CODEWITHSUNDEEP
android
olivierg
olivierg

Reputation: 10240

Possible Market issues when increasing minSdkVersion

my app is currently compatible with Cupcake and up. That is: minSdkVersion is set to 3 in the manifest.

For some technical reasons I am thinking about breaking compatibility with Cupcake, by setting minSdkVersion to 4.

But I have quite a few existing users who either downloaded the lite version or purchased my app, and who are running Cupcake.

What will happen to them on the Android Market? Will they still be able to uninstall and reinstall the version which was compatible with Cupcake? Or does the market wipes old versions, so that they will be unable to reinstall in case they need to?

Any other possible problems?

I'm especially interested in feedback from developers who have already done that. In my experience, you can't really make theoretical assumptions about the Market.

Upvotes: 9

Views: 802

Answers (2)

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇
Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Reputation: 13908

Moving existing and new users to a new version might be problematic. But how about moving existing old users to a new version?

  1. Fork your app and publish a "cupcake" version. Max SDK = cupcake.
  2. Update your app so that if it detects that it's running on cupcake, it directs them to update to the cupcake version.
  3. Update your app again with the new minSDK.

If you leave enough time between steps 2 and 3, you might get a significant number of users moved over. Even if they don't move over, they will at least be able to find your old app in the store. And you'll be able to provide whatever fixes/support for it that you want, while keeping the flagship version more up-to-date.

Disclaimer: I haven't tried this, but it seems reasonable.

Upvotes: 0

Mike dg
Mike dg

Reputation: 4658

They will be unable to install the old version if they ever uninstall. It should never appear in their list of apps or be found via search if you change to minSdkVersion 4.

Upvotes: 5

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