Android Gradle plugin 9.6 is a minor release that includes a variety of new features and improvements. ## Compatibility The maximum API level that Android Gradle plugin 9.6 supports is API level 37. Here is other compatibility info: | | Minimum version | Default version | Notes | |---:|:---:|:---:|:---:| | Gradle | 9.7.1 | 9.7.1 | To learn more, see [updating Gradle](https://developer.android.com/build/releases/gradle-plugin?buildsystem=ndk-build#updating-gradle). | | SDK Build Tools | 36.0.0 | 36.0.0 | [Install](https://developer.android.com/studio/intro/update#sdk-manager) or [configure](https://developer.android.com/tools/releases/build-tools) SDK Build Tools. | | NDK | N/A | 28.2.13676358 | [Install](https://developer.android.com/studio/projects/install-ndk#specific-version) or [configure](https://developer.android.com/studio/projects/install-ndk#apply-specific-version) a different version of the NDK. | | JDK | 17 | 17 | To learn more, see [setting the JDK version](https://developer.android.com/studio/intro/studio-config#jdk). |
## On-device code coverage for instrumented tests > [!WARNING] > **Experimental:** This is an experimental feature. To enable this feature, set `android.experimental.androidTest.coverage.useOnDeviceAgent=true` and `android.experimental.reportAggregationSupport=true` in your `gradle.properties` file. AGP 9.6.0-alpha01 adds on-device code coverage for instrumented tests. Instead of instrumenting your app's classes with JaCoCo at build time, AGP adds a coverage agent to your test APK, and the agent instruments the classes on the test device while your tests run. This removes the JaCoCo instrumentation step from builds that have `enableAndroidTestCoverage` enabled, and keeps coverage-tracking code out of your app's APK. You run the same `create{Variant}AndroidTestCoverageReport` task, and AGP generates the HTML and XML reports in the same location. On-device code coverage requires a debuggable app and a device that runs Android 9 (API level 28) or higher. AGP adds the coverage agent library, `com.android.tools.test:coverage-agent`, with the same version as AGP. For more information, see [View code coverage reports (with on-device agent)](https://developer.android.com/studio/test/on-device-code-coverage). ## Fixed issues ### Android Gradle plugin 9.6.0-alpha03 Fixed Issues **Android Gradle Plugin** [Issue #376975539](https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/376975539) Ladybug UI is slower than Koala [Issue #567487269](https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/567487269) Make analyzeReleaseR8Config output print out link to the report [Issue #396148600](https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/396148600) IDE Performance Slows to a Crawl During Gradle Build in large project **Lint Integration** [Issue #566069554](https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/566069554) \[AGP 9.x\] Broken Gradle cache: Moving sources fails Lint analysis ### Android Gradle plugin 9.6.0-alpha02 Fixed Issues **Android Gradle Plugin** [Issue #567815521](https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/567815521) Unsafe system properties read for R8 tasks ### Android Gradle plugin 9.6.0-alpha01 Fixed Issues **Android Gradle Plugin** [Issue #206104792](https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/206104792) shrinkresources does not work with library apks due to recent aapt2 change **Lint** [Issue #575549246](https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/575549246) Lint ThreadConstraint partial results are not deterministic across JVMs, which breaks build cache for lintAnalyze