[frowaway001]

It will likely be necessary to use existing third-party tools to translate newer bytecode back to a version which Android understand.

(Although I certainly hope that Google finally just deals with it and supports those class files by default in his dex/art software.)

[pjmlp]

They were pretty clear on the Android Google IO fireside talk that Java is Android's official language.

However they refrained to make any comment about Java 8 support when asked about it.

They went cheapskates by not wanting to pay Sun, it is about time they settle their issues with Oracle.