What is the purpose of the R8 format and in what cases is it used?

The R8 format is a tool for optimizing and minifying code for Android applications, which replaced ProGuard in the Android Gradle Plugin.

R8 performs:

• Compression and removal of unused code (obfuscation).
• Bytecode optimization to reduce APK size.
• Improved application performance.

It is used in building Android applications to reduce size and enhance security, especially in release builds.

Example of enabling R8 in Gradle:

android {
    buildTypes {
        release {
            minifyEnabled true
            proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android-optimize.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
        }
    }
}