Q:

Sending data using Avro objects, is there an advantage to using schema registry?

I have an application where I generate avro objects using an AVSC file and then produce using them objects. I can consumer then with the same schema in another application if I wish by generating the pojos there. This is done with an Avro plugin. The thing I noticed is that the schema doesn't exist in the schema registry.
I think if I change my producer type/settings it might create it there (I am using kafka spring). Is there any advantage to having it there, is what I am doing at the minute just serialization of data, is it the same as say just creating GSON objects from data and producing them? 
Is it bad practice not having the schema in the registry? 

A:

To answer the question, "is there an advantage" - yes. At the least, it allows for other applications to discover what is contained in the topic, whether that's another Java application using Spring, or not. 
You don't require the schemas to be contained within the consumer codebase
And you say you're using the Confluent serializers, but there's no way to "skip" schema registration, so the schemas should be in the Registry by default under "your_topic-value" 

