
Meta Tech Podcast
Brought to you by Meta. In addition to remaining active in the open source community and conference circuit, this podcast offers another channel that allows us to highlight the technical work of our engineers who will discuss everything from low-level frameworks to end-user features. Throughout the podcast, Meta engineer Pascal Hartig (@passy) will interview developers in the company.
Latest episodes

Apr 7, 2021 • 47min
28: Modularising iOS Apps with Fabio
Fabio joins Pascal to go deep into a listener question: How does Facebook modularise iOS applications? After discussing the state of the iOS build systems and package managers out in the wild, they turn to Buck, Facebook’s monorepo build system, and how it helps developers to define clear module boundaries. One of the problems when a new module is only one new folder away are dependency graphs which look like a big ball of spaghetti. Thankfully, Buck offers some ways of taming sprawling graphs before they get out of control. Topics: Litho: https://fblitho.com/ Litho RenderCore: https://github.com/facebook/litho/tree/master/litho-rendercore Flipper: https://fbflipper.com/ ComponentKit: https://componentkit.org/ Pragma Conference 2016 - Fabio Milano - 'I have a framework idea' - Repeat less, share more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml6NSv5wDRU Buck: https://buck.build/ Spiritfarer: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12924108/ Ori and the Will of the Wisps: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8329350/

Feb 4, 2021 • 48min
27: Using Data for Better Android Notifications with Garima
Garima joins Rachel (@rachelnabors) and Pascal (@passy) to discuss the challenges of building custom layouts for notifications in a fragmented Android ecosystem. They discuss how sampled data helps to ensure that our billions of daily active people get the best possible experience and users on older phones aren’t left behind. If you ever wondered what the “useful” and “not useful” buttons on Facebook notifications actually do and how you clicking on them could help not just you, but all people on Facebook have a better experience, listen in! Please do send us feedback! You can reach us via email mobilepodcasts@fb.com, Twitter (@insidefbmobile) or Instagram (insidefbmobile). Timestamps Intro 0:06 Garima early days at FB 1:16 Notification Infrastructure 5:21 Outro 46:12 Bloopers 46:46

Nov 26, 2020 • 57min
26: Kotlin Redux with Thomas
Rachel (@rachelnabors) and Pascal (@passy) are back for another interview about Android infrastructure at FB. Thomas joins them to share how the internal Kotlin adoption has progressed since the last time we checked in with Sergey on the topic. In the deeply technical discussion, the three discuss how ABI generation speeds up builds, which Kotlin language features still need to be used with caution and what a plan to 100% Kotlin for Android might look like. Please do send us feedback! You can reach us via email mobilepodcasts@fb.com, Twitter (@insidefbmobile) or Instagram (insidefbmobile). Topics React 17: https://reactjs.org/blog/2020/10/20/react-v17.html React Native docs update: https://reactnative.dev/blog/2020/07/23/docs-update ktfmt: https://github.com/facebookincubator/ktfmt Timestamps Intro 0:00 News 1:00 Interview 7:28 Outro 44:44 Bloopers 52:29

Aug 28, 2020 • 46min
25: Instagram Reels with Kevin and Martin
For another socially distant interview, Pascal and Rachel are joined by Martin and Kevin who work on Instagram Reels, which had its global launch just a few weeks ago. They lift the veil on country tests, what makes stitching videos seamlessly together so hard on Android and iOS and share their thoughts on the short-form video space in general. You will also learn why doing the simple thing first really pays off when working on complex projects. Before the interview, Pascal walks you through the recent events in the Facebook Open Source space. Please do send us feedback! You can reach us via email mobilepodcasts@fb.com, Twitter (@insidefbmobile) or Instagram (insidefbmobile). Topics Hermes: https://hermesengine.dev/ Facebook Open Source on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCQY962PmHabTjaHv2wJzfQ Docusaurus v2: https://v2.docusaurus.io/ Timestamps Intro 0:05 News 1:16 Interview 3:32 Outro 43:02 Bloopers 43:45

Jul 22, 2020 • 40min
24: COVID-19 Hub with Chang, Jarman and Zaven
Inside Facebook Mobile is back for a special interview with the team behind the Facebook COVID-19 Info Centre. Chang, Jarman and Zaven share their experiences of building and shipping a global product like this over the course of just a few weeks. We discuss how the early architectural decisions enabled the seamless collaboration with tens of teams that were all working remotely. Before we get to the interview, Mihaela joins Pascal for a quick check-in on Litho, the native UI framework for Android, and Flipper, an extensible dev-tools platform for mobile. Please do send us feedback! You can reach us via email mobilepodcasts@fb.com, Twitter (@insidefbmobile) or Instagram (insidefbmobile). Topics COVID-19 Hub: https://www.facebook.com/covid-19 Litho: https://fblitho.com/ Flipper: https://fbflipper.com/ Timestamps Intro 0:06 News: Litho 1:09 News: Flipper 4:31 Interview 7:27 Post-Interview 35:36 Outro 37:50 Bloopers 38:14

Apr 17, 2020 • 28min
23: Organising the Women of React Remote Conf
With large-scale public events seeming rather distant right now, the concept of virtual conferences is an exciting way to stay in touch with people and learn new things. Pascal is joined by the organising team of the Women of React conference, where women take the virtual stage, but everyone is welcome to attend and participate. Cassidy, Sara, Kevin, Jenn and our very own Rachel share how they came up with the idea and what you need to kick off your own online conference. The conference will happen on Saturday, April 25, 2020 and you can register for free at https://womenofreact.com/. Please do send us feedback! You can reach us via email mobilepodcasts@fb.com, Twitter (@insidefbmobile) or Instagram (insidefbmobile). Topics Women of React: https://womenofreact.com/ event.Handler() pod: https://eventhandlerpod.com/ Board Game Arena: https://boardgamearena.com/ Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 1:54 - Interview 27:28 - Outro

Mar 31, 2020 • 59sec
Update: No Interview Episode for March
Unfortunately due to the current global pandemic, we don't have an interview for you, but stay tuned and subscribe to the feed for some remote interviews in the near future. Do follow @passy, @rachelnabors, and @insidefbmobile for updates.

Feb 29, 2020 • 60min
22: Scaling WhatsApp with Silky
For the first time, Rachel and Pascal are joined by a guest from WhatsApp. Silky walks the two through a staggering array of optimisations WhatsApp deploy to make sure that text, media and documents arrive quickly, reliably and safely on the other end. They discuss going from five to six nines of reliability for Facebook’s distributed blob store, POPs, FNAs, and fighting abuse on an end-to-end encrypted platform. As ever, before the interview, Pascal and Rachel discuss some news from the Open Source world, including React Native documentation updates, an exciting contracting opportunity on the Docusaurus project and the latest Facebook Open Source statistics. Please do send us feedback! You can reach us via email mobilepodcasts@fb.com, Twitter (@insidefbmobile) or Instagram (insidefbmobile). Topics React Native Docs: https://reactnative.dev/docs/getting-started Docusaurus Contract: https://profacebook.applytojob.com/apply/hZPoVr1Eoj/Front-End-Engineer-V Open source year 2019 in review: https://engineering.fb.com/open-source/open-source-2019/ Evolution of WhatsApp within Facebook’s data centers: https://atscaleconference.com/videos/evolution-of-whatsapp-within-facebooks-data-centers/ WhatsApp on how it’s fighting bulk messaging and fake accounts: https://venturebeat.com/2019/02/06/whatsapp-on-how-its-fighting-bulk-messaging-and-fake-accounts/ How WhatsApp Reduced Spam for Over 1 Billion People: https://developers.facebook.com/videos/f8-2017/how-whatsapp-reduced-spam-for-over-1-billion-people/ Timestamps Intro 0:05 News: React Native Docs 1:02 News: Docusaurus Contractor 1:52 News: Open Source in Review 2019 3:10 Interview with Silky 5:05 Sharding Graph Databases 6:10 Getting into CompSci 7:45 Scaling an Exabyte Blob Store 9:00 Benefits of Shared Infrastructure 13:46 Going from 5 to 6 Nines 17:19 POPs 18:09 ISP-Level Caches 19:19 Making WhatsApp New-Year-Safe 22:13 Fighting Encrypted Abuse at WhatsApp 25:00 Encrypted Media Forwarding 32:45 ML Teams at FB 35:42 Transition to Management (and Back) 37:37 Outro 43:56 Aftershow/Outtakes 48:55 Harley Quinn: Birds Of Prey 50:59

Jan 31, 2020 • 1h
21: Kotlin at Facebook with Sergey
Pascal is joined by Rachel in the co-host chair for this first episode of the new decade. The two interview Sergey from the Android UI Frameworks team to discuss the long-awaited rollout of Kotlin within Facebook. Sergey himself is currently working on a new set of APIs for building UI components in Kotlin. With Rachel’s background in React and React Native, they explore some of the inspirations and differences between React, React Native and Litho before talking about the design of new Kotlin APIs for Litho. The last part of the conversation focuses on the gradual adoption of Kotlin at Facebook and why this is a big undertaking at a company operating at this scale. Please do send us feedback! You can reach us via email mobilepodcasts@fb.com, Twitter (@insidefbmobile) or Instagram (insidefbmobile). Links Litho: https://fblitho.com/ React Native Docs: https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/getting-started Flipper: https://fbflipper.com/ ktfmt: https://github.com/facebookincubator/ktfmt Redex: https://github.com/facebook/redex Redex IFBM Episode: https://pca.st/J3cn Timestamps Intro 0:00 React Native Docs Update 0:58 Flipper Sidebar Reorganisation 4:42 Interview with Sergey 8:01 Litho and React-style UI frameworks 14:47 Kotlin API Design 27:53 Kotlin at Facebook 36:30 Redex Code Optimisation 39:25 Introducing New Languages at Facebook 40:32 Facebook Mobile Build Infrastructure 41:19 Litho's Target Audience 43:07 Educating About New Languages 46:29 Code Formatting (ktfmt) 48:45 Current Kotlin Use at Facebook 50:21 Outro 51:41 Bloopers 55:40

Dec 20, 2019 • 43min
20: droidcon London 2019, Part II
For the last episode of the decade, Pascal is joined by Inside Facebook Mobile royalty Emil, who shares what he has been up to since his last appearance on the podcast and how Facebook Open Source is still part of his day-to-day work. Then we head over to Droidcon UK 2019 again, where Pascal interviews Aziz from the Android Native UI Frameworks team about benchmarking UI components, followed by a chat with Aziz’s teammates Andy and Pasquale about effective multi-threading on Android. Unfortunately, the video recordings of the talks are still unavailable, but we will update you if that changes. Please do send us feedback! You can reach us via email mobilepodcasts@fb.com, Twitter (@insidefbmobile) or Instagram (insidefbmobile). News and Topics fbjni: https://github.com/facebookincubator/fbjni Jest: https://jestjs.io/ Litho: https://fblitho.com/ Flipper: http://fbflipper.com/ Visly: http://visly.app/ Facebook and Microsoft Partnering on Remote Development: https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2019/11/19/facebook-microsoft-partnering-remote-development/ The Diff - Talking Libra with Eric Nakagawa: https://thediffpodcast.com/docs/episode-8 Timestamps Intro fbjni 3:43 News: FB and MS work on VS Code 8:47 Skip Language (http://skiplang Interviews 11:55 Interview: Aziz on UI Benchmarking 12:20 Interview: Pasquale and Andy on Threading 21:00 Post-Interview Chat with Emil 32:36 Outro 41:03 Bloopers 41:44