Does Java 8 Enhance Android Development?

Can Java 8 Enhance Android Development?

While searching for information online, it can be unclear whether Java 8 is compatible with Android development. Before proceeding with the installation, let's explore the official documentation to determine the supported Java version.

Official Documentation

According to the latest updates as of 2017/11/04, Android Studio 3.0 now offers native support for Java 8, eliminating the need for gradle-retrolambda. Comprehensive migration instructions are available at https://developer.android.com/studio/write/java8-support.html.

Prior to Native Support

Before this enhancement, Android only supported up to Java 7 and lacked invokedynamic, recognizing only the new syntax sugar. However, developers could utilize gradle-retrolamba as a workaround to employ lambdas in Android. This tool, leveraging retrolambda, converted Java 8 bytecode back to its Java 6/7 equivalent.

In this scenario, Android Studio was configured to compile Java 8 bytecode, enabling the use of lambdas. Retrolambda subsequently converted the code to Java 6/7 bytecode, which was ultimately translated into dalvik bytecode. Although considered a workaround, it served as an avenue to experiment with JDK 8 features in Android prior to official support.

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