What is ART ( Android RunTime)?

What is ART ( Android RunTime)?

ART is a new runtime introduced in Android 4.4.  

So what is this so called Runtime?
Runtime is library software used for compiling , debugging and executing a program written in a particular programming language ( like c, c++, Java etc..). In terms of Android, it is responsible for running your apps (as these are executable programs).
In order to explain the working in simple terms, when your app is running, the native Java language in which the program is written, gets converted to Machine level language (language useful for the processor to execute) with the help of this runtime. So, faster the conversion to machine level language, faster the app opening, running etc.

Earlier Android had Dalvik Virtual Machine (DVM) as its runtime (up till 4.3) .  

Why the switch?

The switch to ART might be possibly because of this reason:

Oracle corporation, has filed a lawsuit against Google for stealing of intellectual property and copyright infringement, due to the reason that Google made use of Java bases for its Dalvik runtime. Eventually, Jury ruled out in favour of Google as it did not infringe any patents.

Now Google has come up with it's own indigenous runtime to avoid all the lawsuit hassle.

This functions on the concept of Ahead Of Time (AOT) execution, where apps are pre-compiled into machine level language during the time of installation itself.

The Good: Faster App openings. App executions speed up by 50%.

The Bad: The App install time (Yeah you guessed it!!!) increases.

               Consumes more memory, due to the presence of the compiled codes right from the time of installation.Memory usage increased by 10 to 20%.