CODEWITHSUNDEEP
android
Yanshof
Yanshof

Reputation: 9926

How to decide what will be the target android version?

I'm new in the android developing. I need to write some simple application - and i need to decide what will be the target version. I don't know how to decide this - because i want to support the most newer version with all the new abilities - but i also want to support the maximum devices ( there are few devices that have old versions )

So, How to decide what will be the target version ?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 754

Answers (3)

Nicolas Raoul
Nicolas Raoul

Reputation: 60213

Set your android:targetSdkVersion to whatever is the last Android SDK version.
Quote from Bruno Oliveira at Google IO:

targetSdkVersion does not affect the minimum SDK level required to run your application. It should always be the latest version that you are aware of.

The only reason you could have to use a lower version would be to detect incompatibilities, but that is not a good reason because Lint does this better.

BUT set your android:minSdkVersion to as low as your app will run on. That's the important one.

For instance, my app uses very new features, but I set android:minSdkVersion to 3 (which means Android 1.5). My code detects Android 1.5 devices, and uses less-shiny controls on them, but still runs correctly.

Detection code sample:

if (android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT > 4) {
        ActivityTransitionAnimation.slide(this, ActivityTransitionAnimation.UP);
    }

So, here is my suggestion:

  • Set android:minSdkVersion to 3
  • Everytime you discover an API is not present at that level, ponder whether the loss of potential users associated with increasing this number is worse than spending the time to implement a workaround.

Upvotes: 3

DecodeGnome
DecodeGnome

Reputation: 1809

I would say just start off with the lowest possible target and then as you encounter stuff that you can only do with a higher target you will have to change the target to the higher one. Using APIs that only work on for example 2.3 will show errors if your target is lower (because the APIs won't exist there).

Also you should consider the current state of the "fragmentation" to se what targets are actually being used out there. Looking at this chart (from October 5) maybe it could be worth just starting with 2.1 and se if it is high enough for all the things you want to do:

http://cdn.devilsworkshop.org/files/2011/09/android-OS-fragmentation-report.jpg

Upvotes: 1

Quentin DOMMERC
Quentin DOMMERC

Reputation: 876

In the Android Manifest.

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-element.html

Upvotes: 5

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