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

When I asked this question almost 2 years ago the answer really was “officially” no, but as pointed out by ekcr1's answer you can get one of the most highly anticipated features (lambdas) to work if you use retrolamba. At the time I was still using eclipse, as Android Studio was in “preview” mode, so I never did pursue this path.

Today, I think the “official” answer is still no, and while retrolamba still seems like a good way to go, there is another option for those willing to go down a somewhat “unofficial” route can take, namely Kotlin.

Today Kotlin reached 1.0.0. For those not familiar with Kotlin, more info can be found at their website found here:

https://kotlinlang.org

or watch this utube video of a talk given by Jake Wharton

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2LukgT2mKc