Is it possible to use Java 8 for Android development?

Question

Searching the web, it is not clear if Java 8 is supported for Android development or not.

Before I download/setup Java 8, can some one point me at any \"official\" d

Answer 1

Native Java 8 arrives on android! Finally!

remove the Retrolambda plugin and retrolambda block from each module's build.gradle file:

To disable Jack and switch to the default toolchain, simply remove the jackOptions block from your module’s build.gradle file

To start using supported Java 8 language features, update the Android plugin to 3.0.0 (or higher)

Starting with Android Studio 3.0 , Java 8 language features are now natively supported by android:

• Lambda expressions
• Method references
• Type annotations (currently type annotation information is not available at runtime but only on compile time);
• Repeating annotations
• Default and static interface methods (on API level 24 or higher, no instant run support tho);

Also from min API level 24 the following Java 8 API are available:

• java.util.stream
• java.util.function
• java.lang.FunctionalInterface
• java.lang.annotation.Repeatable
• java.lang.reflect.AnnotatedElement.getAnnotationsByType(Class)
• java.lang.reflect.Method.isDefault()

Add these lines to your application module’s build.gradle to inform the project of the language level:

 android {
   compileOptions {
       sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
       targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
   }

Disable Support for Java 8 Language Features by adding the following to your gradle.properties file:

android.enableDesugar=false

You’re done! You can now use native java8!