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Overview
Timber is a logging library that adds a small, extensible API over Android's standard Log class. Applications plant Trees during startup and call Timber methods elsewhere, separating call sites from debug Logcat output or custom production handling. It also includes DebugTree, which derives tags from callers, and lint rules for common logging mistakes.
Features and best fit
Based on official documentation; not hands-on tested · Content checked:
Key features
Separate logging call sites from output behavior with Trees
After a Tree is installed with Timber.plant early in application startup, code can send messages through shared methods such as Timber.d. DebugTree identifies the calling class and uses it as the tag. Custom Trees can move storage or reporting behavior out of each call site. Bundled lint rules detect mismatched format arguments, string concatenation, direct Android Log calls, and other common mistakes.
Sources: [1]
Best fit
Fits Android apps that need one switchable logging policy
Timber fits Android applications that want the same logging API across many screens and components while routing debug builds to readable Logcat output and production builds to a deliberately selected handler. It also suits teams that want logging-format mistakes checked continuously by lint.
Sources: [1]
Before adoption
No Tree is installed automatically, so each build type needs an explicit policy
Timber installs no Tree by default; the consuming application decides which messages go where. The README recommends planting Trees early, such as in Application.onCreate. Production builds should not plant DebugTree indiscriminately and must avoid sending sensitive or unnecessary messages to external reporting systems. The stable release is 5.0.1, while the README's 5.1.0-SNAPSHOT uses a separate development repository. The project is Apache-2.0 licensed.
Official sources
- [1]JakeWharton/timber — README(2026-10-04)
- [2]Timber 5.0.1 release(2026-10-04)
- [3]JakeWharton/timber — LICENSE(2026-10-04)
Supplemental curator note
Timber is worth considering when direct Android Log calls have spread across an application and logging policy should live behind replaceable Trees. Keep the Trees planted for debug and production builds explicit and separate.
Try it in 3 steps
- 1
Add the stable dependency
Add this line to the Gradle dependencies block for the Android application module.
implementation 'com.jakewharton.timber:timber:5.0.1' - 2
Plant a debug Tree at startup
Place it in Application.onCreate or another location that runs before any logging calls.
if (BuildConfig.DEBUG) Timber.plant(Timber.DebugTree()) - 3
Send a message through the shared API
Run a debug build and inspect Logcat for the caller-derived tag and message.
Timber.d("Hello from %s", "Timber")
Growth
Growth trends · Last 30 days
10,852 Stars
Trend data is still being collected.
Development activity
Last 90 days · weekly
- Commits (last 30 days)
- 12
- Open PRs
- 14
Development activity is still being collected.
Built with
Categories and tags
Categories
GitHub data
GitHub dataView detailed GitHub data
- Stars
- 10,852
- Forks
- 994
- Watchers
- 244
- Open issues
- 49
- Contributors
- 48
- Owner type
- User
- Primary language
- Kotlin
- License
- Apache-2.0
- Repository last updated
- Oct 3, 2026
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