The androidx
namespace comprises the Android Jetpack libraries. Like the Support Library, libraries in the androidx
namespace ship separately from the Android platform and provide backward compatibility across Android releases.
AndroidX is a major improvement to the original Android
Support Library, which is no longer maintained.
androidx
packages fully replace the Support Library by providing feature parity and new libraries.
In addition, 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 correspondingandroidx.*
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. Theandroidx
packages use strict Semantic Versioning, starting with version 1.0.0. You can update AndroidX libraries in your project independently.Version 28.0.0 is the last release of the Support Library. There will be no more
android.support
library releases. All new feature development will be in theandroidx
namespace.
Using androidx
libraries in your project
See Migrating to AndroidX to learn how to migrate an existing project.
If you want to use androidx
-namespaced libraries 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 this flag is set totrue
, the Android plugin uses the appropriate AndroidX library instead of a Support Library. The flag isfalse
by default if it is not specified.android.enableJetifier
: When this flag is set totrue
, the Android plugin automatically migrates existing third-party libraries to use AndroidX dependencies by rewriting their binaries. The flag isfalse
by default if it is not specified.
API Reference
All the packages and classes in the androidx
namespace can be found in the
AndroidX reference section.
Additional Resources
Learn more about components on the Jetpack home page.
For more information about the package refactoring from the Support Library
to androidx
,
see the blog post
on that topic.