diff --git a/README.in b/README.in
index dac734311..30ef47430 100644
--- a/README.in
+++ b/README.in
@@ -326,6 +326,12 @@ Release Notes for Clutter 1.18
   libevdev and libgudev directly, but relies on libinput for discovering,
   reading and processing input devices.
 
+• The Clutter evdev input device backend was already considered
+  experimental and not subject to Clutter's API and ABI stabitility
+  guarantees. Starting from 1.18, users have to explicitly acknowldge
+  this by having to #define CLUTTER_ENABLE_COMPOSITOR_API to use its
+  public API.
+
 Release Notes for Clutter 1.16
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
diff --git a/clutter/evdev/clutter-evdev.h b/clutter/evdev/clutter-evdev.h
index 04b5958f7..5495161c4 100644
--- a/clutter/evdev/clutter-evdev.h
+++ b/clutter/evdev/clutter-evdev.h
@@ -31,6 +31,10 @@
 
 G_BEGIN_DECLS
 
+#if !defined(CLUTTER_ENABLE_COMPOSITOR_API) && !defined(CLUTTER_COMPILATION)
+#error "You need to define CLUTTER_ENABLE_COMPOSITOR_API before including clutter-evdev.h"
+#endif
+
 /**
  * ClutterOpenDeviceCallback:
  * @path: the device path
@@ -81,6 +85,7 @@ void  clutter_evdev_set_pointer_constrain_callback (ClutterDeviceManager
 void               clutter_evdev_set_keyboard_map   (ClutterDeviceManager *evdev,
 						     struct xkb_keymap    *keymap);
 
+
 G_END_DECLS
 
 #endif /* __CLUTTER_EVDEV_H__ */