What's so great about R8?

What's so great about R8?

From Android Developers Backstage by Android Developers

February 18, 2026 · 1h 7m

About this episode

The episode discusses R8, a whole-program optimizer that enhances app performance on devices.

Join hosts Tor and Romain as they sit down with Søren Gjesse, Chris Craik, and Shai Barack. This week, the team dives into R8, the whole-program optimizer that handles the "last mile" of your code before it runs on a device. Learn why implementing R8 is effectively like giving your users a "free hardware upgrade" by making their current devices perform like models that are years newer. Enable app optimization → https://goo.gle/R8-Optimizer Chapters: 0:00 - Intro 0:23 - What is R8? 1:16 - R8 vs D8 1:40 - Tree Shaking & Dead Code 4:14 - Handling Reflection 10:10 - Performance Co-Optimization 13:03 - Kotlin-Specific Gains 16:22 - Real-World Impact 41:50 - Jetpack Compose & R8 50:51 - Keep annotations 1:03:49 - The "Free Hardware Upgrade"

People in this episode

Hosts: Tor, Romain

Guests: Søren Gjesse, Chris Craik, Shai Barack

Topics covered

  • R8
  • code optimization
  • performance improvement
  • Kotlin
  • app development
  • hardware upgrade

Keywords

  • R8
  • D8
  • Tree Shaking
  • Dead Code
  • Reflection
  • Performance Co-Optimization
  • Kotlin Gains
  • Real-World Impact
  • Jetpack Compose

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Jetpack Compose

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