diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index c346c5b9d..a3b65e101 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -85,9 +85,7 @@ information on using pull requests.
 
 ### Initial Setup
 
-Install Java 7 or higher. You can also use Java 8, but please note that the Firebase Admin SDK must
-maintain full Java 7 compatibility. Therefore make sure that you do not use any Java 8 features
-(e.g. lambdas) when writing code for the Admin Java SDK.
+Install Java 8 or higher.
 
 We use [Apache Maven](http://maven.apache.org/) for building, testing and releasing the Admin Java
 SDK code. Follow the [installation guide](http://maven.apache.org/install.html), and install Maven
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 5c1647931..74ab77b67 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -272,8 +272,8 @@
                 <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                 <version>3.10.1</version>
                 <configuration>
-                    <source>1.7</source>
-                    <target>1.7</target>
+                    <source>1.8</source>
+                    <target>1.8</target>
                 </configuration>
             </plugin>