Version: Unity 6.1 Alpha (6000.1)
Language : English
Native plug-ins for Android
Create a native plug-in for Android

Introducing native plug-ins for Android

You can use native plug-insA platform-specific native code library that is created outside of Unity for use in Unity. Allows you can access features like OS calls and third-party code libraries that would otherwise not be available to Unity. More info
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in Android applications. There are different types of native plug-inA set of code created outside of Unity that creates functionality in Unity. There are two kinds of plug-ins you can use in Unity: Managed plug-ins (managed .NET assemblies created with tools like Visual Studio) and Native plug-ins (platform-specific native code libraries). More info
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, and the project’s scripting backendA framework that powers scripting in Unity. Unity supports three different scripting backends depending on target platform: Mono, .NET and IL2CPP. Universal Windows Platform, however, supports only two: .NET and IL2CPP. More info
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determines which plug-in types Unity supports. The possible plug-in types are:

  • Shared library: Plug-ins packaged in a shared library (.so).
  • Static library: Plug-ins packaged in a static library (.a).
  • C/C++ source files: C/C++ source files that Unity compiles along with IL2CPPA Unity-developed scripting back-end which you can use as an alternative to Mono when building projects for some platforms. More info
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    generated files. This includes all C/C++ source files with extensions .c, .cc, .cpp and .h.

Scripting backend compatibility

The following table shows which scripting backends support the different types of native plug-ins.

Scripting backend Shared library Static library C/C++ source files
IL2CPP Yes Yes Yes
Mono Yes No No

Notes:

  • IL2CPP scripting backend doesn’t support direct use of .NET dynamic linked libraries (.dll) at runtime. These libraries must be converted to C++ code during the build process.
  • Integration with other .NET runtime platforms, such as Xamarin isn’t supported.

Additional resources

Native plug-ins for Android
Create a native plug-in for Android