The situation has not changed at all, actually. The compiler is just a bit smarter, and doesn't force you to use the final keyword anymore.
If it detects that the variable is effectively final, i.e. assigned only once, and never after, everything is good. If it detects that it's not effectively final, it refuses to compile.
So, instead of forcing you to make a variable final, it detects it automatically. But you still can't use non-effectively-final variables inside an inner class or lambda.