Detect java version on Android phone at runtime

Question

Is there way to programatically from an Android app detect the version of Java that the phone supports?

i.e. to see if the phone can run java 8 bytecode for instance?

Answer 1

There is no such thing called Java version in android device. When you compile Java code to build android application, it is converted into DEX format from class file and it runs in Dalvik Virtual machine or Android Runtime (ART). The conversion of Java code to DEX format happens in compile time, so it is not required to have latest Java to interpret the DEX file in the runtime.

But you need to note that all class definations of Java may not exist in an android device. For example, the method java.util.Base64.getDecoder() is available as of JDK 1.8, and it can be used in android API level 17 or above. But code with lambda expression (JDK 1.8 feature) can run in lower API levels too.