Find out android runtime version

Question

Is there is was to find out what android runtime version is currently used? For example, on android v4.4 you can swipe between dalvik and art and i want to find out this information in runtime.

10x.

Answer 1

System.getProperty("java.vm.version") - If ART is used by the system, the returned value will be either "2.0.0" or higher, meaning major versions lower than 2 will be Dalvik. This piece of insight comes from Addressing Garbage Collection (GC) Issues section of best practices for Verifying App Behavior on the Android Runtime.

Code examples

// catch only version 2 and not higher
// false for Dalvik, true for current ART, false for any new runtimes
boolean isArt = System.getProperty("java.vm.version").startsWith("2.");

// catch version 2 and above
// false for Dalvik, true for current ART, true for any new runtimes
boolean isArt = false;
try {
    isArt = Integer.parseInt(System.getProperty("java.vm.version")
            .split(".")[0]) >= 2;
} catch (NumberFormatException e) {
    // we suppress the exception and fall back to checking only for current ART
    isArt = System.getProperty("java.vm.version").startsWith("2.");
}