A new back end and optimizer for Scalac

In section 2.3 android is mentioned explicitly: "These features are more useful on Android (besides micro-benchmarks) where a vast RAM doesn't masquerade redundant allocations."

In section 5.2 you can read: "This prototype requires -target:jvm-1.7. Right now scalac doesn't produce the newest class file format of JDK8. In the meantime, -target:jvm-1.7 can be used on that platform. A discussion about performance at: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/scala-internals/uBxprJixpwk/...

If you will check that link first sentence in the thread is: "To recap, the new backend supports Java 6 and 7. In an experimental branch (based itself on the experimental backend) there's now support for MethodHandles, building upon "Late Closure Classes", ie the ability of the new backend to materialize anonymous closure classes as it emits bytecode."

So yes, it supports java 1.7. And yes, it can help on android.