Topic

R8

1 post about R8. Every summary links to the original.

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Grab
Enabling R8 optimization at scale with AI-assisted debugging
Grab enabled R8 optimization for its Android app after repeated attempts were blocked by debugging difficulty, organization-wide testing demands, and slow build feedback. The effort targeted a roughly 10-year-old codebase exceeding 9 million lines and combined AI-assisted debugging, a pragmatic testing strategy, and infrastructure investment. Its QA build was configured to match production R8 processing. Beyond existing shrinking, optimization added techniques such as method inlining, class merging, constant folding, dead-code elimination, and devirtualization. After about 10 weeks with one engineer coordinating across teams, the project reported around 25% lower ANR rates, a 16% reduction in reference-device download size, and nearly 27% faster startup; the startup result combined R8 with corrected Baseline and Startup Profiles.

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Topic

1 post about R8. Every summary links to the original.

Paid picks we use ourselves. Links carry a referral code — a subscription through one earns us a commission at no extra cost to you.

Newest first

Grab
Enabling R8 optimization at scale with AI-assisted debugging
Grab enabled R8 optimization for its Android app after repeated attempts were blocked by debugging difficulty, organization-wide testing demands, and slow build feedback. The effort targeted a roughly 10-year-old codebase exceeding 9 million lines and combined AI-assisted debugging, a pragmatic testing strategy, and infrastructure investment. Its QA build was configured to match production R8 processing. Beyond existing shrinking, optimization added techniques such as method inlining, class merging, constant folding, dead-code elimination, and devirtualization. After about 10 weeks with one engineer coordinating across teams, the project reported around 25% lower ANR rates, a 16% reduction in reference-device download size, and nearly 27% faster startup; the startup result combined R8 with corrected Baseline and Startup Profiles.

The best engineering reads, once a week.