Does Android Officially Support Java 8, and How Was Compatibility Handled Before?

Android and Java 8 Compatibility: An Official Inquiry

For Android developers, the question of Java 8 compatibility is often shrouded in uncertainty. This article seeks to clarify this issue by delving into the official documentation and providing a comprehensive answer.

Is Java 8 Supported on Android?

Originally, Android did not officially support Java 8. However, this has changed with the introduction of Android Studio 3.0, which now provides native support for Java 8. This means that you can now enjoy the benefits of Java 8, such as lambdas, streams, and method references, in your Android development projects.

Bridging the Gap with Retrolambda

Prior to Android Studio 3.0, developers could utilize gradle-retrolambda to bridge the compatibility gap between Java 8 and Android. This Gradle dependency integrated retrolambda, a tool that converted Java 8 bytecode to Java 6/7 bytecode, allowing the usage of Java 8 features in Android applications.

Android's Limited Java 7 Support

It's important to note that Android supports Java 7 only on devices running KitKat or later. However, even on these devices, the full Java 7 specification is not implemented, excluding the invokedynamic instruction.

Conclusion

In summary, Android Studio 3.0 now offers native support for Java 8, eliminating the need for third-party tools like gradle-retrolambda. Prior to this release, gradle-retrolambda provided a workaround for Java 8 compatibility, converting bytecode back to Java 6/7. Android's Java 7 support is limited to devices running KitKat or higher, with the invokedynamic instruction remaining unsupported.

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