe coded apps will keep accumulating more vulnerabilities unless the process is properly covered by testing and security audits, and those vulnerabilities can keep piling up. It's a topic mobile development still hasn't solved.

mDevCamp is very much about community. Why does it make sense to meet offline in 2026?

Because networking here works differently than anywhere else. Conversations don't start at the afterparty. They start outside on a lounge chair over lunch, or over a drink in the middle of the day, completely unforced. The festival vibe of Holešovice Market adds a lot to that.

And it's interesting that people come to listen to very technical things, but then outside they end up talking about hiring, soft skills within teams, better development processes, or yes, you guessed it, AI. mDevCamp is the place where both of those meet.

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About mDevCamp

mDevCamp is the largest mobile development conference in the Czech Republic, now in its twelfth year. It's organized by the tech company Futured at Prague's Holešovice Market, with an emphasis on community-building and open knowledge-sharing. Each year the conference covers iOS, Android, Flutter, and Kotlin Multiplatform, always with a focus on practice over theory.

This year's edition was supported by general partner Guardsquare, master partners Česká spořitelna and Livesport, partners Flutter, Sky Czech Republic, Talsec, JetBrains, Codemagic, Maestro, Bitrise, and Netglade, along with other companies that support community events.