Java 8 in Android N

The new Android N SDK provides support to the new features Java 8 introduced on its release. In the following pages, we will go through them to understand how they can be helpful while developing our application, and go through the new toolchain introduced to improve timings while building the APK file.

Setup

In order to use the new Java 8 features, we need to target the new Android N and use the new Android Studio 2.1 that supports Android N, otherwise, those features won't be available. At the time of the writing this book, the new Android Studio 2.1 is in preview version. However, we can use it to have a better understanding of the steps to follow to use Java 8 and its new features in our projects. This is because the new Jack toolchain, introduced in Android MarshMallow (API Level 23), which we will discuss in greater detail in the following pages, with the new Gradle plugin, is the only way to compile through Java 8 and use the features we will go through in...