# Improving Proficiency and Efficiency of Android GUI Agents via Self-Generating Tool Actions

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.06792 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.06792/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in GUI and mobile agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 29 of its 44 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 6 Sep 2026.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [GUI and mobile agents](https://mlsanity.com/agents/gui-and-mobile-agents/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 29 of 29)

- [Evaluating Large Language Models Trained on Code](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.03374/) (2021)
- [SWE-bench: Can Language Models Resolve Real-World GitHub Issues?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.06770/) (2023)
- [Qwen3-VL Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.21631/) (2025)
- [GEPA: Reflective Prompt Evolution Can Outperform Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.19457/) (2025)
- [AndroidWorld: A Dynamic Benchmarking Environment for Autonomous Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.14573/) (2024)
- [AppAgent: Multimodal Agents as Smartphone Users](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.13771/) (2023)
- [DigiRL: Training In-The-Wild Device-Control Agents with Autonomous Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.11896/) (2024)
- [You Only Look at Screens: Multimodal Chain-of-Action Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.11436/) (2023)
- [SkillOpt: Executive Strategy for Self-Evolving Agent Skills](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.23904/) (2026)
- [AndroidEnv: A Reinforcement Learning Platform for Android](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.13231/) (2021)
- [SPA-Bench: A Comprehensive Benchmark for SmartPhone Agent Evaluation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.15164/) (2024)
- [Mobile-Agent-v3.5: Multi-platform Fundamental GUI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.16855/) (2026)
- [Benchmarking Mobile Device Control Agents across Diverse Configurations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.16660/) (2024)
- [MobileSafetyBench: Evaluating Safety of Autonomous Agents in Mobile Device Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.17520/) (2024)
- [UFO2: The Desktop AgentOS](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.14603/) (2025)
- [CoAct-1: Computer-using Multi-Agent System with Coding Actions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.03923/) (2025)
- [UltraCUA: A Foundation Model for Computer Use Agents with Hybrid Action](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.17790/) (2025)
- [OSWorld-MCP: Benchmarking MCP Tool Invocation In Computer-Use Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.24563/) (2025)
- [From REST to MCP: An Empirical Study of API Wrapping and Automated Server Generation for LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.16044/) (2025)
- [Learning to Generate Unit Test via Adversarial Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.21107/) (2025)
- [MAS-Bench: A Unified Benchmark for Shortcut-Augmented Hybrid Mobile GUI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.06477/) (2025)
- [ToolCUA: Towards Optimal GUI-Tool Path Orchestration for Computer Use Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.12481/) (2026)
- [MobileUse: A GUI Agent with Hierarchical Reflection for Autonomous Mobile Operation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.16853/) (2025)
- [ToolFactory: Automating Tool Generation by Leveraging LLM to Understand REST API Documentations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.16945/) (2025)
- [WebCompass: Towards Multimodal Web Coding Evaluation for Code Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.18224/) (2026)
- [PhoneHarness: Harnessing Phone-Use Agents through Mixed GUI, CLI, and Tool Actions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.14832/) (2026)
- [LogiAgent: Automated Logical Testing for REST Systems with LLM-Based Multi-Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.15079/) (2025)
- [Doc2Agent: Scalable Generation of Tool-Using Agents from API Documentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.19998/) (2025)
- [Hi-Agent: Hierarchical Vision-Language Agents for Mobile Device Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.14388/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [OpenMobile-2: Building Versatile Mobile Agents with Scalable Environments and App-Native Tools](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.14157/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Android agents using a hybrid action space that combines GUI actions and tool actions (e.g., accessing application data via APIs) remain largely underexplored, mainly due to the excessive effort required to create tools. To address this gap, we introduce DroidTool, a framework for augmenting the agents with self-generated tools, which are realized as Python functions operating on application states (e.g., a database). To create tools with minimal human labor, DroidTool employs an agentic workflow featuring stages: proposal, implementation, test generation and execution, and repair. Notably, when testing the created tools for verification, it constructs relational tests across relevant tools for natural preparation of appropriate test preconditions and improved test coverage, rather than testing each tool separately. The GUI agents augmented with the generated tools achieved approximately 4.47%p higher performance with approximately 20.05% fewer interactions than the GUI-only agents, averaged across representative benchmarks: AndroidWorld, B-MoCA, and MobileSafetyBench.