Query explained:
After updating to Android Studio 3.0 and creating a new project, I noticed that in build.gradle
there is a new way to add new dependencies instead of compile
there is implementation
and instead of testCompile
there is testImplementation
.
Example:
implementation 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:25.0.0'
testImplementation 'junit:junit:4.12'
instead of
compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:25.0.0'
testCompile 'junit:junit:4.12'
What’s the difference between them and what should I be using?
What is the difference between implementation, API and compile in Gradle?
Just replace:
compile
withimplementation
(if you don’t need transitivity) orapi
(if you need transitivity)testCompile
withtestImplementation
debugCompile
withdebugImplementation
androidTestCompile
withandroidTestImplementation
compileOnly
is still valid. It was added in 3.0 to replace provided and not compile. (provided
introduced when Gradle didn’t have a configuration name for that use-case and named it after Maven’s provided scope.)
It is one of the breaking changes coming with Android Gradle plugin 3.0 that Google announced at IO17.
The compile
configuration is now deprecated and should be replaced by implementation
or api
From the Gradle documentation:
dependencies {
api 'commons-httpclient:commons-httpclient:3.1'
implementation 'org.apache.commons:commons-lang3:3.5'
}
Dependencies appearing in the api
configurations will be transitively exposed to consumers of the library, and as such will appear on the compile classpath of consumers.
Dependencies found in the implementation
configuration will, on the other hand, not be exposed to consumers, and therefore not leak into the consumers’ compile classpath. This comes with several benefits:
- dependencies do not leak into the compile classpath of consumers anymore, so you will never accidentally depend on a transitive dependency
- faster compilation thanks to reduced classpath size
- less recompilations when implementation dependencies change: consumers would not need to be recompiled
- cleaner publishing: when used in conjunction with the new maven-publish plugin, Java libraries produce POM files that distinguish exactly between what is required to compile against the library and what is required to use the library at runtime (in other words, don’t mix what is needed to compile the library itself and what is needed to compile against the library).
The compile configuration still exists, but should not be used as it will not offer the guarantees that the api
and implementation
configurations provide.
Note: if you are only using a library in your app module -the common case- you won’t notice any difference.
you will only see the difference if you have a complex project with modules depending on each other, or you are creating a library.
Implementation vs API vs compile in Gradle:
This answer will demonstrate the difference between implementation, API, and compile on a project.
Let’s say I have a project with three Gradle modules:
- app (an Android application)
- myandroidlibrary (an Android library)
- myjavalibrary (a Java library)
app
has myandroidlibrary
as dependencies. myandroidlibrary
has myjavalibrary
as dependencies.

myjavalibrary
has a MySecret
class
public class MySecret {
public static String getSecret() {
return "Money";
}
}
myandroidlibrary
has MyAndroidComponent
class that manipulate value from MySecret
class.
public class MyAndroidComponent {
private static String component = MySecret.getSecret();
public static String getComponent() {
return "My component: " + component;
}
}
Lastly, app
is only interested in the value from myandroidlibrary
TextView tvHelloWorld = findViewById(R.id.tv_hello_world);
tvHelloWorld.setText(MyAndroidComponent.getComponent());
Now, let’s talk about dependencies…
app
need to consume :myandroidlibrary
, so in app
build.gradle use implementation
.
(Note: You can use api/compile too. But hold that thought for a moment.)
dependencies {
implementation project(':myandroidlibrary')
}

What do you think myandroidlibrary
build.gradle should look like? Which scope we should use?
We have three options:
dependencies {
// Option #1
implementation project(':myjavalibrary')
// Option #2
compile project(':myjavalibrary')
// Option #3
api project(':myjavalibrary')
}

What’s the difference between them and what should I be using?
Compile or Api (option #2 or #3)
If you’re using compile
or api
. Our Android Application now able to access myandroidcomponent
dependency, which is a MySecret
class.
TextView textView = findViewById(R.id.text_view);
textView.setText(MyAndroidComponent.getComponent());
// You can access MySecret
textView.setText(MySecret.getSecret());
Implementation (option #1)

If you’re using implementation
configuration, MySecret
is not exposed.
TextView textView = findViewById(R.id.text_view);
textView.setText(MyAndroidComponent.getComponent());
// You can NOT access MySecret
textView.setText(MySecret.getSecret()); // Won't even compile
So, which configuration you should choose? That really depends on your requirement.
If you want to expose dependencies use api
or compile
.
If you don’t want to expose dependencies (hiding your internal module) then use implementation
.
Answer #3:
Compile
configuration was deprecated and should be replaced by implementation
or api
.
You can read the docs in the API and implementation separation section.
The brief part being-
The key difference between the standard Java plugin and the Java Library plugin is that the latter introduces the concept of an API exposed to consumers. A library is a Java component meant to be consumed by other components. It’s a very common use case in multi-project builds, but also as soon as you have external dependencies.
The plugin exposes two configurations that can be used to declare dependencies: api and implementation. The api configuration should be used to declare dependencies which are exported by the library API, whereas the implementation configuration should be used to declare dependencies which are internal to the component.
For further explanation refer to this image.

Answer #4:
Brief Solution:
The better approach is to replace all compile
dependencies with implementation
dependencies. And only where you leak a module’s interface, you should use api
. That should cause a lot less recompilation.
dependencies {
implementation fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])
implementation 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:25.4.0'
implementation 'com.android.support.constraint:constraint-layout:1.0.2'
// …
testImplementation 'junit:junit:4.12'
androidTestImplementation('com.android.support.test.espresso:espresso-core:2.2.2', {
exclude group: 'com.android.support', module: 'support-annotations'
})
}
Explain More:
Before Android Gradle plugin 3.0: we had a big problem which is one code change causes all modules to be recompiled. The root cause for this is that Gradle doesn’t know if you leak the interface of a module through another one or not.
After Android Gradle plugin 3.0: the latest Android Gradle plugin now requires you to explicitly define if you leak a module’s interface. Based on that it can make the right choice on what it should recompile.
As such the compile
dependency has been deprecated and replaced by two new ones:
api
: you leak the interface of this module through your own interface, meaning exactly the same as the oldcompile
dependencyimplementation
: you only use this module internally and does not leak it through your interface
So now you can explicitly tell Gradle to recompile a module if the interface of a used module changes or not.
Difference between implementation, API and compile in Gradle:
Gradle dependency configuration
Gradle 3.0
introduced next changes:
compile
->apiapi
keyword is the same as deprecatedcompile
which expose this dependency for all levelscompile
->implementation
Is preferable way because has some advantages.implementation
expose dependency only for one level up at build time (the dependency is available at runtime). As a result you have a faster build(no need to recompile consumers which are higher then 1 level up)provided
->compileOnly
This dependency is available only in compile time(the dependency is not available at runtime). This dependency can not be transitive and be.aar
. It can be used with compile time annotation processor and allows you to reduce a final output filecompile
->annotationProcessor
Very similar tocompileOnly
but also guarantees that transitive dependency are not visible for consumerapk
->runtimeOnly
Dependency is not available in compile time but available at runtime.
The brief difference in Layman’s term is:
- If you are working on an interface or module that provides support to other modules by exposing the members of the stated dependency you should be using ‘api’.
- If you are making an application or module that is going to implement or use the stated dependency internally, use ‘implementation’.
- ‘compile’ worked same as ‘api’, however, if you are only implementing or using any library, ‘implementation’ will work better and save you resources.
Hope you learned something from this post.
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