Android Studio JDK version 21 vs. JetBrains IDEs JDK 25

IntelliJ Platform
1

Hi

I wanted to test my plugin against the latest nightly Android Studio:

Android Studio Quail 1 | 2026.1.1 Nightly 2026-05-08
Build #AI-261.23567.138.2611.15373837, built on May 8, 2026
Runtime version: 21.0.10+-117844308-b1163.108 aarch64137.0.17
VM: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM by JetBrains s.r.o.
Toolkit: sun.lwawt.macosx.LWCToolkit
macOS 26.3.1
Exception reporter ID: 27122521ce51b2a-eb56-46fc-89bd-4bc484afbd61
StudioFlags with current overrides:
  LazyStudioFlagSettings(StudioFlagSettings(data.size=1)):
    journeys.with.gemini.enable.journeys.with.gemini.execution=true
  PropertyOverrides(cache.size=490):
    flags.configuration.level=PREVIEW
    gradle.ide.use.stable.agp.version.for.new.projects=true
  MendelOverrides(MendelFlagsProvider count=1):
  ServerFlagOverrides(No server flags are enabled.):
  AgpReleaseBranchProvider(releasedWithAgp=true):
    gradle.ide.use.alongside.agp=true
  AgpTestSuitesProvider(journeysWithGeminiEnabled=true):
    agp.test.suites.enabled=true
GC: G1 Young Generation, G1 Concurrent GC, G1 Old Generation
Memory: 4096M
Cores: 12
Metal Rendering is ON
Registry:
  ide.experimental.ui=true
Non-Bundled Plugins:
  com.intellij.modules.jcef (261.22158.414-mac-arm64)
  Subversion (261.23567.176)
  PerforceDirectPlugin (261.23567.28)
  com.gafner.azd (2026.1.51)

And got plenty excpetions since it is still using JDK 21 compare to other JetBrains IDE that use JDK 25.

Since I put some efforts in migrating my plugins to JDK 25 I wonder if there is a suggestion on what to do in this case?

Thanks

2

As far as I know they also will need to use JDK 25 at runtime, at least we are asking them to do so

3

I didn’t specify JDK 25 or 21—the system just used the default boot JDK. Are you saying that we should expect users to manually switch to JDK 25?

4

IntelliJ IDEA 2026.1 runs on JDK 25 by default, we expect that next Android Studio based on it will do the same

5

@yuriy.artamonov hi

I see the Android Studio 261 now has an RC version, but it is still with JDK 21:

Android Studio Quail 1 | 2026.1.1 RC 1
Build #AI-261.23567.138.2611.15434222, built on May 16, 2026
Runtime version: 21.0.10±117844308-b1163.108 aarch64137.0.17
VM: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM by JetBrains s.r.o.
Toolkit: sun.lwawt.macosx.LWCToolkit

Should we notify someone about this?

Thanks

6

We talked to Google folks about it and they were planning the upgrade, not sure what they decided though

7

Unfortunately, seems due to the technical issues, the team ran out of time to put JBR 25 in Android Studio Quail 1. So they will instead target Quail 2 releasing a month later

8

What do you guys suggest to do in this case?

I think users on Qual1 will have lots of issues both from bundle and external plugins, not only by my plugins, do you agree about that?

9

If you do not use some strictly JDK 25 features such as Foreign Memory Access, you should be fine with compiling to JDK 21 target, it will be all compatible

will have lots of issues both from bundle and external plugins

Don’t think so. In 2026.1 releases IntelliJ Platform used JBR 25 only to run, not for compilation. Even our own extra plugins will be compatible with Android Studio, e.g. Terraform or JHipster

10

So what is the suggestion to plugin developers that did compile with JDK 25 and now getting:

Caused by: java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: com/gafner/plugin/azd/pipelines/approvals/discovery/AZDApprovalsToolWindowActivationListener has been compiled by a more recent version of the Java Runtime (class file version 69.0), this version of the Java Runtime only recognizes class file versions up to 65.0

?

Just want to know what to tell plugin’s users that are paying and expect to keep using the plugin…

11

It is incompatible, you can only add incompatible-with for com.intellij.modules.androidstudio module in builds to prevent newer build installs

12

And they may manually downgrade, download older plugin builds from Marketplace web site