It is also the language that is most supported by the Android SDK and the Android Developer Tools. Java is robust, powerful, and easy to learn and use. Android app development can be done using different programming languages, but Java is the most popular and recommended language for Android development. With Kotlin 1.3, we’ve started supporting some Java 11 features that require additional libraries. Kotlin has full support for all Java 11 features that were compatible with Java 8. Since Kotlin 1.3, released at the end of 2018, Kotlin requires and works with Java 8 or later. There is a workaround available to use Gradle with Java 11 until official support is added. Gradle does not officially support Java 11 yet, however there is an issue open on their GitHub to add support for it. As a result, any code that uses Java 11 modules will not work on Android. In particular, modules are not supported. JDK 11) to compile your code, so long as you use the “–release” flag and target Android’s custom JRE.įinally, it is important to note that not all Java 11 features are supported on Android. However, you can still use newer versions of the JDK (e.g. Third, because Android’s custom JRE is based on OpenJDK 8u202, you must use this version of the JRE when running your code on Android.

This flag tells the Java compiler to target a specific version of the JRE, in this case, Android’s custom JRE. Second, when using Java 11 on Android, you must use the “–release” flag when compiling your code. At the time of this writing, the OpenJDK build that is compatible with Android is OpenJDK 8u202. As a result, only certain OpenJDK builds are compatible with Android.

However, there are some specific requirements and caveats that must be followed in order for Java 11 to work on Android.įirst, Android uses a custom version of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) which is based on OpenJDK. Android Studio 3.5 and later support all Java 7 language features and a subset of Java 8 language features that are compatible with Android.

Yes, you can use Java 17 with Android Studio as of version 3.5.

Is Java 11 fully backward compatible with Java 8?.

Android studio update incompatible