Android agent compatibility and requirements

Mobile monitoring is compliant with standard application stores, including Google Play Store, Amazon Appstore, and others. Before you install and configure the mobile agent with your Android applications, follow these guidelines for compatibility and other requirements.

Foreground monitoring

The Android agent only monitors your app while it is in the foreground. The agent does not monitor background services while the app is closed. For more information, see our Mobile data privacy and security documentation.

Android compatibility

Make sure your Android app meets these requirements:

Component	Application requirements
Operating system	Android 5.0 or higher Version 6.0.0 and higher: Build must be compiled with Android SDK Tools version 21 or higher. Version 5.0.0 and higher: Build must be compiled with Android SDK Tools version 14 or higher.
API/SDK	HttpURLConnection, OkHttp2 (except versions 2.0 and 2.4), OkHttp (versions 2.8, 3.5+, 4.0+), OkIO (version 1.11), AndroidHttpClient, Volley (version 1.0.0), and Apache HTTP Client networking APIs Build with Android SDK Tools version 21 or higher and the following as appropriate: Android Studio Gradle 3.3 Gradle plugin 3.4 Proguard 5.0 DexGuard 8.0 through 9.x Important As of January 2021, our Android agent discontinued support for Android Gradle Plugin version 2. For more information, see our Explorers Hub post. Upgrade to the most recent version before installing the Android agent.
Languages	Java 1.7 through Java 9. JDK 11 is supported in version 6.2.0 and higher.
Devices	Any Android compatible device (smartphones, tablets, etc.)
File sizes	The agent adds less than 500KB to your release APK.
Architectures	ARM, Intel Atom
Signature validation	The agent cannot instrument JARs that use signature validation during signing. JARs with manifests containing `SHA1-Digest` or `SHA-256-Digest` attributes will not be modified.

Agent and Gradle compatibility

The following are compatible versions of the New Relic Android agent, Gradle, and the Android Gradle plugin.

Important

As of January 2021, our Android agent discontinued support for Android Gradle Plugin version 2. For more information, see our Explorers Hub post.

Android Gradle plugin	New Relic Android agent compatibility
2.3	No longer supported in versions 6.0 and higher. 5.25 - 5.26 are not supported
3.0 - 3.3	No longer supported in versions 6.0 and higher.
3.4	5.25 and higher
4.+	5.26 and higher
7.1.0	6.2.0 and higher

Kotlin and Kotlin DSL

You can also use Kotlin projects with Gradle and New Relic's Android agent.

Kotlin DSL support by Android agent version

With the exception of incompatibilities noted with Android Gradle, New Relic's Android agent is compatible with versions 1.3 - 1.4 of the Kotlin Gradle Plugin.

Kotlin DSL version	New Relic Android agent compatibility
1.2	Unsupported
1.3	5.24 and lower: Requires Kotlin Gradle Plugin version 1.3.10 or higher 5.25: Requires Kotlin Gradle Plugin version 1.3.10 or higher 5.26: Unsupported in Android agent versions 5.26.0 through 5.28.0
1.4	5.24 and lower: Requires Kotlin Gradle Plugin version 1.3.10 or higher 5.25: Supported 5.26: Unsupported in Android agent versions 5.26.0 through 5.28.0

Kotlin DSL support by AGP version

Kotlin DSL support was officially added to Android Gradle Plugin in version 4.1, but many developers are already using it in place of Groovy.

Kotlin DSL version	Android Gradle Plugin and Android Gradle compatibility
1.3	3.2 (AGP), 4.6 (Gradle) : Requires Kotlin Gradle Plugin version 1.3.10 or higher 3.3 (AGP), 5.1.1 (Gradle): Requires Kotlin Gradle Plugin version 1.3.10 or higher 3.4 (AGP), 5.1.1 (Gradle): Requires Kotlin Gradle Plugin version 1.3.10 or higher 3.5 (AGP), 5.4.1 (Gradle): Requires Kotlin Gradle Plugin version 1.3.10 or higher 3.6 (AGP), 5.6.4 (Gradle): Requires Kotlin Gradle Plugin version 1.3.40 or higher 4.0 (AGP), 6.1.1 (Gradle): Requires Kotlin Gradle Plugin version 1.3.40 or higher 4.1 (AGP), 6.5 (Gradle): Requires Kotlin Gradle Plugin version 1.3.40 or higher
1.4	3.2 (AGP), 4.6 (Gradle) : Requires Gradle 5.3 3.3 (AGP), 5.1.1 (Gradle): Requires Gradle 5.3 3.4 (AGP), 5.1.1 (Gradle): Supported 3.5 (AGP), 5.4.1 (Gradle): Supported 3.6 (AGP), 5.6.4 (Gradle): Supported 4.0 (AGP), 6.1.1 (Gradle): Supported 4.1 (AGP), 6.5 (Gradle): Supported

Kotlin DSL version

Android Gradle Plugin and Android Gradle compatibility

1.3

3.2 (AGP), 4.6 (Gradle) : Requires Kotlin Gradle Plugin version 1.3.10 or higher
3.3 (AGP), 5.1.1 (Gradle): Requires Kotlin Gradle Plugin version 1.3.10 or higher
3.4 (AGP), 5.1.1 (Gradle): Requires Kotlin Gradle Plugin version 1.3.10 or higher
3.5 (AGP), 5.4.1 (Gradle): Requires Kotlin Gradle Plugin version 1.3.10 or higher
3.6 (AGP), 5.6.4 (Gradle): Requires Kotlin Gradle Plugin version 1.3.40 or higher
4.0 (AGP), 6.1.1 (Gradle): Requires Kotlin Gradle Plugin version 1.3.40 or higher
4.1 (AGP), 6.5 (Gradle): Requires Kotlin Gradle Plugin version 1.3.40 or higher

1.4

3.2 (AGP), 4.6 (Gradle) : Requires Gradle 5.3
3.3 (AGP), 5.1.1 (Gradle): Requires Gradle 5.3
3.4 (AGP), 5.1.1 (Gradle): Supported
3.5 (AGP), 5.4.1 (Gradle): Supported
3.6 (AGP), 5.6.4 (Gradle): Supported
4.0 (AGP), 6.1.1 (Gradle): Supported
4.1 (AGP), 6.5 (Gradle): Supported

Unit testing not supported

Our New Relic mobile agents are designed and tested to work in a normal app lifecycle. We do not support running any testing environment on applications with the agent. Testing can cause conflicts and unpredictable behavior.