diff --git a/.changeset/quiet-engines-stay.md b/.changeset/quiet-engines-stay.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3baa922d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/quiet-engines-stay.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"@capacitor/background-runner": patch
+---
+
+(Android): Fixes a crash at startup in release builds with R8 enabled. The JS engine's classes are now kept, since the native engine finds them by name.
diff --git a/packages/android-js-engine/AndroidJSEngine/consumer-rules.pro b/packages/android-js-engine/AndroidJSEngine/consumer-rules.pro
index e69de29b..ffc08b7d 100644
--- a/packages/android-js-engine/AndroidJSEngine/consumer-rules.pro
+++ b/packages/android-js-engine/AndroidJSEngine/consumer-rules.pro
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+# The native engine finds these classes by name through JNI.
+-keep class io.ionic.android_js_engine.** { *; }