Reputation: 47136

Do apps created on the lower android versions gets supported in the newer versions?

We are planning to create an android application for our web application. I have noticed that the latest android sdk is 4.0 but many mobiles on market just run on lower versions. If creating an app in lower version is supported in higher versions, which would be the most advisable version of android to start working with?

Upvotes: 0

Answers (4)

user658042

Reputation:

Yes apps created for lower versions run on newer ones.

Which one to pick as the lowest version depends on your needs.
I like to start with 1.6. as a basic version¹ and increase it depending on what features I need. You can get an idea of the version distribution here. For a list of changes between each android version check out the API levels site and click on a level.

Keep in mind that 1% or 2% of a certain android version still represent a lot of customers when you consider how many devices are out there (wikipedia claims 190 million in october 2011). But on the other hand, many of these device owners may not expect that new apps support their version and don't look into the market at all. So it's a bit of a personal decision in the end.

¹ support for 1.5. and lower is a lot of work for a minority of users, it doesn't support different screen sizes for example

Upvotes: 3

Philipp F

Reputation: 924

Indeed, almost all apps for older version will work with newer a android as well.

In the android developer guid it says:

Updates to the framework API are designed so that the new API remains compatible with earlier versions of the API. That is, most changes in the API are additive and introduce new or replacement functionality. As parts of the API are upgraded, the older replaced parts are deprecated but are not removed, so that existing applications can still use them

When creating your app, try setting the "minSDKlevel" to the lowest value where it still works. Like that you can make sure many people can use your app.

Here you can find two useful articles on different API levels and compatibility:

http://developer.android.com/guide/appendix/api-levels.html

http://developer.android.com/resources/articles/backward-compatibility.html

Upvotes: 2