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What's so great about R8? artwork
Technology

What's so great about R8?

Android Developers Backstage by Android Developers

Feb 18, 202601:06:30Technology

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 dev...

About This Episode

What's so great about R8? is an episode from Android Developers Backstage by Android Developers. 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-progra...

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Episode Details

Published Feb 18, 2026, 01:06:30 long, audio available.

Questions About This Episode

What is What's so great about R8? about?

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 → 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"

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Which podcast is What's so great about R8? from?

What's so great about R8? is an episode from Android Developers Backstage by Android Developers.

How long is this episode?

This episode is 01:06:30 long.

When was this episode published?

This episode was published on Feb 18, 2026.

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Are there related episodes from Android Developers Backstage?

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Where can I listen to What's so great about R8??

You can listen to What's so great about R8? on this page when the episode audio is available from the podcast feed.

Which podcast is this episode from?

What's so great about R8? is from Android Developers Backstage by Android Developers.

What are the episode details?

Published Feb 18, 2026 and 01:06:30 long