What is AndroidX

Question

I am reading about a room library of Android  I see they changed package android to androidx  I did not understand that  Can someone explain  please   implementation  androidx room room-runtime  room version  annotationProcessor  androidx room room-compiler  room version    Even this is available with the android package also   implementation  android arch persistence room runtime  room version  annotationProcessor  android arch persistence room compiler  room version     What was in need of packaging new support libraries in androidx instead of android  Use case and affect factors in existing projects

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Android provides a couple of different library sets  One is called the Android support Library  and the other is called AndroidX  Selecting  Use android   artifacts  indicates that we want to use AndroidX

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I got to know about AndroidX from this Android Dev Summit video  The summarization is -    No more support library  The android support library will be never maintained by Google under the support library namespace  So if you want to find fixes of a bug in support library you must have to migrate your project in AndroidX Better package management  For standardized and independent versioning Because previous support library versioning was too confusing  It will release you the pain of     All com android support libraries must use the exact same version specification    message   Other God libraries have migrated to AndroidX  Google play services  Firebase  Mockito 2  etc are migrated to AndroidX   New libraries will be published using AndroidX artifact   All the libraries will be in the AndroidX namespace like Android Jetpack

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This article Android Jetpack  What do the recent announcements mean for Android   s Support Library  explains it well  Today  many consider the Support Library an essential part of Android app development  to the point where it   s used by 99 percent of apps in the Google Play store  However  as the Support Library has grown  inconsistencies have crept in surrounding the library   s naming convention  Initially  the name of each package indicated the minimum API level supported by that package  for example  support-v4  However  version 26 0 0 of the Support Library increased the minimum API to 14  so today many of the package names have nothing to do with the minimum supported API level  When support-v4 and the support-v7 packages both have a minimum API of 14  it   s easy to see why people get confused  To clear up this confusion  Google is currently refactoring the Support Library into a new Android extension library  AndroidX  package structure  AndroidX will feature simplified package names  as well as Maven groupIds and artifactIds that better reflect each package   s content and its supported API levels  With the current naming convention  it also isn   t clear which packages are bundled with the Android operating system  and which are packaged with your application   s APK  Android Package Kit   To clear up this confusion  all the unbundled libraries will be moved to AndroidX   s androidx   namespace  while the android   package hierarchy will be reserved for packages that ship with the Android operating system

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AndroidX is the open-source project that the Android team uses to develop  test  package  version and release libraries within Jetpack    After hours of struggling  I solved it by including the following within app build gradle   android       compileOptions           sourceCompatibility JavaVersion VERSION 1 8         targetCompatibility JavaVersion VERSION 1 8           Put these flags in your gradle properties  android enableJetifier true android useAndroidX true  Changes in gradle   implementation  androidx appcompat appcompat 1 0 2  implementation  androidx constraintlayout constraintlayout 1 1 3  implementation  androidx legacy legacy-support-v4 1 0 0  implementation  com google android material material 1 1 0-alpha04    When migrating on Android studio  the app gradle file is automatically updated with the correction library impleemntations from the standard library  Refer to  https   developer android com jetpack androidx migrate

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Based on the documentation      androidx is new package structure to make it clearer which packages   are bundled with the Android operating system  and which are packaged   with your app s APK  Going forward  the android   package hierarchy   will be reserved for Android packages that ship with the operating   system  other packages will be issued in the new androidx   package   hierarchy    The re-designed package structure is to encourage smaller and more focused libraries  You find details regarding the artifact mappings here   There are support libraries  containing component and packages for backward compatibility  named  v7  when the minimal SDK level supported is 14  the new naming makes it clear to understand the division between APIs bundled with platform and the libraries for app developers which are used on different versions of Android  You can refer to official announcement for more details

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AndroidX - Android Extension Library From AndroidX documentation  We are rolling out a new package structure to make it clearer which packages are bundled with the Android operating system  and which are packaged with your app s APK  Going forward  the android   package hierarchy will be reserved for Android packages that ship with the operating system  Other packages will be issued in the new androidx   package hierarchy as part of the AndroidX library   Need of AndroidX AndroidX is a redesigned library to make package names more clear  So from now on android hierarchy will be for only android default classes  which comes with android operating system and other library dependencies will be part of androidx  makes more sense   So from now on all the new development will be updated in androidx  com android support      androidx  com android support appcompat-v7   androidx appcompat appcompat com android support recyclerview-v7   androidx recyclerview recyclerview com android support design   com google android material material Complete Artifact mappings for AndroidX packages AndroidX uses Semantic-version Previously  support library used the SDK version but AndroidX uses the Semantic-version  It   s going to re-version from 28 0 0   1 0 0  How to migrate current project In Android Studio 3 2  September 2018   there is a direct option to migrate existing project to AndroidX  This refactor all packages automatically  Before you migrate  it is strongly recommended to backup your project   Existing project   Android Studio  gt  Refactor Menu  gt  Migrate to AndroidX    It will analyze and will open Refractor window in bottom  Accept changes to be done     New project  Put these flags in your gradle properties android enableJetifier true android useAndroidX true  Check  Library mappings for equal AndroidX package  Check  Official page of Migrate to AndroidX What is Jetifier  Bugs of migrating  If you build app  and find some errors after migrating  then you need to fix those minor errors  You will not get stuck there  because that can be easily fixed  3rd party libraries are not converted to AndroidX in directory  but they get converted at run time by Jetifier  so don t worry about compile time errors  your app will run perfectly   Support 28 0 0 is last release  From Android Support Revision 28 0 0  This will be the last feature release under the android support packaging  and developers are encouraged to migrate to AndroidX 1 0 0  So go with AndroidX  because Android will update only androidx package from now  Further Reading https   developer android com topic libraries support-library androidx-overview https   android-developers googleblog com 2018 05 hello-world-androidx html

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It is the same as AppCompat versions of support but it has less mess of v4 and v7 versions so it is much help from Using the different components of android XML elements

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AndroidX is the open-source project that the Android team uses to develop  test  package  version and release libraries within Jetpack   AndroidX is a major improvement to the original Android Support Library  Like the Support Library  AndroidX ships separately from the Android OS and provides backward-compatibility across Android releases  AndroidX fully replaces the Support Library by providing feature parity and new libraries      AndroidX includes the following features     All packages in AndroidX live in a consistent namespace starting with the string androidx  The Support Library packages have been mapped into the corresponding androidx   packages  For a full mapping of all the old classes and build artifacts to the new ones  see the Package Refactoring page  Unlike the Support Library  AndroidX packages are separately maintained and updated  The androidx packages use strict Semantic Versioning starting with version 1 0 0  You can update AndroidX libraries in your project independently  All new Support Library development will occur in the AndroidX library  This includes maintenance of the original Support Library artifacts and introduction of new Jetpack components    Using AndroidX  See Migrating to AndroidX to learn how to migrate an existing project   If you want to use AndroidX in a new project  you need to set the compile SDK to Android 9 0  API level 28  or higher and set both of the following Android Gradle plugin flags to true in your gradle properties file    android useAndroidX  When set to true  the Android plugin uses the appropriate AndroidX library instead of a Support Library  The flag is false by default if it is not specified  android enableJetifier  When set to true  the Android plugin automatically migrates existing third-party libraries to use AndroidX by rewriting their binaries  The flag is false by default if it is not specified    For Artifact mappings see this

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androidx will replace support library after 28 0 0  You should migrate your project to use it  androidx uses Semantic Versioning  Using AndroidX will not be confused by version that is presented in library name and package name  Life becomes easier    AndroidX and support compatibility

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Just some bits addition from my side to all available answers Need of AndroidX  As said in amazing answer by  KhemRaj   With the current naming convention  it isn   t clear which packages are bundled with the Android operating system  and which are packaged with your application   s APK  Android Package Kit   To clear up this confusion  all the unbundled libraries will be moved to AndroidX   s androidx   namespace  while the android   package hierarchy will be reserved for packages that ship with the Android operating system   Other than this  Initially  the name of each package indicated the minimum API level supported by that package  for example support-v4  However  version 26 0 0 of the Support Library increased the minimum API to 14  so today many of the package names have nothing to do with the minimum supported API level  When support-v4 and the support-v7 packages both have a minimum API of 14  it   s easy to see why people get confused   So now with AndroidX  there is no dependence on the API level    Another important change is that the AndroidX artifacts will update independently  so you   ll be able to update individual AndroidX libraries in your project  rather than having to change every dependency at once  Those frustrating    All com android support libraries must use the exact same version specification    messages should become a thing of the past

[android] What is AndroidX?

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