What's the meaning of new @SystemApi annotation, any difference from @hide?

Question

Android introduced @SystemApi in its SDK source code recently. Seems like same in effect as the @hide annotation before, since they also got stripped from SDK jar classes.

Answer 1

Methods annotated with @SystemApi are a subset of ones with @hide. It's apparently an indicator for internal teams (perhaps also partners) that these methods are actual APIs, although not for public developers.

As a result, @SystemApi methods will be more stable than @hide ones, which could be changed at any time in the future without any compatibility consideration, and also any OEM is allowed to change them at their own will.

If you are trying to invoke internal APIs via reflection, always prefer @SystemApi methods for better future compatibility.