Google confirms next version of Android will no longer use Oracle's proprietary Java API

Google is planning to switch Java application programming interfaces (APIs) from Oracle's proprietary Java Development Kit (JDK) to the open source OpenJDK. Hacker News first exposed the "mysterious Android code base" last month, and Google also confirmed to VentureBeat that "Android N" will only rely on OpenJDK, rather than Android's own version of the Java API.

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A Google spokesperson told VentureBeat:

As an open source platform, Android is built on the collaboration of the open source community.

In our upcoming release of Android, we plan to migrate Android's Java language libraries to OpenJDK to create a common code base for developers to build applications and services.

Google has long been committed to contributing to and working with the OpenJDK community, and we look forward to making greater contributions to the OpenJDK project in the future.

Android provides some Java API libraries to support application development in the Java programming language, which are mainly divided into two parts - APIs for the library, and deployment code developed by Google that enables the library to work.

As for Java's current owner, Oracle, there are two implementations of these libraries - the proprietary JDK version, and the open source OpenJDK version.

Google decided to "consolidate" its efforts on OpenJDK, which Android already uses in some places, which means the company will share its implementation code.

Initial import of OpenJdk files.

Create new libcore/ojluni directory with src/main/java and src/main/native subdirectories.

Build ojluni into core-oj jar.

Use openjdk classes from java.awt.font package.

Copy all files from jdk/src/share/classes and jdk/src/solaris/classes directories in openjdk into libcore/ojluni/src/main/java.

Copy following native files from openjdk to libcore/ojluni/src/main/native: [long list of files]

The "code commit" mentioned above indicates that 8902 files have been changed, which clearly indicates that the OpenJDK code has been added to Android.

Google hopes that developers will be happy with this change because it simplifies the code they use to build applications (common code for these Java API libraries instead of multiple code bases).